15 – The case of the symbiotic network in Landskrona, Sweden: industrial symbiosis as a means to update the development model of an industrial region

The industrial town of Landskrona in South-West Sweden is the first example of official Industrial Symbiosis programme implementation in its Country, initiated in 2003. The area includes more than twenty companies of different sizes and from different industrial sectors (including steelworks, chemical companies, printing and automotive sector, waste management, agro industries and more). The programme was financed and promoted by the NUTEK (Swedish Business Development Agency) and was facilitated by researchers from the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) and Lund university. Companies from the region have been involved together with three local public agencies.

Industries around Landskrona had already developed some symbiotic exchanges at the moment the programme was started. The main challenge that led to the facilitators’ decision of increasing the symbiotic network was to cut costs and increase competitiveness while updating the region’s development model and improving the environmental image and impact.

The main barriers that facilitators had to face in the development of symbiotic exchanges was the difficulty to attract the highest possible number of diverse businesses in order to increase the possibilities to identify new opportunities for collaborations and exchanges and to make them start trusting each other and collaborating.

The approach used to overcome such barrier was to expand collaboration areas from mere materials and energy exchanges creation to environmental management, transport and logistics and personnel exchange.

The discovery process for the expansion of the original symbiotic network started with the identification of key parties. These parties were then informed about the project and its objectives, potential benefits and barriers. Roles of participating companies were then clearly defined and responsibilities were assigned. After that, data regarding availability and needs for resources were gathered and potential new exchanges were identified according to emerged complementarities. Facilitators then encouraged identified partners to meet and discuss symbiotic opportunities, and some collective meeting and plant tours were also organised.

The main preconditions that allowed the creation of symbiotic exchanges were the fact that some exchanges were already implemented in the region and companies had previous experiences in collaborative projects, the fact that participating companies had already a high level of awareness regarding environmental issues (most of them already had an environmental management system at the time the programme was started) and the legislative pressure.