Americas

Summary
International Synergies worked alongside in-country partners CONCAMIN as part of the UK-Mexico Sustainable Development Dialogue programme, enabling International Synergies to demonstrate how industrial symbiosis can contribute towards sustainability by sharing best practice from its projects.

The pilot operated in the Toluca-Lerma region and was delivered by CONCAMIN who worked alongside SEMARNAT, the Environment Agency in Mexico, who provided strong support throughout the project.

During the project the in-country team were trained and provided with best practice on how to manage an industrial symbiosis programme and to identify and progress synergies. Ongoing support to the team was provided through regular conference calls and visits to Mexico by International Synergies.

In addition, the in-country team from the Brazilian project visited the Mexican team in April 2009 to share their experiences in establishing an industrial symbiosis programme in Central/South America, as both were a comparable project size.

Impact
Over the course of the project over 2000 synergies were identified through its network of 201 industry members. Since the project was completed in December 2009, International Synergies and SEMARNAT continue to identify and pursue additional funding in order to explore the possibility of expanding the programme and network into other regions of Mexico, with six other states expressing an interest in operating their own industrial symbiosis programme.