Industrial Symbiosis and its Alignment with Regional Sustainability Exploring the Possibilities in Landskrona, Sweden
(2004)The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics
- Abstract
- Recently, industries have changed their efforts of collaboration to encompass transformations not just from an economic view but also for enhancement of environmental and social performance. This collaboration is Industrial Ecology (IE), or its regional application of Industrial Symbiosis (IS). IS can be defined as a long-term, symbiotic relationship between and among companies involving physical exchanges as well as the exchange of human or technical resources. The exchanges serve an effort to improve environmental performances and increase collective competitive advantage. There is often a disconnection between the ideal goal of IS networking and the practice of IS. This is especially apparent in regards to aligning long term outcomes of... (More)
- Recently, industries have changed their efforts of collaboration to encompass transformations not just from an economic view but also for enhancement of environmental and social performance. This collaboration is Industrial Ecology (IE), or its regional application of Industrial Symbiosis (IS). IS can be defined as a long-term, symbiotic relationship between and among companies involving physical exchanges as well as the exchange of human or technical resources. The exchanges serve an effort to improve environmental performances and increase collective competitive advantage. There is often a disconnection between the ideal goal of IS networking and the practice of IS. This is especially apparent in regards to aligning long term outcomes of collaboration and sustainability goals of a region. This study was performed to understand, and strengthen, the alignment of IS networks and regional sustainability.
This work uses an action research approach centered on the Landskrona IS network established in Sweden in May 2002. It entails a review of the field of sustainability and of IS, which was used to develop a Sustainability Framework order to formalize criteria used for evaluating the alignment of the Landskrona IS network with regional sustainability. These criteria, referred to as strategies, are proposed because they have the potential to lead companies in achieving long-term improvements that close both production loops and consumption loops, as well as try to decrease the overall level of material throughput.
Analysis of the Landskrona IS network showed that a large number of incentives and motivations for the companies to pursue sustainability strategies exists. Overall, the economic and environmental pursuits of the IS network seem in line with network and regional sustainability goals. The key aspects missing are mainly social and environmental aspects which require large changes to core business practices. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations are made as to how networks can bridge the gaps to sustainability and how research coordinators can facilitate in the creation of conditions for a self-sustaining network committed to sustainable approaches. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1329189
- author
- Maltin, Marla
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2004
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Industrial ecology, Industrial symbiosis, sustainability, network, strategy, region, Environmental studies, Miljöstudier
- language
- English
- id
- 1329189
- date added to LUP
- 2006-09-07 00:00:00
- date last changed
- 2006-09-07 00:00:00
@misc{1329189,
abstract = {{Recently, industries have changed their efforts of collaboration to encompass transformations not just from an economic view but also for enhancement of environmental and social performance. This collaboration is Industrial Ecology (IE), or its regional application of Industrial Symbiosis (IS). IS can be defined as a long-term, symbiotic relationship between and among companies involving physical exchanges as well as the exchange of human or technical resources. The exchanges serve an effort to improve environmental performances and increase collective competitive advantage. There is often a disconnection between the ideal goal of IS networking and the practice of IS. This is especially apparent in regards to aligning long term outcomes of collaboration and sustainability goals of a region. This study was performed to understand, and strengthen, the alignment of IS networks and regional sustainability.
This work uses an action research approach centered on the Landskrona IS network established in Sweden in May 2002. It entails a review of the field of sustainability and of IS, which was used to develop a Sustainability Framework order to formalize criteria used for evaluating the alignment of the Landskrona IS network with regional sustainability. These criteria, referred to as strategies, are proposed because they have the potential to lead companies in achieving long-term improvements that close both production loops and consumption loops, as well as try to decrease the overall level of material throughput.
Analysis of the Landskrona IS network showed that a large number of incentives and motivations for the companies to pursue sustainability strategies exists. Overall, the economic and environmental pursuits of the IS network seem in line with network and regional sustainability goals. The key aspects missing are mainly social and environmental aspects which require large changes to core business practices. Conclusions are drawn and recommendations are made as to how networks can bridge the gaps to sustainability and how research coordinators can facilitate in the creation of conditions for a self-sustaining network committed to sustainable approaches.}},
author = {{Maltin, Marla}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Industrial Symbiosis and its Alignment with Regional Sustainability Exploring the Possibilities in Landskrona, Sweden}},
year = {{2004}},
}