According to Symbiosis Centre Denmark, the industrial symbiosis in the Kalundborg municipality on Zealand is the world’s first working industrial symbiosis. It is based on trust, transparency and on-going dialogue between public and private actors, and was developed with the assistance of regional strategies supporting environmental and economic sustainability. The project’s five decades of experience and knowledge are now being shared nation-wide.
An expanding network
Large energy and processing companies, including pharmaceutical/medical and clean tech companies, are based in the industrial area of Kalundborg municipality, comprising one of Denmark’s largest concentrations of industries. Eight of these private and public partners form the internationally known industrial symbiosis of Kalundborg, engaging in some 50 symbiotic exchanges of resources. The network in “The Green Manufacturing Municipality” has evolved over five decades and gained much attention from academia and practitioners. Several local and regional development strategies help shape the expansion of the Kalundborg Symbiosis and, for example, encourage more renewable energy and resource efficiency as a means to strengthen competitiveness. A target in Region Zealand’s Regional Growth and Development Strategy is to increase the number of companies involved in symbioses in the entire region from 65 in 2014 to more than 200 in 2020.
Where it all started
The forerunning cooperation in Kalundborg began in 1961 when an oil company needed water for its refinery and laid pipes to a nearby lake. A local gypsum production enterprise then connected with the refinery for supply of its excess gas, and soon a power plant and a pharmaceutical company also joined the grid. Over the years, more businesses were linked, and in 1989, the term “industrial symbiosis” was used to describe the collaboration for the first time. The main resources being exchanged are water in various forms, energy and waste or by-products (see figure: Kalundborg Industrial Symbiosis Overview (2015)). The companies feed each other’s resource needs while lowering costs and resource consumption, thereby strengthening their CSR profile, sparing nature and protecting the groundwater.
National Symbiosis Centre
With the purpose of making it Denmark’s leading centre of competence for the establishment of industrial symbioses, Kalundborg together with two neighbouring municipalities initiated a Regional Symbiosis Centre in 2011. During 2012-2014 the Symbiosis Centre supported more than 20 projects across the region, with objectives such as increasing the number of innovative small to medium sized enterprises, and improving energy and resource efficiency. Increasing political backing for the centre meant that in 2014, the Regional Council and Growth Forum of Zealand granted €1.6 million of its regional development funds to evolve the centre into the National Symbiosis Centre. Since 2015, the centre has had the mandate to engage in initiatives across the country to support the development of industrial symbioses.
The National Symbiosis Centre works strategically with four key areas:
- developing symbioses between companies
- training and education
- branding and investment promotion
- collaboration with universities
Regional dimension
As a result of the multilaterally positive outcomes of the Kalundborg experience, some of the municipalities in the region now have “symbiosis employees” in their environmental departments. Although it cannot be established that the symbiosis has generated new jobs, it can be said that it has made a difference in terms of maintaining domestic jobs in the manufacturing industries. Political engagement through regional strategies and national programs has helped develop the entire region and is a format and experience that could be exported to other Nordic countries.
.jpg "Source: Symbiosis Centre Denmark")
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