Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2026
Authors
Nhat Strøm-Andersen Julia Szulecka Markus M. Bugge Ellen-Marie ForsbergAbstract
The sustainability transitions literature suggests that individual firms struggle to move toward sustainability unless the broader socio-economic system also evolves. Despite firms' willingness to change, existing systemic challenges often impede their progress. This paper employs paradox theory to address this struggle and examines how firms balance economic and societal concerns in their transition from business thinking to sustainability thinking. Based on a qualitative case study of the food industry's collaboration initiatives on food waste reduction and prevention in Norway, the study identifies the systemic challenges and sustainability paradoxes that the industry faces. We find that the firms' efforts to reduce food waste collide with established food industry agreements, standards, business strategies, regulations, and agricultural policies, impeding a systemic and structural transformation of the industry. The paper discusses how the food industry may navigate these challenges collectively and draws implications for the sustainability transitions literature. Primarily, the conclusions signal a need for governance and incentive structures at the system level beyond the action space of individual firms, and secondarily, illustrate how such governance approaches to sustainability transitions are sector-specific and geographically embedded.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Dafni Foti Stephen Amiandamhen Eleni Voulgaridou Elias Voulgaridis Costas Passialis Stergios AdamopoulosAbstract
Abstract This study investigated the incorporation of various waste materials including wastepaper, Tetra Pak, wood chips and scrap tire fluff into flue gas desulfurization (FGD) gypsum and cement mortar matrices to produce sustainable composite materials. Four distinct composite types based on the waste materials were developed and evaluated for selected properties including thermal and acoustic insulation. The proportion of the waste materials was varied between 10 and 40 vol% of the base matrix. The compressive strength of the filled gypsum composites was in the range of 4.17–10.39 N/mm² while the pure gypsum was 11.38 N/mm². The addition of the wastes in gypsum composites reduced compressive strength by about 10% for the best recipe and as large as 60% for the worst combination. However, the measured strength still exceeds the strength of typical gypsum wallboard with a compressive strength of about 3–4 N/mm² for whole-board crushing tests and it is much lower for point loads. The normal-incidence sound absorption coefficient indicated that the waste-filled samples absorbed around 80% of the incident sound energy between 2000 and 3000 Hz, comparable to some commercial acoustic foams. The results highlight the potential of utilising these waste-based composites in environmentally friendly construction applications. Depending on the waste type and matrix used, the results revealed trade-offs between multi-functional performance and sustainability benefits.
Abstract
Potato field management in Europe is already optimized for high production and tuber quality; however, numerous environmental challenges remain if the industry is to achieve “green economy” targets, such as less resources utilized, and less nitrate leached to the environment. Strategic co-scheduling irrigation and nitrogen (N) fertilization might increase resource use efficiency while minimizing reactive losses such as nitrate leaching. This study aimed to quantify the combined effect of irrigation and N fertilization on potato production, growth, and resource use efficiencies. A field experiment was conducted from 2017 to 2019 on a coarse sandy soil in Denmark, with a drought event occurring in 2018. Full (Ifull, maximized), deficit (Idef, 70–80 % of Ifull) and low irrigation treatments (Ilow, minimized amount to keep crop survival), each under full (Nfull, maximized) and variable (Nvar, variable amount according to the crops’ needs) N fertilization were applied. The analyses results show that Ilow limited potato growth under a drought-heat event; otherwise, potato growth was comparable between Ifull and Idef treatments, with 31–32 % higher irrigation efficiency (IE) under Idef than under Ifull. Nitrate leaching was variable and not significantly different among the treatments, being in general 9–13 % lower under Idef in absolute terms than under Ifull. Unexpectedly, outcomes from Nvar were statistically lower compared to those from Nfull. Radiation use efficiencies (RUEs) from Ilow and Nvar were significantly lower than from Ifull and Idef (14–19 %), and from Nfull (9–11 %). N use efficiencies (NUE) were comparable between N fertilization treatments but significantly different among different irrigation treatments. Overall, this study confirms that Idef is the best irrigation strategy. Future efforts should focus on developing improved approaches for detecting in-season crop N status and further quantifying N requirements, as well as promoting the co-scheduled management of irrigation and N fertilization. Remote sensing approaches have great potential to assist with this.
2025
Authors
Geir Orderud Rolf David Vogt Petr Porcal Josef Hejzlar Jiří Sláma Ståle Haaland Bjørnar EikebrokkAbstract
This study examines stakeholder efforts to meet European targets for raw water quality. Key sources of water quality deterioration include fish farming, agricultural activities, partially treated urban sewage, and forestry. Although the forest sector and municipal wastewater treatment facilities have demonstrated progress, fish farming and agricultural sectors remain reluctant to implement effective measures. Economic considerations, level of environmental literacy, and the strength of knowledge networks emerge as critical factors influencing stakeholder actions. Non-governmental environmental organisations prioritise issues other than water quality, limiting their engagement in this domain. Moreover, the dominant role of the Ministry of Agriculture in water management appears to hinder cross-sectorial coordination and progress towards achieving good raw water quality.
Authors
Carey Donald Gunnhild Jaastad Marianne Flågeng Sylvain Alain Yves Merel Josef Rasinger Marc Berntssen Ikram BelghitAbstract
Insect farming is gaining increasing attention because of the ability of insects to upscale a variety of waste and by-product biomass efficiently into proteins and lipids. In the European Union and in Norway, the use of insects is permitted in formulated pig, poultry, and fish feeds and more recently for human consumption. However, the European Food Safety Authority has highlighted the lack of data regarding the safety of processing pesticide-contaminated biomass by insects into feed or food products. Secondly, the presence of insecticide residues in plant biomass might negatively affect the growth or survival of the insects themselves. This study aimed to evaluate the fate of the insecticide pirimiphos-methyl (PM) in black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens, BSF) and yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor, YMW) larvae composting. PM is a dominant pesticide found in relevant insect biomasses. Newly hatched larvae were fed on a standard poultry feed substrate spiked with pirimiphos-methyl at different concentrations: 10, 20, and 40 mg/kg (wet base), under optimal breeding conditions. Poultry feed substrate spiked with methanol served as control group. When the feeding media were spiked with 20 and 40 mg/kg of PM, the survival of both BSF and YMW larvae decreased. Mean larvae mass for both species was reduced with increasing concentrations of PM. PM and 7 compounds were identified in a metabolites/transformation product screen that was aided by in silico predictions. One compound, dihydroxy-PM was uniquely detected in larvae. Neither insect species appears to accumulate PM metabolites, and 90% of PM was metabolised. Results indicate that these insects can be reared on PM-contaminated biomass without risk of PM accumulation.
Authors
Marisa Di Sabatino Richard Randle-Boggis Ronald Reagon Ravi Kumar Harry Malhi Gabriele Lobaccaro Helge Bonesmo Ashok Sharma Steve Völler Gaute StokkanAbstract
Agrivoltaics, also known as solar sharing or agri-PV, represents a pioneering con- cept that seeks to optimise land use by combining agriculture with photovoltaics on the same land area. While research and development on this topic have increased significantly, few studies address the issue in the Continental Subarctic Climate zone. In this paper, we report on the modelling and installation of a 48 kWp agrivoltaic system at the Skjetlein High School in Trondheim (Norway, lat. 63.34), which is currently the highest latitude system in the World, and we present the initial results of the impacts of the system on Timothy grass biomass. This work takes the first steps towards realising agrivoltaic opportunities for a broad area of Norwegian agriculture.
Abstract
Assessing forest vulnerability to disturbances at a high spatial resolution and for regional and national scales has become attainable with the combination of remote sensing-derived high-resolution forest maps and mechanistic risk models. This study demonstrated large-scale and high-resolution modelling of wind damage vulnerability in Norway. The hybrid mechanistic wind damage model, ForestGALES, was adapted to map the critical wind speeds (CWS) of damage across Norway using a national forest attribute map at a 16 m × 16 m spatial resolution. Parametrization of the model for the Norwegian context was done using the literature and the National Forest Inventory data. This new parametrization of the model for Norwegian forests yielded estimates of CWS significantly different from the default parametrization. Both parametrizations fell short of providing acceptable discrimination of the damaged area following the storm of November 19, 2021 in the central southern region of Norway when using unadjusted CWS. After adjusting the CWS and the storm wind speeds by a constant factor, the Norwegian parametrization provided acceptable discrimination and was thus defined as suitable to use in future studies, despite the lack of field- and laboratory experiments to directly derive parameters for Norwegian forests. The windstorm event used for model validation in this study highlighted the challenges of predicting wind damage to forests in landscapes with complex topography. Future studies should focus on further developing ForestGALES and new datasets describing extreme wind climates to better represent the wind and tree interactions in complex topography, and predict the level of risk in order to develop local climate-smart forest management strategies.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered