Page 129 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

6 Does the IEB Need a More Formal Governance Structure? 97

avenues have been discussed, particularly the strengthening of management tools to
guarantee that “sense” 12 and traditional values are preserved.

5.3 Is It Possible to Benefit from Cooperative Values Without
Cooperatives?

It might be possible, but the hypothesis would not be very plausible without a great
deal of support by all the stakeholders. Above all, time would be a determining
factor.
The backing of the cooperatives at Bazancourt-Pomacle has been the keystone of
its architecture and of its development. If the cooperatives were forced, de jure or de
facto, to withdraw their support for the biorefinery in its most innovative form as the
European Biorefinery Institute, the first question that would arise would be that of
its ownership.
There would be a variety of options, from selling it in lots, acquisition by the
farmers as a modified form of cooperative, acquisition using family capital, a
leveraged buyout, regionalised financial capitalism or a takeover by multinational
chemical or oil industry groups. Not all of these options would guarantee the
integrity of the Institute or its traditional values. Furthermore, the options that
would break up the unity of the site in a disorganised manner would make a return
to an ecosystem favourable to the IEB unlikely.
These considerations raise considerable concerns about the governance of the
Bazancourt-Pomacle biorefinery.

6 Does the IEB Need a More Formal Governance Structure?

This question is not new to the biorefinery’s stakeholders.
Some of the actors we interviewed consider that it is necessary to create a more
formal governance structure, beyond the formal agreements between the firms
present on waste management, joint management of the staff restaurant, informal,
irregular meetings between the management of the different companies. This
governance structure should in particular help the IEB to face its new challenges,
such as extension upstream and downstream, the development of joint assets,
preservation of values, the selection and integration of new partners and develop-
ment of networks between different strata.
Other actors fear that more formal governance would hinder the activities of
each company, create a new bureaucratic layer, increase costs and lead-times, and
create confusion externally due to a proliferation of acronyms and spokespeople.

12
Rousseau (2004).