Industrial symbiosis defines initiatives of more than two industrial companies to establish and maintain mutually beneficial relationships. The most common example of industrial symbiosis is that one company uses a material stream that is regarded as waste by another company. The other examples include shared utilization of equipment or facilities and the pooling of resources.
Industrial symbiosis was first registered in Kalundborg in 1960ies. In 2000 it was defined by Marian Chertow: “The part of industrial ecology known as industrial symbiosis engages traditionally separate industries in a collective approach to competitive advantage involving the physical exchange of materials, energy, water, and by-products. The keys to industrial symbiosis are collaboration and the synergistic possibilities offered by geographic proximity.”
Industrial symbiosis leads to two types of benefits:
