Navigating Sustainability: Integrating Social Dimensions in Regional Biorefinery Planning

In response to pressing societal challenges such as climate change, increasing pollution levels, and biodiversity loss, European policies advocate for the development of a circular bioeconomy (CBE). The CBE seeks to replace fossil-based resources and transition away from unsustainable linear production and consumption practices by utilising biomass feedstocks as raw materials, including wastes and side-streams. It also aligns with processes of change aiming to restructure and transform supply chains towards more circular and sustainable systems. In this context, the sourcing and conversion of regionally available biomass feedstocks through biorefinery technology offer the potential to produce more sustainable food and feed ingredients, biochemicals, biofertilisers, biopackaging, textiles, and bioenergy. However, biorefinery supply chains (BSC) depend not only on biomass feedstock availability but also on stakeholders' interactions, agreements, policies and regulations for the creation of new value systems, ultimately rooted in the social dimensions of sustainability. Nevertheless, the current focus of biorefinery research predominantly concentrates on technical-economic or environmental aspects, neglecting the crucial role of social aspects. This thesis seeks to address this knowledge gap by exploring how the strategic planning of regional biorefinery systems can integrate social dimensions of sustainability, specified as collective action, inclusion and legitimacy. Focused on the supply of alternative biomass feedstock from terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, it draws on interdisciplinarity to navigate the complexity of sustainability in emerging supply chains, joining diverse theories and concepts in a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. First, insights on current bottlenecks of grasslands and marine macroalgae as alternative bioresources are explored, including what is currently regarded as social sustainability in biorefinery systems, suggesting the framing of BSC as a socio-technical-ecological system. To reflect the focus on grassland and marine macroalgae as biorefinery feedstocks, Ireland was used as a contextual setting where these bioresources are perceived as abundant. Following, the second focus explores the sourcing of grassland resources, indicating farmer-led initiatives aspirations and the need to establish circular partnerships where trust and power relations ultimately influence collaboration among supply chain partners and stakeholders. Third, the focus shifts to sourcing marine macroalgae, highlighting the upscaling of cultivation systems and business models' commitment to social responsibility propositions including bottlenecks encountered by growers at various levels. Fourth, inclusive settings for smallholders are explored based on cultivated kelp species of macroalgae, emphasising collaboration in infrastructure and resource sharing, optimising logistics and facilitating community-based initiatives in future valorisation pathways. The result's implications call for forward-thinking perspectives in management and policy, acknowledging the challenges of navigating social sustainability and the uncertainty of future directions, especially in the context of biorefinery systems and socio-technical-ecological transformations in strategies related to the aims of a sustainable and circular bioeconomy.