Industrial Symbiosis (IS) is recognised as one of the most effective ways to tackle climate change, resource scarcity, stimulate cross sector innovation and save businesses money with immediate effect. Our Founder and Chairman, Peter Laybourn and our CEO Dr. Rachel Lombardi have been at the forefront of developing IS for more than 25 years.

Their definition of IS in the Journal of Industrial Ecology has been cited 549 times,

‘‘Industrial symbiosis engages different organisations in a network to foster eco-innovation and long-term culture change. It provides mutually profitable transactions for novel sourcing of required inputs, value-added destinations for non-product outputs, and improved business and technical processes” (Lombardi and Laybourn, 2012).

It was used to inform the EU CEN Agreement (2020),
Industrial Symbiosis: Core Elements and Implementation Approaches, which defines IS as,

“Industrial symbiosis is the use by one company or sector of underutilised resources broadly defined (including waste, by-products, residues, energy, water, logistics, capacity, expertise, equipment and materials) from another, with the result of keeping resources in productive use for longer.” (CEN, 2018)

If you would like to learn more about IS and from a technical or national perspective then get in touch and we can arrange a seminar or training programme to support you.