Call for abstracts
‘Cleaner Production and Sustainable Consumption’ Conference, Barcelona, Spain, Nov 1–4 2015
‘Improved Resource Efficiency and Cascading Utilization of Renewable Materials – Focus on
Lignocellulosic Biomass’
organized by the
Research Training Group ‘Resource Efficiency in Inter-organizational Networks – Planning and
Implementation Methods to Utilize Renewable Resources’, University of Göttingen (Germany)
Since the industrial age up to date, mainly fossil resources provided the energetic and material basis
for industrial production and household consumption. Due to limited reserves, politics and industries
strive for sustainable long-term options. Thus, renewable raw materials are becoming increasingly
important as an alternative resource base and influence the value chains of many companies.
Co-operations between manufacturing and processing companies allow a prolonged use of materials
and better exploit by-products of the manufacturing process. By stretching the material life cycle of a
resource into as many stages of utilization as possible, a cascade is started.
Cascade utilization is designed to obtain optimal use of all components of the materials, including
multiple usages of chemical resources, before they are used to generate power at the end of their
life cycles. An example is the use of lignocellulose: Material use, as fiberboard, can be followed by
chemical use in the pulp and paper industry, and finally the fibers can be burnt for energy. Utilization
of by-products is another strategy to increase resource efficiency. For companies and supply chain
networks, specific challenges arise from incorporating renewable resources into their product design
and production processes. Suitable planning approaches are needed. This workshop will be focused
on theoretical research and applications concerning cascading utilization of renewable resources in
inter-organizational networks and its marketing. Contributions to this workshop should improve the
understanding of general and specific problems related to advances in resource efficiency or provide
solutions for corporate decision-makers.
The workshop will provide insights into quantitative models of cleaner production in networks using
renewable resources and information technology. Further topics of consideration cover the logistics
and distribution of cascade utilization, as well as consumer behavior towards eco-friendly products.
The following three main areas are of interest. The example questions serve as a suggestion for
topics that might be discussed.
1.
Materials and Technologies
• Which kinds of renewable, for example lignocellulosic materials, are processed for which
purpose (material, chemical, energetic usage)? Which stages of cascade utilization are
possible?
• Which by-products emerge, and how can they be used most efficiently?
Call for abstracts
‘Cleaner Production and Sustainable Consumption’ Conference, Barcelona, Spain, Nov 1–4 2015
• How can the recycling of intermediate products during cascade utilization be improved and
expanded further?
• Which methods and technologies have been developed or are needed in order to increase
efficiency in production and usage of renewable and lignocellulosic materials and their byproducts?
2.
Planning, optimization and management of production and supply chains for renewable
resources
• How can cascade utilization of renewable resources be improved among participants in
inter-organizational networks?
• Which models can be built-upon improved logistical networks?
• How can risks in biomass supply chains be reduced?
• Which models for decision-making can be used? How can different criteria, e.g. price and
sustainability, and uncertainties, e.g. in quality and quantity of materials, be taken into
consideration?
• How can mathematical methods, e.g. robust, multi-objective as well as online optimization
approaches, be refined and applied to improve resource efficiency?
• How can computer-aided production planning and supply chain management be improved
regarding uncertainty factors?
• Which concepts of tracking and tracing can be applied to and refined for cascade utilization?
• How can life cycle assessment tools be used to improve the supply chain sustainability with
regard to renewable resources? What are the benefits? What are the risks? How can the
risks be reduced or avoided?
3.
Governance, coordination and distribution
• How can renewable materials and semi-finished products be more effectively described in
line with consistent systemization taxonomy and which data formats could be used?
• How can IT governance, information management and relationship management in valuegenerating networks for renewable resources be applied and improved?
• Which coordination mechanisms can efficiently be used for business-to-business
relationships regarding specific features of products from renewable resources?
• Which factors determine the acceptance of products based on renewable materials? Which
are the main target groups and what are their informational needs?
Format and Procedures for Submission in response to this ‘Call for abstracts’:
We invite authors to prepare abstracts of 300 words maximum in English. Please submit your
abstract(s) via the conference website: http://www.cleanerproductionconference.com/submitabstract.asp. The pending schedule of the workshop is to give an oral presentation of approximately
20 min. per speaker with a follow-up discussion. More details will be sent to you after May 29th. If
you require further information, please e-mail barcelona-workshop@gwdg.de quoting the workshop
title (see above).
Call for abstracts
‘Cleaner Production and Sustainable Consumption’ Conference, Barcelona, Spain, Nov 1–4 2015
After the Global Conference, scientific teams of the Global Conference will choose selected
contributions to be developed for peer review and potential publication within one of several Special
Volumes of the JCLP (The Journal of Cleaner Production) that will be developed based upon initial
inputs to the Global Conference.
For more information, please contact the Research Training Group ‘Resource Efficiency in Interorganizational Networks – Planning Methods to Utilize Renewable Resources’ at the Georg-AugustUniversität Göttingen, Germany (ressourceneffizienz@uni-goettingen.de).
Jutta Geldermann, Professor; University of Göttingen, Faculty of Economic Sciences, Chair for
Production and Logistics.
Annette Becker, M.A.; Research Associate, University of Göttingen, Faculty of Economic Sciences,
Chair of Retailing.
Francesco Castellani, M.Sc.; Research Associate, University of Göttingen, Faculty of Economic
Sciences, Chair of Production and Logistics.
Lisa Thom, M.Sc.; Research Associate, University of Göttingen, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer
Science, Institute for Numerical and Applied Mathematics.