Bioeconomy: How Renewable Resources Can Help the Future of Our Planet

Investigate how you can utilise renewable resources

With a predicted global population of nine billion people in 2050, a well-documented climate crisis, and a global food waste problem, the world needs to change.

On this course, you’ll look at the ways you can make the most of renewable, biological resources, including what you might think of as ‘waste’, and how the world can move away from a fossil-based economy to a bioeconomy.

Understand the basics of a bioeconomy and why it’s important

You’ll start this course by gaining an understanding of what a bioeconomy is and which sectors it includes.

With the climate crisis being of constant concern, you’ll assess why the move away from non-renewable resources is so important and identify the skills required to transition to a bio-based economy. This will also include the skills needed to pursue a career in the bioeconomy and the many career paths available.

Discover how natural resources can help transition away from fossil fuels

On this course, you’ll delve into natural resources, such as plants and microbes, and how they can be used to produce high-value chemicals for the personal care, food, drink, and pharma sectors.

You’ll also look at how food and agricultural waste can be used to make new products. This will cover the agricultural technologies that are helping sustainability, as well as methods like anaerobic digestion, which turns waste materials into renewable resources.

Learn from the experts at BioYorkshire

Supporting York and North Yorkshire’s ambitions to become one of the first in the UK to be carbon negative, BioYorkshire is uniquely positioned to help you understand the current state of the bioeconomy, where there are opportunities for innovation, and the emerging technologies within the sustainability industry.

This course has been designed for anyone looking to learn about a more sustainable economy and solutions to climate change.

This will be of particular interest to students thinking about future study or a career in sustainability or the bioeconomy.

This course has been designed for anyone looking to learn about a more sustainable economy and solutions to climate change.

This will be of particular interest to students thinking about future study or a career in sustainability or the bioeconomy.

• Explore what the bioeconomy is and which sectors it includes.
• Debate why the move away from a fossil-fuel economy is important.
• Identify some of the skills needed to pursue a career in the bioeconomy and some of the bioeconomy career paths available.
• Explain how natural resources such as plants and microbes can be used to produce high value chemicals.
• Assess how waste can be used as a resource to produce energy and products.