International Synergies reinforces its role as the global expert in industrial symbiosis receiving a four year contract to promote and implement industrial symbiosis in England and kick-starting a four year programme in China.
The contract in England has been awarded through the Waste & Resources and Action Programme (WRAP) and will see International Synergies using its existing UK network of the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) to identify mutually profitable links between companies so that previously under utilised resources can be recovered, reprocessed and reused elsewhere in the industrial network.
The company has also signed a four year contract to establish an industrial symbiosis network in China, working with 800 businesses from the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) to innovatively source input streams for industrial processes and add value to non product outputs.
The TEDA industrial symbiosis project is being financed by the European Commission through its Switch Asia fund and is supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The UK's Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is also co-financing the scheme through its Sustainable Development Dialogue programme. The project was officially launched in March alongside the inaugural meeting of the TEDA Low Carbon Economy International Cooperation Committee.
International Synergies is the only UK member of the International Cooperation Committee and will share its knowledge and insight on how industrial symbiosis can provide a pathway to the development of a low carbon sustainable economy.
As well as working in Asia, International Synergies is also assisting industrial symbiosis projects in Europe (Hungary, Romania and Slovakia), South America (Brazil) and North America (USA and Mexico).
Peter Laybourn, Chief Executive of International Synergies, said: "I'm delighted that the global appetite for industrial symbiosis is growing and that we're able to continue the exceptional work that we're doing both in the UK through NISP and internationally.
"The opportunity to establish an industrial symbiosis network in TEDA, the World's biggest industrial park, is extremely exciting. We are confident we can replicate the results that we have achieved in the UK over the last five years (35 million tonnes waste diverted from landfill, 30 million tonnes CO2 reduction, £880 million additional sales, £780 million cost savings and 8770 jobs created or saved) and as a result, see an expansion of the programme in China that will lead to massive reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.
"I am also delighted that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has very recently acknowledged industrial symbiosis as an excellent example of systemic innovation and therefore a key approach to stimulate green growth through accelerating innovation which opens up the debate for it to be at the heart of worldwide economic and climate change policy."