Stimulating sustainable development in mixed eco-industrial parks

Since the world summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg, discussion on eco-industrial parks has started in several industrialised countries and many initiatives occurred to establish eco-industrial parks or to transform existing industrial parks. Originally, eco-industrial parks were mainly based upon the exchange of resources among industrial complexes. These initiatives are generally referred to with the concepts of industrial symbiosis. After this initial period, the concept of eco-industrial parks has been extended to another type of industrial park, the so-called mixed industrial park, which consists of various small and medium-sized enterprises some times complemented by a small number of larger industries. The significance of eco-industrial park initiatives needs a typology for clarifying the confusion. It is argued that mixed industrial parks are poorly investigated although they have a major environmental and spatial impact. Starting from a case study of a mixed eco-industrial park initiative, this paper describes the related societal and environmental problems and proposes solutions for the first stage of the transformation.