Hungarian stakeholders discussed on the benefits and challenges of Industrial Symbiosis at the CircLean Open Innovation Workshop in Budapest
On 1 June 2022, some 50 stakeholders actively participated in-person and online for the CircLean Open Innovation Workshop in Budapest, Hungary. The workshop was organised by the consortium led by Technopolis Group who is running the CircLean Secretariat on behalf of the European Commission. The event became possible thanks to the support of KSZGYSZ, KOVET, and BAY Zoltan, and was a Partner Event of the EU Green Week.
The representative from the European Commission (DG GROW), Mr. Anestis Filopoulos stressed the importance of the European Green Deal and the EU industrial Strategy to unlock the potential of industrial symbiosis (IS) as an innovative business model. At the EU level, industrial symbiosis is being pursued through the CircLean project which pushes further the development of a European industry-led monitoring and reporting system for IS transactions. The participants had the opportunity to discover the network’s toolbox which includes the self-assessment module and the matching tool.
The roundtable discussion engaged stakeholders in discussions on benefits and challenges of industrial symbiosis. Low awareness among companies, legal restraints, and lack of incentives to motivate economic actors remain the greatest barriers in Hungary. Nevertheless, one positive aspect was the fact that part of the corporate sector is already engaged in industrial symbiosis and circularity and notably, that there is an increase among young people interested in ‘green’ and sustainable products.
Local Hungarian best practices from KSZGYSZ, KOVET and Coloplast Hungary were also presented at the workshop. The best practices demonstrated that there had been an ongoing effort to redefine waste as a by-product and that there is a need for more cross-sectorial collaboration to scale up the activities.
Read about the other CircLean Open Innovation Workshops here:
- CircLean Open Innovation Workshop in Poland here
- CircLean Open Innovation Workshop in Finland here
- CircLean Open Innovation Workshop in Belgium here
- CircLean Open Innovation Workshop in Spain here
Hear from Gergely Tóth (Secretary General, KÖVET) and Gergely Hankó (Managing Director, HAEE) as they share their takeaways from the event:
About the Project:
CircLean is an EU-funded project establishing an EU-wide, industry-led network to capture the benefits of industrial symbiosis (IS) to business and the economy. Read more about the project here.
The CircLean network offers the opportunity to engage in IS transactions with other companies. If you would like to become a member of the network, please read more here and get in touch with the CircLean Secretariat at circlean.project@technopolis-group.com.
The next CircLean Open Innovation Workshop will be held in Rotterdam in The Netherlands on the 8th of September 2022.