Article: How policies influence the implementation of industrial symbiosis: a comparison between UK and China Journal: Asian Journal of Management Science and Applications (AJMSA) 2015 Vol.2 No.1 pp.1 - 32 Abstract: In recent years, industrial symbiosis (IS) has been the subject of policy interest both in the UK and China, as a means of pursuing sustainable development that can offer new opportunities to improve economic growth and local regeneration without degrading the environment. Although IS is potentially a powerful sustainable business concept for protecting the environment and generating significant revenues, the uptake of IS is less extensive than it could be. Governmental intervention, as manifested through policies, could be influential in shaping IS development. This paper explores policy challenges in implementing IS by matching policies with the challenges to IS practice and figuring out how policies can help overcome these challenges and what are the remaining difficulties to policy-making for IS. The findings suggest that the UK follows a 'bottom-up' dominated approach whereas China follows a 'top-down' dominated approach. It is concluded that, in the UK and China, there are commonalities in policy challenges to IS implementation, and also different difficulties to policy-making in terms of building an IS enabling context in each country. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: How policies influence the implementation of industrial symbiosis: a comparison between UK and China

Authors: Yuan Tao; Dai Morgan; Steve Evans

Addresses: Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, 17 Charles Babbage Road, CB3 0FS, Cambridge, UK ' Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, 17 Charles Babbage Road, CB3 0FS, Cambridge, UK ' Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, 17 Charles Babbage Road, CB3 0FS, Cambridge, UK

Abstract: In recent years, industrial symbiosis (IS) has been the subject of policy interest both in the UK and China, as a means of pursuing sustainable development that can offer new opportunities to improve economic growth and local regeneration without degrading the environment. Although IS is potentially a powerful sustainable business concept for protecting the environment and generating significant revenues, the uptake of IS is less extensive than it could be. Governmental intervention, as manifested through policies, could be influential in shaping IS development. This paper explores policy challenges in implementing IS by matching policies with the challenges to IS practice and figuring out how policies can help overcome these challenges and what are the remaining difficulties to policy-making for IS. The findings suggest that the UK follows a 'bottom-up' dominated approach whereas China follows a 'top-down' dominated approach. It is concluded that, in the UK and China, there are commonalities in policy challenges to IS implementation, and also different difficulties to policy-making in terms of building an IS enabling context in each country.

Keywords: industrial symbiosis; industrial ecology; policy challenges; governmental intervention; UK; United Kingdom; China; sustainable development; sustainability; economic growth; local regeneration; policy making.

DOI: 10.1504/AJMSA.2015.071894

Asian Journal of Management Science and Applications, 2015 Vol.2 No.1, pp.1 - 32

Received: 29 Aug 2014
Accepted: 12 Mar 2015
Published online: 22 Sep 2015 *

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Title: How policies influence the implementation of industrial symbiosis: a comparison between UK and China

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