Over 35 local businesses came together at Anglo American’s office in Scarborough last week to discuss the creation of a bioeconomy network on the North Yorkshire coast.
The BioYorkshire programme, which is an innovative public-private partnership between the University of York, Fera Science Ltd and Askham Bryan College, aims to transform the region’s bioeconomy - the sustainable production of renewable resources from land and sea, and their conversion into food, feed, energy and other consumer products.
It aims to support North Yorkshire's ambitions to become one of the first areas in the UK to be carbon negative, whilst also creating 4,000 highly skilled jobs, reducing CO2 emissions by 2.8 million tonnes per year, reducing waste to landfill by 1.2 million tonnes per year and generating £1.4bn for the UK economy.
Professor Ian Graham of the University of York said: “This event was held to explore how BioYorkshire and Anglo American can work together to deliver a greener and more prosperous future for the area.
“It was great to see a good take-up from local businesses to come and hear about what is going on and to see what opportunities might arise.”
One of the many local businesses in attendance to hear more about how the initiative could benefit them was SeaGrown, who are developing an exciting seaweed farm off the Scarborough coastline.