How can Europe make cross-sector resource sharing easier to implement and replicate? A RISERS video introduces the Roadmap for Industrial Symbiosis Standardisation for Efficient Resource Sharing, explaining how standards can help address barriers faced by companies and other stakeholders.
Industrial symbiosis enables one company or sector to use underutilised resources from another, keeping them in productive use for longer. Examples include using waste heat for district heating, replacing virgin materials with steel by-products and turning textile waste into new feedstock.
Although industrial symbiosis is already implemented across Europe, expanding its uptake can be challenging. Companies operate within different regulatory frameworks and technical systems. Resource status may be unclear, data may be difficult to compare or share, and permitting, contracts and infrastructure can create additional barriers.
The video explains how the RISERS Roadmap addresses these challenges through three interconnected levels:
- Horizontal foundations: common approaches needed across sectors, including terminology and data.
- Sector-specific needs: standardisation priorities reflecting the challenges of particular sectors and resource streams.
- System enablers: wider conditions that support implementation and uptake.
The Roadmap identifies where standards can reduce uncertainty, strengthen trust and improve interoperability, alongside regulatory, policy and market action.
For industry, researchers, policymakers and the standardisation community, the video provides an accessible introduction to the Roadmap and the role of standardisation in scaling up industrial symbiosis.
