Lessons Learned from the Application of the UNIDO Eco-Industrial Park Toolbox in Viet Nam and Other Countries

The transformation of conventional industrial parks into eco-industrial parks (EIPs) presents an effective opportunity to attain inclusive and sustainable industrial development. UNIDO has acquired broad experience of EIPs by implementing a number of EIP projects in developing countries. To support these, a UNIDO EIP Toolbox was developed in order to (a) provide a practical set of customized and flexible tools to assist practitioners with the development and implementation of EIPs and related initiatives, and (b) to support EIP implementation and decision-making processes in relation to existing and new industrial parks. The EIP Toolbox currently covers tools on selecting industrial parks for EIP projects, stakeholder mapping, policy support, assessing industrial parks against the International EIP Framework, industrial symbiosis identification, monitoring impacts from company-level Resource Efficiency and Cleaner Production (RECP) assessments and park-level EIP opportunities. The focus of this paper is the application of the developed EIP tools in Viet Nam, supported by learnings from their application in other countries (e.g., China, Colombia, India, Morocco and Peru). The application of the EIP tools to date has demonstrated their value in contributing to the development and implementation of EIP practices. The added value of the tools is to support decision-making and stakeholder consultation processes on specific EIP topics of interest. An overall lesson learned from the tools’ applications is that they are useful in identifying and prioritizing “tip of the iceberg” symbiosis and RECP options as well as park-level EIP opportunities through interactive stakeholder consultations or workshops, possibly led by park management, and in guiding the discussion through a step-by-step structured approach. As such, rather than a stand-alone solution, the tools are best placed to be used as a supplementary instrument, in conjunction with other pragmatic and detailed implementation approaches. The current version of the UNIDO EIP Toolbox represents version 1.0. It is envisaged that the set of tools will be updated and expanded to reflect insights from their application in EIP projects. It is hoped that this paper will create further interest among EIP stakeholders and the academic community in applying the UNIDO EIP Toolbox as well as feedback from users in developing, transition and developed countries to further strengthen and expand the tools.