Over the last two decades, Vietnam has witnessed rapid social and economic transformations, catapulting the country from one of the poorest in the world to a middle-income country. Industries are one of the prime levers of economic growth, driving job creation, delivering goods and services and improving standards of living. But industries consume enormous quantities of resources, such as water and energy, generating pollutants and waste. Vietnam’s industrial sector comprises numerous energy-intensive industries, such as steel, cement, fertilisers, pulp and paper that are reliant on outdated production technologies. Before the Vietnamese Eco-Industrial Park (EIP) initiative was launched, industrial zones discharged nearly 70% of their liquid waste without prior treatment, contaminating surface, groundwater and marine ecosystems with pollutants. The pace of economic growth was directly linked with high consumption of natural gas, electricity and especially coal, resulting in a rapid increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The fast economic growth of the last two decades brought into sharp focus the urgency to meet the country’s growing infrastructure requirements for the development of industries. Due to this, the Vietnamese government set up numerous industrial parks (IPs) across the country, with the first one established in 1991. Today, there are 326 IPs and economic zones (EZs), covering an area of 93,000 hectares. In 2018, the established IPs and EZs together raked in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows worth over $8.3 billion. With the adoption of the EIP initiative, especially through the government Decree no. 82/2018/ND-CP, the country seeks to attract investors who are in search of environment-friendly production units. With co-funding support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), industrial symbiosis was implemented in four of the country’s industrial parks. Within these industrial parks, further 18 industrial symbiosis opportunities were identified and ultimately 12 were implemented. From a GHG reduction perspective, EIPs have the potential to mitigate between 97 to 108 billion tonnes of CO2e between 2020 and 2050. The business case for EIPs also offers more than just hope: the World Bank says EIPs can not only offer business advantages of traditional industrial parks but also efficiently use resources, improve productivity and support other firms in meeting their social responsibility goals, while minimising risks associated with climate change.

Industries have a massive water footprint globally, accounting for 19% of global water use. The implementation of the 12 opportunities for industrial symbiosis could result in three environmental benefits: an annual GHG emission reduction of 70,500 tonnes CO2e, additionally saving 885,333 cubic metres of freshwater and reducing waste volumes by 84,444 tonnes annually. Moreover, out of the 1,000 options identified to improve resource efficiency and waste prevention, 546 were implemented. The result? Electricity consumption fell by 19,274 megawatt hours per year, fossil fuel use reduced by 142 terajoules per year. This had another ripple effect: GHG emissions fell by 30,570 tonnes CO2e per year, water usage by 488,653 cubic metres per year, and chemicals and material use by 3,121 tonnes per year. The interventions also led to financial savings of €2.9 million annually. EIPs could deliver positive socio-economic outcomes, such as local job creation, better working conditions, better health and safety for workers by avoiding waste generation, and create space for professional job opportunities in waste collection and processing. In addition, EIPs can provide an array of social infrastructures, such as vocational training centres and training for skill development, among other  community services.

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