About the Industrial Symbiosis in İzmir Region Project

Symbiosis is defined as the relationship between different species of the ecosystem, from which both species benefit. The fundamental idea behind symbiosis is that the benefit obtained by the two species mutually exceeds the benefit they obtain individually.

The concept of industrial symbiosis came up to be through the approach that industrial businesses operating independent from each other setting up cooperative initiatives towards reaping mutual benefits through sharing their resources available to be used jointly by way of conceptualizing for industrial systems a relationship similar to the symbiotic relationship observed in natural ecosystems that rely on mutual benefits. Such shared resources may be defined across a wide framework of resources such as human resources, logistics, raw materials, waste and waste heat.

A simplified definition for industrial symbiosis may be worded as the process in which the by-products or unused products of a business being used as raw materials by another business. Implementation of industrial symbiosis provides social, environmental and economic benefits in a wide range of subjects from using materials in a more sustainable manner to formation of circular economy, and to resource efficiency and innovative employment opportunities. Industrial symbiosis offers significant benefits for the İzmir industry also in terms of improving environmental performances and realizing economic gains.

İzmir Development Agency (İZKA), considering industrial symbiosis as a major tool for providing resource efficiency among the companies operating in İzmir and disseminating sustainable production across the sector, has continued to carry out activities aimed at establishing a regional structure that will support the businesses, and develop symbiotic relationships and provide coordination among the businesses operating in İzmir since the year 2018. İzmir Development Agency, having implemented İzmir Resource Efficiency Program covering the 2021-2024 period in this respect, aims to develop the regional capacity. The two primary components of the program are the Digital Transformation Project and the Industrial Symbiosis in İzmir Region Project, planned to be implemented in this framework.

The Purpose and Components of the Industrial Symbiosis in İzmir Region Project

The Industrial Symbiosis in İzmir Region Project was started to be implemented in April 2021 through the cooperation between the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Türkiye and İzmir Development Agency (İZKA). Through this Project it is aimed to bring together the businesses for mutual use of all kinds of resources, particularly wastes, by-products and technology, establish cooperation among such businesses and actualize an industrial symbiosis model specifically developed for İzmir.

The Industrial Symbiosis in İzmir Region Project aims to improve human and environment health by using innovative, environment-friendly and sustainable industrial symbiosis connections and reducing amounts of wastes generated and diversify the supply chain relations within the industry sector towards improving the resilience against disasters. The Project hence aims for the implementation of a pilot study in İzmir, which covers industrial symbiosis cooperations and enjoys the potential for being an example for a nation-wide modeling. In the light of such pilot study, establishing the legislative infrastructure and developing Research and Development (R&D) activities towards ensuring better comprehension and implementation of industrial symbiosis on İzmir scale as well as national scale are expected outputs. The Project also aims for the empowerment of gender equality and women, to the extent such is relevant and applicable.

The Industrial Symbiosis in İzmir Region Project intends to include significant stakeholders in the process through industrial symbiosis perspective and increase the theoretical and practical capacities pertaining to such applications.

Project Goals

• Establishing a digital-based governance platform that will bring together the businesses in İzmir for the formation of industrial symbiosis relations
• Building technical and administrative capacity on industrial symbiosis across the businesses
• Setting up and implementing example industrial symbiosis cooperations
• Actualizing a center that will provide services for businesses in the fields of industrial symbiosis, resource efficiency and digital transformation
• Developing an example application for a nationwide industrial symbiosis model