"Russian partners will add a broader perspective and input, e.g. by engaging Russian enterprises in project activities, organizing knowledge exchange and creating an industrial symbiosis Living Lab in Russia, providing a platform for testing actual and practical implementation of Industrial Symbiosis in an area with limited experience with the model", says Sebastian Hentsch, Project Officer at Interreg Baltic Sea Region. The three partners, with different core businesses and all located in Saint Petersburg, are members of "St. Petersburg Cleantech Cluster for urban environment", which has 62 members coming not only from Russia but also from other countries. The Cluster is currently conducting ten joint projects and aims to make St. Petersburg environmentally friendly and safe for the residents of the city, combining clean technologies in all sectors of the economy and supply chains. "St. Petersburg is the hotspot of cooperation and the leader in the innovation projects on the Russian side", emphasizes Sebastian Hentsch. For the existing partners in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Poland, the addition of partners from Russia provides an exciting new opportunity for building capacity and sharing knowledge across countries in the region. "We have a vision of being the world’s leading industrial symbiosis with a circular approach to production, and that is only possible if we exchange experiences transnationally in order to find inspiration and investigate new solutions", says Lisbeth Randers, Head of Secretariat at Kalundborg Symbiosis in Denmark. The three new partners will represent Russia in "The Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014−2020", where partners from countries around the Baltic Sea get the chance to work together in transnational projects on common key challenges and opportunities including Baltic Industrial Symbiosis (BIS). "In Interreg Baltic Sea Region, since last year, numerous projects have taken on board Russian partners ranging from universities to city administrations and from companies to environmental NGOs", says Sebastian Hentsch.
ABOUT THE THREE NEW PARTNERS
The Russian partners are already active participants in the project and representtatives took part in our peer-to-peer events in Kalundborg and Næstved in September 2019
Tyreman Group is an engineering company that provides cost effective solutions aimed at saving tires and optimizing its budget, reducing labor costs and equipment downtime, reducing CO2 emissions and adding new safety measures into different transportation companies from mining to public transport. "Our philosophy is the efficient use of resources, when nothing goes to waste", explains Aleksandr Belykh, Project Manager in Tyreman Group, and continues:" Our customers have a lot of potential for symbiosis cooperation, many resources are used inefficiently. Our purpose is to further the idea of Industrial Symbiosis as a means for increased resource efficiency in Russia". In the BIS project, Tyreman Group is responsible for creating a Living Lab based on inputs from other industrial symbiosis practitioners, to promote the concept of industrial symbiosis in Russia as well as beyond its borders. The Living Lab provides an opportunity to experiment with establishing a new industrial symbiosis and to showcase and lessons learned from the process.
The St. Petersburg House Property Owners Association is a non-profit organization, which deals with management and maintenance of house property, including reconstruction, and legal consulting and information support of house property owners. "Such international project is very important for our city — as demonstrated by the positive results of our previous transnational projects together with partners from Finland, Denmark, Russia, Japan and Norway", says Nikolai Pitirimov, Chairman of the Association. The Association is managing the St. Petersburg Cleantech Cluster and, therefore, has the main responsibility for involvement of relevant local and international stakeholders, who can be engaged in the project.
St. Petersburg City Government State Geological Unitary Company "Mineral" (SC Mineral) is a multi-disciplinary company by order of the Committee for Nature Use, Environmental Protection and Ecological Safety of St. Petersburg. SC Mineral is deeply involved in environmental issues in Russia which are highly relevant for the BIS activities concerning resource efficiency and use. "Industrial symbiosis provides an opportunity for the enterprises involved in it not only to optimize production costs, but also to reduce air, soil, water pollution — to improve the ecological situation", says Natalia Bobyleva, Deputy Director for International Cooperation and Environmental Education in SC Mineral, and continues: "Today, unfortunately, the idea of industrial symbiosis is only emerging in our country, and the BIS project is a good start to the development and strengthening of industrial symbiosis in Russia as an effective model of cooperation". Working in the context of industrial symbiosis the Russian partners will act as multiplier furthering the idea of resource efficiency in Russia and beyond its borders. They will bring in the project their specific knowledge, expertise and experience from the different fields they operate in. "Furthermore, they will help tackle challenges that go beyond borders, for example in managing common water resources or in making public procurement circular, helping build trust across the region when developing business opportunities in EU and Russian regions and cities", says Sebastian Hentsch.