On 20 November 2025, SYMBIO took part in the co-creation workshop focused on community building and the SYMBA methodology for industrial symbiosis in the bioeconomy, bringing together partners and stakeholders from several countries to strengthen local networks and align impact-assessment tools.
During the stakeholder-engagement session, participants worked in national and international breakout rooms to identify practical options for exchanging resources, energy, and services.
Insights from breakouts complemented the discussion: Spain underlined the value of regional flow databases to enable biomass and utility exchanges (e.g., heat); Denmark emphasised clear roles across research, industry and waste operators, with local companies acting as facilitators; Belgium focused on shared value and long-term partnerships, especially in textile and heat-stream cases, and on the importance of multi-user platforms and evolving regulations. The international breakout converged on a common need: cross-border funding instruments to scale symbiosis networks beyond local boundaries.
A second part of the workshop explored the SYMBA LCA and S-LCA frameworks, which are key to measuring the environmental and social benefits of industrial symbiosis networks. For LCA, participants discussed typical challenges—multiple firms with different goals, multifunctional networks, unclear system boundaries, and the distinction between waste and co-products. SYMBA addresses these through joint scoping, system-function-based functional units, detailed process-flow mapping, and an attributional LCA approach that credits symbiosis for avoided production while correcting for quality differences.
On S-LCA, the workshop noted recurring issues such as limited social data and context-dependent indicators. SYMBA proposes a structured six-step pathway: select relevant social categories, prioritise key issues, validate against data quality, collect/process data, weight/analyse results, and finally aggregate and communicate impacts—making social outcomes more transparent and comparable.
For SYMBIO, the workshop was a key milestone to:
• reinforce the project’s territorial and community dimension;
• align partners on shared impact-measurement methods;
• set operational priorities for the next phase, including local facilitators, flow databases and scale-up funding.
These takeaways will guide SYMBIO’s upcoming activities, supporting more replicable, measurable and sustainable bio-based industrial symbiosis across Europe.
