GREEN INDUSTRY SYMBIOSIS

GREEN INDUSTRY SYMBIOSIS FOUND MORE THAN 170 SYMBIOSIS MATCHES

Symbiosis Center Denmark was a central partner in the Green Industry Symbiosis project, where more than 500 companies were given a resource check, which identifies the possibilities for establishing concrete industrial symbioses. The result was more than 170 symbiosis matches on a national basis.

When Green Industry Symbiosis, under the Danish Business Authority, began in 2013, its objective was clear. Identify potential and start new industrial symbioses. Symbiosis Centre Denmark was at that time already developing a toolbox of facilitation methods to identify and match symbiosis partnerships. Our experiences and our methodology became accordingly the foundation of the national effort in Green Industry Symbiosis. And the methodology has shown great success by engaging a large group of companies to actively review internal resource streams and procedures for waste management. This also applies to companies that originally were not focusing on the control and optimisation of resource consumption all the way through their production chains.

The method illustrated the great potential for the establishment of industrial symbioses that are found on a national basis – not merely for the large companies in the large industrial areas, but also for small and medium-sized companies. Symbiosis Centre Denmark was pivotal to Green Industry Symbiosis, since we were central to the design of the project, the development of the methodologies and reaping the fruits of the practical experiences from both the Kalundborg Symbiosis and the work with the symbioses in Region Zealand.

The project was nationwide, and Symbiosis Centre Denmark handled the work in the whole of Zealand and Lolland-Falster, where we were instrumental in creating 60 symbiosis matches in Region Zealand and the Capital Region of Denmark. The result from the two regions was created by a fruitful collaboration between the Danish Business Authority and NIRAS, which was the consultant on the project.

The background for the project was a wish to help Danish companies achieve financial benefits by creating industrial symbioses that exploit excess resources. As well as lowering production costs, this also strengthens competitiveness, protects Danish jobs and brings down total resource consumption, which benefits the environment. Through a targeted effort, 750 companies were contacted. 516 received a visit and a resource check, where the national task force reviewed the possibilities for exchanging and exploiting energy, water and material – the residue or a by-product from production.