I. Tietze-Stöckinger

Barriers of interorganisational environmental management: two case studies on industrial symbiosis

The objective of this paper is to test the research hypothesis that interorganisational cooperation contributes to improved environmental management. Two case studies - one from the energy sector, the other from the waste disposal sector - are analysed. The results of the case studies support the hypothesis by showing that inter-company concepts can result in considerable cost savings and environmental benefits when compared to the optimal strategies implemented independently by the individual companies. Literature analysis and interviews of 25 decision makers of industrial companies have been used to identify the barriers of interorganisational environmental management.

A model to minimize joint total costs for industrial waste producers and waste management companies

The model LINKopt is a mixed-integer, linear programming model for mid- and long-term planning of waste management options on an inter-company level. There has been a large increase in the transportation of waste material in Germany, which has been attributed to the implementation of the European Directive 75/442/EEC on waste. Similar situations are expected to emerge in other European countries. The model LINKopt has been developed to determine a waste management system with minimal decision-relevant costs considering transportation, handling, storage and treatment of waste materials. The model can serve as a tool to evaluate various waste management strategies and to obtain the optimal combination of investment options. In addition to costs, ecological aspects are considered by determining the total mileage associated with the waste management system. The model has been applied to a German case study evaluating different investment options for a co-operation between Daimler-Chrysler AG at Rastatt, its suppliers, and the waste management company SITA P+R GmbH. The results show that the installation of waste management facilities at the premises of the waste producer would lead to significant reductions in costs and transportation.

On industrial symbiosis networks and their classification

The objective of this paper is the classification and characterisation of regional/local industrial symbiosis networks/industrial ecosystems in order to create a framework for future research and to enhance the planning of these systems in practice. Because of inter-organisational cooperation, which is arranged based on spatial proximity between the actors, costs and emissions can be reduced in the vision of the industrial symbiosis. On the basis of five general criteria and six ecological criteria we divide the possible industrial symbiosis applications into two categories, industrial supplier parks, and resource recovery networks. Furthermore, resource recovery networks will be divided into networks with and without common investments. The authors argue that the classification and the characterisation is important, because practice shows that even if ecological and economic benefits could be achieved simultaneously the successful implementation of industrial symbiosis and industrial ecosystems is a challenging task. A clear differentiation will help future research to analyse the barriers of industrial symbiosis and contribute to the development of measures for overcoming the barriers.

Optimising energy models for hydrothermal generation systems to derive electricity prices

Within this paper, the energy model PERSEUS-HYDRO and its application to Switzerland with a focus on the possibility to provide long-term electricity prices will be presented. Within this model perfect energy markets are assumed and thus electricity prices can be derived from system-marginal-costs. Main features of the plant dispatch within a system with hydro and thermal power will be shown. Also, the integration of energy exchanges (e.g. EEX) are foreseen within the optimising model. As the plant dispatch mainly influences the marginal costs, the important effects and coherences will be highlighted. As prices on the energy exchange have to be set as exogenous input, their influence on the marginal costs will also be discussed.

Integrated transport, storage capacity and investment planning in the context of cooperation between waste producers and disposal enterprises

The settlement of suppliers in direct proximity of the manufacturing plants in the form of supplier parks can result in cost and transport reduction in the automotive industry. Therefore, it is the objective of this study to analyse possibilities to transfer the concept of direct proximity to the field of disposal. To evaluate different cooperation options by the implementation of a disposal park the mixed-integer, linear optimisation model LINKopt has been developed at the Institute for Industrial Production (IIP). The application of the model for the analysis of cooperation possibilities between the DaimlerChrysler AG, Rastatt and their main disposal enterprise SITA P+R GmbH points out potentials for the reduction of costs (up to 15%) and transportation (up to 33%).