Virtual Bio-Based Pop-up Store Launched

Over the course of the BE-Rural project, the bio-based pop-up store has helped bring the innovative potential of the bioeconomy to life for many local residents in the partner regions. With the launching of a virtual bio-based pop-up store, a bioeconomy market full of innovative products can now be explored by all.

From mineral water to roses, each region has different resource potentials. The virtual exhibition specifically highlights the innovation regions of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria and Covasna, Romania by showcasing a number of their regional products and providing a glimpse of the great bioeconomy potential and innovative use of resources and business models presented in their regional bioeconomy documents.

Dresses made from milk waste? Emissions free insect burgers? Spider silk nail polish? A brick grown by bacteria? Visitors can explore a vast array of innovative and sustainable products from around the world. On display are almost 60 products from more than 20 different countries all demonstrating just how far we have come in replacing unsustainable products and processes currently made from fossil resources with biological resources and innovative technologies.

The virtual exhibition further explores how biobased solutions can contribute to sustainable economic growth, innovation and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. For example, to encourage sustainable consumption (SDG 12), brands have developed many creative products on display such as vegan leather shoes and bags made from residual pineapple leaves or high-tech materials, such as break-resistant smartphone displays from sugar.

With quizzes and other interactive elements, visitors are encouraged to engage with the products, test their knowledge on the bioeconomy, and spark debates on issues of sustainability and achieving the SDGs.

Several public events are being organized in the regions of Stara Zagora, Bulgaria and Covasna, Romania to not only shed light on innovative bioeconomy products, inspire people to think of other potential regional resources and innovative business models, and initiate a more sustainable style of consumption, but also to mobilise engagement and collect feedback among citizens on the newly released bioeconomy strategies and roadmaps.

Start exploring the virtual bioeconomy marketplace here.