SWITCH-Asia

The Challenge

China’s environment could not sustain the production system of high input, low output, high consumption and low efficiency. Industry was a major contributor to resource consumption and pollution. Industrial areas such as Tianjin Binhai New Area (TBNA) could reduce their environmental impact by applying the principles of industrial ecology and establishing a network of material and energy flows among enterprises. TBNA needed to tackle problems like the large quantity of industrial waste. It faced weak environmental management capacity, and lack of effective networks for creating waste exchange synergies between companies. The project Industrial Symbiosis in Tianjin Binhai New Area facilitated synergies between companies to raise the effectiveness of resource and energy utilisation, and to minimise the discharge of waste.

The Objectives

The project aimed to promote sustainable production among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in TBNA by introducing industrial symbiosis (IS) and environmental management systems, and by showcasing a large-scale industrial symbiosis network. By creating an industrial symbiosis network, TBNA facilitated material, by-product, energy and logistic exchange among 800 SMEs.

The Way Forward

• Recruit business intermediaries as partners for the industrial symbiosis network, engage with relevant organisations and public bodies, manage synergies; prepare quarterly programme advisory meetings and report successful case studies;
• Provide SMEs with ISO14001 certification training courses and walk-through audits;
• Form an industrial symbiosis network technical team; develop & deploy synergy management tools; train industrial symbiosis network practitioners;
• Organise policy study tours; develop encouraging policies & develop Chinese guidelines for industrial symbiosis network implementation