The European Observatory on Industrial Symbiosis, developed by the INSET project, is now available

Industrial symbiosis promotes collaboration between companies and sectors to make more efficient use of resources, so that one organisation’s waste, by-products, energy, water or underutilised capacity can become useful resources for another. However, information on policies, projects, tools, methodologies and training programmes relating to this field is often scattered across different countries, organisations and platforms.

The Industrial Symbiosis Observatory addresses this need by providing a centralised digital platform where users can consult and explore, in a structured manner, policies and regulatory frameworks relating to industrial symbiosis; European, national and regional projects; support tools, platforms and methodologies; training and capacity-building initiatives; organisations and stakeholders active in this field; as well as case studies and initiatives that promote resource efficiency and cross-sector collaboration.

At its launch, the Observatory already features more than 140 industrial symbiosis resources, including policies, projects, tools and learning materials, information from more than 13 European countries, the involvement of more than six specialist organisations, and more than 30 identified and documented industrial symbiosis initiatives.

The projects included cover European initiatives such as LIAISE, CORALIS, SYMSITES, ULTIMATE, SCALER, INSIGHT, SPIRE-SAIS, RESYNTEX, BAMB, FISSAC and EPOS, amongst many others. The platform also features an interactive map that allows users to locate initiatives, projects, organisations, training programmes and regulatory frameworks by country and category.

The Observatory has been designed to meet the needs of companies, SMEs and industrial stakeholders, public administrations and policy-makers, universities, technology centres and research organisations, innovation and regional development agencies, business associations, clusters, intermediary bodies, educational institutions and training providers interested in moving towards more sustainable, resilient and collaborative industrial systems.

As well as consulting the available resources, users can make use of the navigation guides and methodological documents developed by the project to understand how the information has been structured and categorised. The Observatory is designed to be a dynamic tool that will continue to expand with new initiatives, projects and materials. Interested organisations can contribute by suggesting resources or sharing experiences relating to industrial symbiosis.

In this way, the platform aims to become a European benchmark for connecting knowledge, stakeholders and initiatives, facilitating the identification of opportunities for collaboration and supporting the development of new industrial symbiosis projects.

Check out the Industrial Symbiosis Observatory here.