Scottish Industrial Symbiosis Programme
The Executive offered grant of £100,000 each year from Aggregates Levy receipts for the three years 2004-07 to the Business Council for Sustainable Development for a continuation of the Scottish Industrial Symbiosis Programme (SISP) - following on from the first phase in 2002-04. In 2006-07 International Synergies took over the project. The project was managed on behalf of BCSD (2004-06) and International Synergies (2006-07) by Thirdwave Scotland Ltd.
The purpose was to support and enable resource efficiency and productivity in industry - helping identify opportunities for the waste products of one business to be used by another to create a new product, diverting material from landfill. The Executive's Strategic Waste Fund (adding £50,000 annually to the above figure of £100,000), SEPA and Scottish Enterprise also funded the project.
The values at the core of industrial symbiosis are greater efficiency in resource use, energy and travel - contributing to an understanding of how resources and materials can be better used, and how businesses and organisations can use energy differently and more efficiently. Finding partnerships that dramatically alter resource streams from waste to re-use in other products and services produces symbiosis.
The aim in 2004-07 was to increase the number of companies involved and extend the range of activities and types of companies involved - and to spread the geographical scope from the central belt to the north-east and the Highlands. During the 3-year project SISP spread the message across Scotland, and worked with other bodies to do so, though most opportunities for implementation remained around central Scotland.
The project was to include 'Marketplace' events across Scotland reflecting either identifying synergies around particular types of resource streams or broader exploratory marketplaces; participation in industry events, interacting with companies within the setting reflecting the range of their professional priorities; and presenting a series on 'Future Markets' to raise the vision to which Scottish industry could aspire.
The project hoped to offer students carrying out dissertation level research the opportunity to work closely with leading companies within the SISP membership to address practical concerns and needs with the range of SISP objectives. However, implementation of this was limited.
The project aimed to work with local authorities on a national event for councillors and officers and roll out a plan developed in partnership with the local authorities, COSLA and SEPA over summer 2004 for the following 12 -18 months. The intention was also to host national and international conferences and workshops to advance understanding of industrial symbiosis, with a national conference in Scotland in the autumn of 2004 to bring together business leaders and a targeted range of international visionaries and strategists, agencies, policy makers and politicians (Scottish, UK and EC). However, because of a range of other events taking place there was agreement not to proceed with specific large-scale conferences.
Targets for the 3 years included:
Further companies in the programme: 175 in 2004-05, 225 in 2005-06 and 175 in 2006-07; Tonnes diverted from landfill: 100,000;
CO2 tonnes emissions reduced: 50,000;
Jobs secured/created: 30 in 2004-05, 30 in 2005-06, 40 in 2006-07;
Partnerships introduced: 60 in 2004-05, 85 in 2005-06, 65 in 2006-07;
New products identified: 6 in 2004-05, 12 in 2005-06, 8 in 2006-07.
Specific achievements in 2006-07 were:
Tonnes diverted from landfill: 5,527 (target of 35,000);
CO2 emissions reduced: 20,035 (target of 22,000);
Jobs Created: 8 (target of 10);
Jobs secured: 0 (target of 10);
New sales: £63,293 (target of £400,000);
Economic savings: £634,250 (target of £330,000);
Investment: None (target of £1.33 million).
The result of diverting material from landfill was often in the form of sales to another business, e.g. out-of-specification food flavouring going to a fishmeal product, also eliminating a disposal cost.
In 2006-07 SISP introduced 485 member organisations to the concept of industrial symbiosis, reaching 1035 Scottish member companies, with a total of individual contacts within Scottish companies increasing from 1110 to 1724 from 2006 to 2007. Around 50% of new members and contacts came from events organised by SISP or that had SISP presentations. An increasing number of contacts was also made as a result of the UK-wide NISP programme, with several examples of cross-regional synergies either delivered or in advanced stages.
SISP held regional speed-dating events during the three years of the project. In 2006-07 these were held in Falkirk in May 2006, Stirling in September 2006, and Kelso in March 2007.
Based on successes in NISP regions in England there was a quick wins workshop - with a specific sector focus rather than the regional speed-dating event focus. This event, in Edinburgh in February 2007, focussed on the construction and aggregates sector and successfully brought together key contacts in the construction sector, identifying some 96 synergies with over 4 million tonnes of materials discussed.
There were presentations to the Sustainable Chemicals Initiative Board, the Scotch Whisky Association and the Tayside Environmental Network. SISP exhibited at four events in 2006-07 - a SEPA 'State of the Environment' Conference, Edinburgh, a Scottish Parliament evening event, Edinburgh, the Scottish Sustainable Development Forum Autumn Plenary Session, Edinburgh, and a Scottish Borders Chamber of Commerce waste minimisation event.
SISP contributed to waste minimisation training for SEPA's Environmental Protection Officers.
Contacts
Peter Laybourn
International Synergies
Email: peter.laybourn@nisp.org.uk
For information on work from April 2007 contact:
NISP Scotland
62a Broughton Street
Edinburgh. EH1 3SA
Tel: 0131 556 8013
http://www.nisp.org.uk/