Eco-industrial parks can cut industries’ climate impact, say experts

Eco-industrial park (EIP) approaches can help mitigate the climate impact of industries by scaling up resource productivity, minimizing waste, promoting recycling, and improving the economic, environmental and social performance of businesses, speakers said.

They observed that Bangladesh’s industrial sectors, which so far relied heavily on cost competitiveness rather than environmental resilience, contributed to the GDP at an environmental cost.

The emergence of EIPs offers a vital opportunity to reshape this model as EIPs offer a structured framework to reverse these trends by embedding resource efficiency, circular economy practices, renewable energy and industrial symbiosis, where one firm’s waste becomes another’s input.

They also stressed for formation of a coherent national EPI framework with clear sustainability standards incorporating criteria on energy, water, waste, emissions and social safeguards across industrial zones.

The observations and suggestions came at a stakeholder consultation titled "Eco-Industrial Parks for just transition, green jobs, employment, skills and social inclusion in Bangladesh" held on Monday in a city hotel.

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), together with Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID), organised the event under the pilot initiative of Eco-Industrial Parks Light Touch Activities in Bangladesh under UNIDO’s Global Eco-Industrial Parks Programme (GEIPP II).

Speaking there, RAPID executive director Dr M Abu Eusuf said EPIs would be a way to take Bangladesh forward at a time of its graduation from LDC status and create employment.

Compliance is very important if the country wants business, foreign direct investment and job creation, he noted.

If compliance is ensured, US$12 billion in foreign currency could be earned from the leather sector by exporting leather products, he added.

Presenting a keynote, RAPID deputy director Md Jahid Ebn Jalal said industrial growth came with hidden costs.

Showing economic success, he said the industrial sector contributes about 34 per cent to 38 per cent to GDP, with environmental cost as industrial pollution accounts for about 60 per cent of river contamination.

Stressing the need for EIPs in Bangladesh, he said EIPs are not just about pollution control but about resource efficiency by lowering costs, higher competitiveness, industrial symbiosis from waste-to-resource business models and social infrastructure like childcare, training centers, housing and meeting global buyer requirements (EU Due Diligence).

EPI Light Touch Activities national project coordinator in Bangladesh Chandramallika Ghosh said EPIs are managed industrial areas that promote cross-industry and community collaboration for common benefits related to economic, social and environmental performance.

Under the piloting programme, she said EIP awareness-raising activities, a policy gap analysis, the development of a concept for the improvement of the policy and regulatory framework, an assessment of the capacity of institutions and service providers on EIP development, and preliminary capacity building for these institutions and service providers, a benchmarking of industrial parks against the International Framework for Eco-Industrial Parks and capacity building on UNIDO EIP approaches and EIP tools will be supported in five countries including Bangladesh.

Presenting key benefits of EPIs, she said the approaches help reduce procurement costs and environmental, economic and social risks while increasing competitiveness and profitability and help attract investment, ensuring good-quality jobs and workers' health and safety.

UNIDO policy expert Mohammad Avi Hossain and BEPZA deputy director Ummay Hani Islam, among others, also spoke at the event.

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