Industrial & Urban Symbiosis
Industrial and urban symbiosis involves companies working together to share resources and use waste as a raw material to create more sustainable production. This means that companies work together to manage waste, share equipment and technologies, and exchange raw materials and energy with each other. By working together and sharing resources, companies can reduce their environmental impact and increase their resource efficiency.
Illustration: Snius.
Creating value from your under-utilised resources
Industrial and urban symbiosis is a circular economy process that focuses on under-utilised resources from one actor or process becoming raw materials for another. Sharing resources between actors saves raw materials and energy while reducing emissions and waste generation. There is a strong focus on adding value to under-utilised material and energy resources (such as waste and residues), which can be used by other actors within a network.
But cooperation can also include shared supply and service infrastructure, knowledge building, innovation and marketing. By calling it Industrial and Urban Symbiosis, the concept can be broadened to include more elements linked to the city and society to create, for example, sustainable and circular urban development.
It means seeing the different systems of society as interconnected, such as waste management, energy, transport and construction. By working together between different actors and looking at the whole of society, we can work towards sustainable circular society development with increased resource use, reduced waste and reduced negative environmental impacts.