Page 101 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

1 What Is Industrial Symbiosis? 69

benefits (Lombardi and Laybourn 2012). This definition stresses the fact that the
“waste” of one company can become a raw material for another, becoming thus a
“by-product.” Industrial symbiosis makes it possible to give value to materials that,
as such, in the absence of clients, would become waste. It also gives firms environ-
mental and economic benefits. The main resources concerned are water, energy and
by-products of the industrial processes. However, as well as natural resources, firms
can share staff, equipment or even information.
Although using by-products rather than getting rid of them is not a new phe-
nomenon, the industrial advances of the twentieth century made it possible to obtain
larger and cheaper quantities of energy and raw materials and to design more
efficient waste treatment processes. In this context, firms saw little interest in
managing and recycling their waste. However, the increasing importance given to
sustainable development in public policies, rising costs for eliminating waste, ever
stricter environmental regulations and growing awareness of the potential resources
represented by by-products, encouraged firms and public authorities to reconsider
their water and energy consumption and waste treatment policies. In these
circumstances, the concept of industrial symbiosis became particularly attractive
and began to develop all over the world. The best-known case of industrial
symbiosis is that of the Kalundborg refinery in Denmark. Indeed, it was here that
the term “industrial symbiosis” was invented in 1989. The Kalundborg symbiosis
has been widely studied by the academic community and this research has
established the basis of industrial ecology. This industrial symbiosis is the result
of interactions between the town of Kalundborg, the Statoil oil refinery, the Dong
Energy power station and various other firms such as Novo Nordisk and Gyproc.
The site has managed to achieve a degree of economic and industrial efficiency that
today is world-renowned. However, the process took place over a period of
40 years.
Many other economic approaches have been shown to be less intrusive yet very
effective ways to initiate economic development. However, by transforming corpo-
rate culture so radically, industrial symbiosis stimulates economic development that
is closely linked to sustainability. Industrial symbiosis can thus be seen as an
environmental phenomenon that not only involves exchanges of materials and
energy, but also offers concrete opportunities to build cooperative relationships
between firms.
Throughout the world, the concept of industrial symbiosis has taken on different
forms: “top down,” with government directives, “bottom up” independent
programmes and even industrial symbioses developed spontaneously (Lombardi
and Laybourn 2012). This range of different types of industrial symbioses makes
them difficult to study and model. Today, industrial symbiosis has moved on from
being a purely academic topic to become a practical tool supported by governments,
professional organisations and environmental groups. Throughout Europe, the
concept of industrial symbiosis is seen as a strategy to encourage economic growth
that is compatible with sustainable development, innovation and efficient resource
use (Lombardi and Laybourn 2012). Recently, European policy has incorporated
industrial symbiosis into its environmental and economic policy. It is part of the