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March 2006

WORLD’S FIRST NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL SYMBIOSIS PROGRAMME (NISP) – NOW ACTIVE IN THE SOUTH EAST OF ENGLAND

NISP is a resource efficiency programme (funded by DEFRA through the Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) programme and sponsored by the DTI), which offers a free brokerage service to businesses in the UK that are out to improve their bottom line by looking beyond physical and sector boundaries for additional resource efficiencies and markets.

NISP-South East has been fully operational since the National launch last July. In that time the team has organised a regional launch in Gatwick, plus five ‘Quick Wins’ synergy workshops (Milton Keynes, Fareham, East Malling, Oxford and Aylesbury) in addition to a formal Industrial Symbiosis and NISP database training day in West Sussex last December. The NISP-South East team are facilitating around 120 new potential partnerships between over 80 Member Companies as a result of these meetings.

NISP is the first industrial symbiosis initiative in the world to be run on a national basis and is at the forefront of industrial symbiosis thinking and practice. NISP works in alliance with the DTI’s new Resource Efficiency Knowledge Transfer Network (RE-KTN). Since April 2005 NISP has helped to divert more than 183,636 tonnes of waste from landfill sites and created 98 new jobs. Nationally, we’ve seen a reduction of 273,350 tonnes of CO2 with an estimated £28,307,311 in cost savings to Industry. More than 222 jobs have been safeguarded across the UK as a direct result of the programme and it has also seen £7,246,000 of private capital investment in reprocessing/ recycling with £13,300,125 made in additional sales. This is on top of the achievements made in the last 18 months.

Peter Laybourn, Director of NISP explains: “The concept of industrial symbiosis isn’t new or complex. The process begins with a commitment towards collaboration and cooperation on the part of industry looking outside their company boundaries. Member companies and organisations provide information on the materials and resources they have and those they want or need. But this is just the starting point, NISP also helps companies overcome technical issues that potentially limit their overall resource efficiency and helps to identify sustainable and commercial opportunities that can lead to new market and employment opportunities for its members.”

Alan Whitehead, MP, characterises NISP’s unique selling point: “NISP’s approach differs from those that have gone before in many respects, not least because it recognises the need to engage with a broad amalgam of organisations. Indeed, a significant feature of NISP’s success is its strong emphasis on bringing together and promoting collaborative action amongst diverse groups which not only results in commercial success, but also has concomitant environmental and social benefits.”

Participation in NISP is free for all companies regardless of size or turnover and the programme relates to any type of resource including waste materials, energy, water, capacity, logistics, human resources, training capacity, knowledge and expertise.
NISP-South East’s next major event is the construction sector workshop in London on 29th March 2006 – details below.

For more information about NISP-South East and regional membership contact Robert Spencer on 01235 468733 or email: robert.spencer@nisp.org.uk

Look for news of forthcoming events and networking opportunities on NISP-South East’s dedicated website: http://www.nispregion.org.uk/southeast/