Biji Kurup Dr.

With an extensive presence in the world of Industrial Symbiosis literature, the Kwinana industrial area in Perth, Western Australia is a powerhouse of integrated heavy industrial activity. From when its first entrant arrived in 1955, development has been strong, and now it presents a complex industrial cluster with a wide range of industrial enterprises present, ranging from several major industrial multi-product manufacturers to those filling niche markets. Formal reporting of its economic contribution has occurred periodically over 40 yr, with one of the features of this being a series of four earlier iterations, and in this paper, the fifth, of a schematic diagram that identifies the enterprises engaged in symbiotic relationships and the nature of the associated materials exchanged. While the earlier reports concentrated solely on the traditional materials exchanges, the present study (data collected in 2021) went beyond these to gather additional data on what the authors are proposing as additional dimensions of the traditional Industrial Symbiosis framework. Aspects of Kwinana's skilled workforce, its support industry base, and its overlying governance framework were studied to provide insights into what role they play in explaining why some industrial clusters appear to provide a supportive business environment, and why other clusters struggle to gain momentum. The new study identified that the novel posited dimensions of Industrial Symbiosis are interlinked at the precinct level, and that at the macro (societal) level, they combine to contribute to the effectiveness of the Circular Economy.

Industrial enterprises around the world are grappling with greenhouse gas emission reduction expectations, whether being driven by respective government policy for climate change or by shareholders to drive corporate sustainability through maintaining access to their 'net zero'-demanding markets. In some instances, the enterprises co-located within complex industrial areas are coming together to face the common carbon reduction challenge as a collective. The Kwinana Industrial Area in Perth, Western Australia is well regarded on the world's stage as a successful integrated heavy industrial precinct, presenting as an extensive, complex, and broad-based example of Industrial Symbiosis. In earlier papers, the authors have posited a novel four-dimensional framework to expand the definition of Industrial Symbiosis to be used to understand why one industrial precinct may be more successful for its resident industries to operate within than another, and for application in the design of new industrial areas. The four dimensions are described as Materials Exchange, Skilled Workforce, Support Industry, and Governance. Through the lens of climate change literature and policy frameworks, we investigate the governance dimension and industry's response to the contemporary climate challenge. The outputs of the paper include a literature review of the governance dimension, and a description of the cascading nature of climate change policy from global through to the enterprise level. We illustrate how climate change governance is enhanced in practice by detailing how the enterprises in Kwinana collectively responded to the global requirement for carbon reduction, achieved through the facilitative governance-based intervention of their industry association, the Kwinana Industries Council. Exploring this in-practice example helped to consolidate the hypothesis that successful industrial symbiosis is about positive relationships across several dimensions building towards improved Circular Economy outcomes.

The traditional definitions of Industrial Symbiosis broadly describe it as a symbiotic relationship between enterprises usually operating in close geographic proximity within an industrial precinct where the reduction of waste and by-products through re-use of these materials is the goal, and is more recently described within the broader construct of Circular Economy. But there is more to a successful industrial precinct than simply the business-to-business relationships associated with these by-product material exchanges. The literature is slowly beginning to explore the presence of various forces that also have a role to play. The novelty of this research is that these forces have been explicitly identified as being a mix of four relationship-based synergies. These were identified and crystallized through a series of four sequential papers, and provisionally grouped under four headings, or dimensions; Materials Exchange, Skilled Workforce, Support Industry, and Governance. The purpose of the research was to develop a model which could be used to create a dimensional profile for any given industrial precinct. For each of these dimensions, a set of five influencing factors were identified, and collectively they were used to build a profile for a given industrial precinct. Analysis of the dimensional influencing factors was expected to deliver insights into the extent to which they may or may not be impacting the performance of the enterprise actors located within it. Respondents from four distinct groups associated with the precincts (policy makers, precinct managers, enterprise managers and representative groups) were selected for the research and were asked to characterise their precincts by rating each set of dimensional influencing factors. The major finding of the research was that the reason for the relative strength or weakness of an industrial precinct can be described under this four-dimensional framework which has been called the KIC4 Model of Industrial Symbiosis. The evidence after testing these influencing factors in various state, national and international greenfield and brownfield precincts confirmed that the data obtained showed the interrelationships and can be used to enhance the design or re-design of complex industrial precincts to equip the existing enterprises and those considering locating within them, to achieve higher levels of circularity and production efficiency.

This paper suggests that there are wide benefits of industrial symbiosis that go beyond mere exchanges of material or energy between industries. We conclude that industrial symbiosis not only ensures physical exchange of material, energy and by-products, but also establishes the necessary linkages between parties to enable further enhancement of exchanges to occur. This paper describes a method to assess the wider benefits of industrial symbiosis to the industrial region by measuring the various capital benefits achieved. Indicators are developed and a verification of this method concludes that the framework does enable the intangible benefits associated with industrial symbiosis to be identified, analysed and integrated into a more detailed appreciation of the impacts of the symbiotic relationships underway in the case study area.