FINEST business collaboration at Futures Conference 2024

Björn Persson from FINEST WP8 was on hand to present the work he has done together with Fredric Norefjell within FINEST and Mistra Food Futures - developing a method for business collaboration. This is to create collaboration between actors and share risks, costs and investments in a transition.  

The need for new ways of creating value in the food system was emphasised by several presenters at the conference. For example, Liisa Pietola from Finnish Sitra pointed out that a sustainable food system requires a profitable agricultural sector, which was one of five objectives they have put forward to achieve a sustainable food system in Finland. 

The work is based on the fact that the food system is currently responsible for around 25% of global emissions, and must shift to using less fossil fuels. To achieve this, it is important that stakeholders across the food chain get involved. But they face two major challenges: no single actor has the power to change the system on its own, and organisations must remain profitable during a transition. This requires collaboration, long-term thinking, investment and risk-sharing, as well as policy action in favour of a fossil-free food chain. 

To address this, we have been working on developing a methodology for business collaboration with the aim of defining shared visions, values and strategic initiatives to reduce the use of fossil fuels in the food system.  

The methodology aims to define common value propositions and ways of working together that allow for sharing both benefits and risks across the value chain. The methodology can also be used to explore how lock-ins in current systems can be addressed through policy interventions.

In FINEST, the work on business collaboration will continue in the autumn of 2024, where methods for working with transition will be presented, and published as a toolkit for actors to use in their own organisations.