France seeks to encourage the use of Industrial and Territorial Ecology

The Eco-Industries Cluster, the Auxilia Association and the Mydiane consulting agency have recently tried to determine how best to use Industrial and Territorial Ecology to stimulate resource exchanges. These three institutions have proposed some mechanisms to improve the sustainability of this approach in France.

Shared governance

In a recently published joint report, the three institutions noted a certain inertia in the deployment of Industrial and Territorial Ecology (EIT) approaches. To do this, they consulted stakeholders involved in nine EIT initiatives. According to these stakeholders, for the use of EIT to be sustainable, the steps to be taken must be based essentially on shared governance. However, the report noted that the use of EIT faced some major obstacles, such as the scope of the proposed project. For example, a waste syndicate should not remain on this theme alone. It must have a broader vision and promote synergies with other actors. Similarly, public actors should not be limited by their status. Instead, they can take over other commercial services.

Shared purchases

According to the report, it is also important to maintain stakeholder engagement over time. The authors therefore mention the importance of setting up shared purchasing procedures. This helps to stabilize the financial base of the EIT processes. Here again, we must take a certain precaution. According to them, many structures nowadays operate with very low public funding (below 30%). Their missions are thus oriented towards more profitable activities such as group purchasing. The problem is that these steps do not always imply an environmental added value. The authors therefore argue that most known EIT approaches report high levels of public subsidy (70% to 90%). On this point, they conclude that public financing must be done throughout the project, rather than only during its launch phase. This is especially the case for multi-year operating grants.