Nuppu Mielonen and Hanna Lehtimäki
The global environmental and geopolitical situation is affecting the energy transition in business and society. The Arctic region has critical materials that are valuable for the EU in the green transition. In response to geopolitical instabilities and to secure access to energy transition materials, the EU is aiming for European and Arctic resource extraction and related value chains. As a result, electric vehicle battery value chains will concentrate in smaller geographical areas with diverse industrial backgrounds within Europe. The purpose of this paper is to examine: What enables environmentally, socially, and economically successful regional circular industrial ecosystem collaboration? A regional industrial ecosystem with symbiotic synergies requires collaborative efforts and value creation from many actors, varying from the government to regional, business, and local actors. We present an intensive qualitative case study on an industrial ecosystem with a long history of operations in the Nordic region: Kokkola Industrial Park (KIP) in Finland. With the current movement of the developing energy transition and of EV battery materials value chains in Europe, it is important to examine local ecosystem flows and the ways in which they connect to global value chains. The data comprises semi-structured interviews with various ecosystem actors and secondary research material, such as reports, documents, social media, and news articles. With interpretative qualitative analysis, we scrutinize and detail the actors, the collaborative practices and activities of an industrial ecosystem. We elaborate on shared interests, and analyze the environmental, social, and economic value creation of the process. The results of this study contribute to our understanding about the role and importance of ecosystem flows in value creation. The results can be utilized in planning and establishing new industrial ecosystems for energy transition and EV battery materials in the Arctic region in Europe.
