Kalundborg, Denmark - 2015
The Kalundborg Symbiosis is an industrial ecosystem, where the by-product residual product of one enterprise is used as a resource by another enterprise, in a closed cycle.
Located 110 km west of Denmark’s capital Copenhagen, Kalundborg is a city with a population of 16,343 (1 January 2015) and home to world’s first fully working industrial symbiosis. It’s a leading example of local collaboration where public and private enterprises buy and sell residual products, resulting in mutual economic and environmental benefits.
Applying the principles of industrial symbiosis to business practices enables companies to utilise material streams, energy, water and other assets more efficiently, yielding greater overall productivity and adding to the bottom line. Instead of being destroyed, undervalued as a by-product or sent to landfill, industrial symbiosis results in waste streams and other under-utilised resources generated by industrial processes being repurposed for use by an/other companies, typically from different sectors, providing a mutual benefit or symbiosis. Additionally, the approach enables businesses to find reuse outlets for effluents and recoverable energy streams, and can optimise the use of industrial assets, improve logistics, and increase knowledge transfer; creating a demand pull on eco-innovation – in effect increasing the productivity of all available resources generating bottom line and environmental benefits. The following are some examples of resources saved through the Kalundborg Indisutrial symbiosis initiative:
- Ground water: 2.0 mill. m3/year
- Surface water: 1.0 mill. m3/year
- Natural gypsum: 200.000 tonnes/year
- Oil: 20.000 tonnes/year
- Reduction of CO2 emissions: 275.000 tons
In the development of the Kalundborg Symbiosis, the most important element has been healthy communication and good cooperation between the participants. The symbiosis has been founded on human relationships, and fruitful collaboration between the employees that have made the development of the symbiosis-system possible.
