Industriell symbios som affär : Hur kan ett återvinningsföretag facilitera utvecklingen av regionala industriella ekosystem?

Sammanfattning: Addressing increasing global environmental problems requires greater resource efficiency, and one way of working towards this is through industrial symbiosis. Industrial symbiosis means that companies collaborate through sharing of resources for collective benefits. The documented benefits of working with industrial symbiosis indicate that there is potential for companies to operate commercially with facilitation of industrial symbiosis. An interesting company to study within this context is Econova. Econova operates within the recycling and gardening industry and has been identified as a possible catalyst for industrial symbiosis. The aim of this study is to investigate how Econova can develop business opportunities through facilitation of industrial symbiosis at a regional level. A literature review was conducted with the aim of identifying important factors for facilitation of industrial symbiosis and previous research on industrial symbiosis from a business perspective. The literature shows that there are a number of barriers and success factors for facilitation of industrial symbiosis and that their character changes over time. Furthermore, eight types of key actors involved in the facilitation of industrial symbiosis were identified: champions, coordinators, physical and institutional anchor tenants, brokers, orchestrators, decomposers and scavengers. These key actors have different approaches for facilitation of industrial symbiosis and address different barriers and success factors. The literature review also shows that the research field of industrial symbiosis is relatively unexplored from a business perspective. Moreover, a review of facilitators in terms of companies involved in facilitation of industrial symbiosis operating in Europe was conducted with the aim of identifying approaches for facilitation of industrial symbiosis in practice. The review was conducted through inquiries to experts in the research field and resulted in the identification of six types of facilitators: knowledge companies, network coordinators, park coordinators, recycling companies, infrastructure companies and processing companies. These facilitators have different approaches for facilitation and act partly preparatory, partly supplying. The review further shows that there are no facilitators that combine a preparatory and supplying approach for facilitation of industrial ecosystems at a regional level. Furthermore, Econova’s current approach for facilitation was reviewed in an interview study with employees of the company. The result shows that Econova currently has a primarily supplying approach for facilitation which is concentrated on specific energy and material flows. The result further shows that Econova can be categorized as a recycling company, a broker, a scavenger and a decomposer and that the company has some features similar to the approaches for facilitation of knowledge companies and champions. Based on the literature review and the review of facilitators, a recommended approach for facilitation in the form of a business model was developed regarding how facilitators can develop business opportunities through facilitation of industrial symbiosis at a regional level. The recommended approach for facilitation combines a preparatory and supplying approach for facilitation. The prerequisites for the recommended approach for facilitation were then evaluated partly through an application of parts of the recommended approach for facilitation in a region, partly through an interview study in the region with stakeholders from the identified customer segments. The result of the study shows that it is possible to conduct the proposed activities of the recommended approach for facilitation with limited costs and that the value propositions of the recommended approach for facilitation address the needs of stakeholders and that there is an interest for the value propositions. The recommended approach for facilitation thus has the potential of being a tool for developing business opportunities through facilitation of industrial symbiosis at a regional level. However, it was only possible to conduct a limited evaluation of the prerequisites within the boundaries of this study and further evaluation is necessary to investigate the possibilities of implementing the value propositions in practice. Finally, Econova already has the prerequisites to implement parts of the recommended approach for facilitation. However, to enable application of all parts of the recommended approach for facilitation, Econova needs to expand its approach for facilitation either through additional key resources or additional key partnerships. With such a development Econova has the potential of contributing to greater resource efficiency at a regional level and the ability to help meet the growing global environmental problems.