Abstract

The dissemination and implementation of the Industrial Symbiosis projects in the Rotterdam Harbour and Industry Complex can be characterised by break-through projects on the basis of long-term industrial ecology projects.

The first 4-year Industrial Symbiosis programme started in 1994 and generated the basis for 15 projects that were further developed in a second 4-year programme that started in 1999 and merged into a 8-years Sustainable Enterprises programme in 2003. This development at the system level is created through the activities of individual organisation in a dynamic, loosely coupled network. The concept of sustainability capabilities is used to analyse the way in which these activities lead to the development of the system.