Industrial symbiosis (IS) is an important element of circular economics providing systemic approach for creating new opportunities for entrepreneurship and attracting under-utilised resources, for instance, water, heat, energy, know-how, raw materials. “Synergies” of the industrial symbiosis present mutually profitable transactions or operations between undertakings operating in different sectors, looking for innovative ways for optimisation of the value of waste of production processes and obtaining raw materials for production, thus utilising waste and by products of the production processes.
The industrial symbiosis develops in two ways - in the result of self-organised operations when players of industrial sectors independently create cooperation or in managed networks coordinating cooperation.
IS is viewed as a solution for improvement of the environment sustainability and achieving economic benefits at the same time. However, although in every country, including Latvia, there are cases when the industrial symbiosis has been successfully implemented in the result of self-organised cooperation, the true market of the industrial symbiosis and the possible scale of its implementation in Latvia is still underestimated.
Moreover, the importance of intermediate structures as promoters of the industrial symbiosis has only now been identified as an important factor on the EU level for the measures of initiatives of the industrial symbiosis.
Within the framework of the Life project Waste to Resources Latvia - Boosting Regional Sustainability and Circularity, CLEANTECH LATVIA in cooperation with Riga Technical University, Cēsis local government and ZAAO will develop and implement the Industrial Waste Symbiosis Platform.
The creation of the platform comprises all the stages, the situation analysis - identification of the existing symbiosis cases and new symbiosis opportunities, mapping of opportunities. Training for merchants and linking of opportunities in symbiosis. Development of methodologies for identification of the potential of opportunities and searching for new solutions within the acceleration programs. We will start in Vidzeme region and continue in the whole of Latvia.
We will present the opportunities provided by the project to Latvian producers, innovators, local governments, research and education establishments and other stakeholders in our Seminar. Discussion “Industrial Symbiosis for Strengthening the Industry Cooperation”.
