Birmingham to host major industrial symbiosis event

BIRMINGHAM will play host to the International Working Conference on Applied Industrial Symbiosis (IWCAIS), which takes place for the first time next month.

IWCAIS 2012 will run from 12-14 June at IET Birmingham: Austin Court and will see 150 leading businesses and policy makers from around the world converge on the city. Industrial symbiosis encourages traditionally separate industries to work together for a more sustainable and efficient use of resources. 

Delegates will discuss how it can be used to address critical global issues such as climate change, energy security, green growth, material security and regional economic development.

The three-day event will be formally opened by Janez Potočnik, the current European commissioner for the environment. It will also feature plenary sessions and workshops for the conference’s specially selected international participants, who have been chosen based on their expertise in the field of applied industrial symbiosis or within the development of economic and environmental policy.

IWCAIS 2012 is managed by Birmingham-based International Synergies Limited and supported by Birmingham City Council and the Birmingham Convention Bureau (BCB), operated by Marketing Birmingham.

Peter Laybourn, chief executive of International Synergies, said: “Birmingham is the birthplace of the national industrial symbiosis programme (NISP), the world’s largest and most successful example of the practical implementation of industrial symbiosis and International Synergies’ most celebrated project to date. So it seemed only right for Birmingham to be the ideal venue for IWCAIS 2012.”