What we are doing
Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is at the heart of the circular economy transition and is one of the most effective approaches for mitigating resources limitation and environmental pollution. IS is a systemic approach2 that aims to promote sustainability by keeping resources in productive use, maintaining, and increasing their value, and moving waste and residuals up the value chain. Still, only 0.1% of the 26 million EU enterprises are currently active in this field, due to companies having access to cheap and abundant resources for last two decades. While industrial symbiosis offers a promising approach for maximizing the efficiency of resource use and reducing waste and pollution, there are still barriers to its widespread adoption. As such, there is an urgent call for innovative solutions that can help remove these obstacles and pave the way for a more sustainable future.
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How we are tracking
More efficient use of resources, which quantified the following savings:
- Groundwater: 2,000,000 m3/year;
- Surface water: 1,000,000 m3/year;
- Natural gypsum: 100,000 t/year;
- Petroleum: 20,000 t/year;
- oil 45,000 tons/year;
- coal 15,000 tons/year
- water 600,000 m3/year;
- waste emission carbon dioxide 175,000 tons/year;
- sulfur dioxide 10,200 tons/year;
- valorisation of wastes sulfur 4,500 tons/year.
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What we are achieving
The SYMBA project aims to develop an innovative Industrial-Symbiosis (IS) method for bio-based industrial ecosystems, which will be replicated across European countries and adapted to the respective local and regional conditions. SYMBA will establish a user-friendly and accessible AI database that recommends new regional IS processes to establish zero-waste value chains, ensuring greater local supply chains and a more equitable distribution of economic and social benefits among stakeholders.
- Identification of 4 High Potential IS Regions to demonstrate the SYMBA Approach through a call for participants.
- Participants will be sourced through ICLEI’s large cities and regions membership network as well as through existing initiatives and European projects such as Biomodel4Regions, P2GreeN and Hubs4Circularity (H4Cs).
- Capacity building activities
- Policy recommendations on applying the SYMBA methodology to create a full-scale and sustainable bio-based economy
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