105
Practitioners consider it very important to fi nd ways to move past known hurdles
and to get buy-in from businesses, which is essential for success. Many practitioners
noted the signifi cance of company champions (Lowitt 2015, January 20, Personal
communication with Director of Devens Enterprise Center; Mangan 2015, January
19, Personal communication) as well as the importance of using the language of
business (costs, revenues, risk) to generate this buy-in (Laybourn 2015, January 26,
Personal communication). Especially in many business situations, as one Nicaraguan
business person was quoted as saying, “no company is looking for eco-technologies
or eco-innovation. What they are looking for is a solution to a business problem”
(Laybourn 2015, January 26, Personal communication).
Another effective and growing avenue for addressing these concerns is through
platforms and tools offered by industry organizations or facilitator companies.
Industry organizations such as the US BCSD, or facilitators such as NISP, allow
businesses a safe and common platform for discussing synergies through symbiosis
(Mangan 2015, January 19, Personal communication). A growing trend is the use of
Internet-based technological tools (often offered by the aforementioned platforms)
such as the Materials Marketplace by US BCSD, SYNERGie by International
Synergies, or the Resource-eXchange-Platform as part of the ZeroWIN EU project
to further promote coordination and exchanges.
Also emphasized by practitioners is the importance of supportive laws and policies, as well as enabling regulations to incentivize and promote industrial symbiosis. The slow uptake of industrial symbiosis in North America is perceived to be
related to the lack of supportive national policies, in contrast to regions with strong
supportive policies such as Europe and East Asia, which have seen growing numbers and scale of industrial symbiosis (Lowitt 2015, January 20, Personal communication with Director of Devens Enterprise Center; Massard 2015, January 28,
Table 5.4 (continued)
Year
IS-related events
1997 Journal of Industrial Ecology begins publication
Eco-town program in Japan begins (ended in 2006)
1995 The Business Council for Sustainable Development – Gulf of Mexico (BCSD-GM)
receives an EPA grant for by-product synergy
South Korea passes the Act to Promote Environmental Friendly Industrial Structure
(APEFIS)
1994 The US President’s Council on Sustainable Development (US-PCSD) assigns
demonstration EIPs
1993 Journal of Cleaner Production begins publication
1992 The predecessor to the US Business Council for Sustainable Development, which was
the Business Council for Sustainable Development – Gulf of Mexico (BCSD-GM) is
launched
1991 US National Academy of Sciences meeting on industrial ecology marks the fi rst offi cial
academic meeting on IE
1990 The Financial Times reports on Kalundborg (November 14)
1989 The term “industrial symbiosis” is coined in Kalundborg
5 Scholarship and Practice in Industrial Symbiosis: 1989–2014
Practitioners consider it very important to fi nd ways to move past known hurdles
and to get buy-in from businesses, which is essential for success. Many practitioners
noted the signifi cance of company champions (Lowitt 2015, January 20, Personal
communication with Director of Devens Enterprise Center; Mangan 2015, January
19, Personal communication) as well as the importance of using the language of
business (costs, revenues, risk) to generate this buy-in (Laybourn 2015, January 26,
Personal communication). Especially in many business situations, as one Nicaraguan
business person was quoted as saying, “no company is looking for eco-technologies
or eco-innovation. What they are looking for is a solution to a business problem”
(Laybourn 2015, January 26, Personal communication).
Another effective and growing avenue for addressing these concerns is through
platforms and tools offered by industry organizations or facilitator companies.
Industry organizations such as the US BCSD, or facilitators such as NISP, allow
businesses a safe and common platform for discussing synergies through symbiosis
(Mangan 2015, January 19, Personal communication). A growing trend is the use of
Internet-based technological tools (often offered by the aforementioned platforms)
such as the Materials Marketplace by US BCSD, SYNERGie by International
Synergies, or the Resource-eXchange-Platform as part of the ZeroWIN EU project
to further promote coordination and exchanges.
Also emphasized by practitioners is the importance of supportive laws and policies, as well as enabling regulations to incentivize and promote industrial symbiosis. The slow uptake of industrial symbiosis in North America is perceived to be
related to the lack of supportive national policies, in contrast to regions with strong
supportive policies such as Europe and East Asia, which have seen growing numbers and scale of industrial symbiosis (Lowitt 2015, January 20, Personal communication with Director of Devens Enterprise Center; Massard 2015, January 28,
Table 5.4 (continued)
Year
IS-related events
1997 Journal of Industrial Ecology begins publication
Eco-town program in Japan begins (ended in 2006)
1995 The Business Council for Sustainable Development – Gulf of Mexico (BCSD-GM)
receives an EPA grant for by-product synergy
South Korea passes the Act to Promote Environmental Friendly Industrial Structure
(APEFIS)
1994 The US President’s Council on Sustainable Development (US-PCSD) assigns
demonstration EIPs
1993 Journal of Cleaner Production begins publication
1992 The predecessor to the US Business Council for Sustainable Development, which was
the Business Council for Sustainable Development – Gulf of Mexico (BCSD-GM) is
launched
1991 US National Academy of Sciences meeting on industrial ecology marks the fi rst offi cial
academic meeting on IE
1990 The Financial Times reports on Kalundborg (November 14)
1989 The term “industrial symbiosis” is coined in Kalundborg
5 Scholarship and Practice in Industrial Symbiosis: 1989–2014