Aquaponic systems are often designated as sustainable food production systems that are still facing various challenges, especially when they are considered as a commercial endeavour that needs to compete on the market. The early stages of the aquaponics industry have witnessed a number of unrealistic statements about the economic advantageousness of aquaponics. This chapter deals with these topics and discusses them critically. The latest scientific literature and current personal experiences of European commercial aquaponics farmers are taken into account on three levels: The horticulture side of production, the aquaculture side of production and the early data on the market response to aquaponics, emphasising the marketing issues and public acceptance of aquaponics. In summary, the chapter does not provide an “off-the-peg” solution to evaluate the economic performance of a particular aquaponics system. Instead it provides a broad database that enables an estimation of the efficiency of a planned system more realistically, pointing to challenges that the commercial aquaponics early adopters faced that are important lessons for future aquaponic endeavours, particularly in Europe.

Nature-based solutions (NBSs) are considered sustainable, cost-efficient, and resource-efficient land-use management approaches. When analysing NBS business models, two major challenges are commonly identified as slowing down broader NBS implementation: governance and financing barriers. This explorative study aims first to test the applicability of a NBS specific business model template and, second, to provide a clustered NBS business model pilot case study collection, which enables transferable solutions for overcoming the typical implementation challenges to be derived. Methodically, this is achieved by using the Nature-based Sustainability Business Model Canvas (NB S BMC for guided interviews. Twenty-three NBS case studies from proGIreg’s four Front Runner Cities, namely Dortmund, Ningbo, Turin, and Zagreb, are examined. Pestoff’s welfare triangle enables the NBS business models to be clustered. The main business model clusters are public provision, sales, and diversified. NBSs’ governance models are very adaptable to individual NBS cases, of the independent type, and can include a huge diversity of involved stakeholders regarding their functions in the NBS implementation. Our findings highlight adaptable governance models across diverse stakeholder functions and confirm the NB S BMC as a robust framework for understanding NBS business models. These insights extend to land-use practices beyond NBSs, offering a template for innovative urban planning strategies.

Businesses are under pressure to increasingly consider sustainability as an integral part of the enterprise and business model. Nature-based solutions (NBS) definitions reflect that sustainability can be improved by implementing NBS. These NBS require tailored business models. Therefore, this study aims to conceptualize a holistic business model canvas capturing the sustainability contributions ofNBS. Methodically, the new Canvas is proposed based on an extensive literature review, and the application and testing are carried out on NBSs implemented in the proGIreg project’s three European Living Labs. As a result, by building on the Business Model Canvas (BMC) by Osterwalder and Pigneur as well as various modifications to capture the core concepts of sustainability and NBS, a new BMC for NBS is proposed—the nature-based sustainability Business Model Canvas (NB S BMC). It consists of 14 building blocks and offers a holistic overview of NBS business models considering the multi-faceted character of NBS. The case studies show that the NB S BMC can be applied to different contexts independently of their location and content orientation. Although this study development puts an emphasis on NBS, it can also be applied to capturing sustainable business models beyond the NBS domain.