Background

The project on”Industrial Symbiosis in the Nordic Countries”, financed 50%by the Nordic Council of Ministers and co-financed by regional partners, has its background in an Industrial Symbiosis program initiated in the city of Landskrona, by the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University.  This program involved more than 25 private and public organizations in and around the city. Initially financed by NUTEK, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, the program is now operated by the recently established foundation DeLabs in Landskrona.  In addition to the practical work in Landskrona, the Nordic project also supported international research on Industrial Symbiosis and dissemination of Industrial Symbiosis related knowledge to practitioners.  Consequently, a research symposium targeting the relevant international research community and a conference mainly targeting Nordic practitioners were organized as part of the project. A summary report for this project can be downloaded here (in Swedish).

Events

As part of the project two main events were organised:

The International Industrial Symbiosis Research Symposium was organized on 11th of June 2005 in Stockholm.  This event served as the follow-up of the first international conference ever on the topic, organized by Yale University in 2004.  It was directed towards an international academic and research oriented target group, with the focus on knowledge exchange and future challenges The symposium was a pre-conference event for the international industrial ecology conference in Stockholm organized by the international society of industrial ecology.  The symposium had around 60 participants from all around the world.  Further information about the symposium, including the copies of presentations, is available here.

The event targeting mainly practitioners from Nordic region was a 2,5 day conference organized in Landskrona.  cknowledging the fact that Industrial Symbiosis is an inadequately known concept outside the academic world, the conference was renamed “Innovative Partnerships for Sustainable Regional Development”.  This allowed an expanded interpretation of concept going beyond the traditional concentration on resource flows of manufacturing industry.  It was also by large appreciated by conference delegates, acknowledging the need for a more holistic view on the challenges of sustainable regional development.  The core of the conference was devoted to sharing relevant experiences from different initiatives that included, among others, public-private partnerships and industrial networks established in the Nordic countries.  Individuals that are responsible for addressing environmental issues and sustainable development challenges in regions, municipalities and industries formed the main target group of the conference but there were also other stakeholders in different positions of the society.  The conference was delivered in Scandinavian languages.  Further information, including the copies of presentations, is available here.