The FISSAC project is an ambitious project aimed at improving the consciousness about circular economy and industrial symbiosis among different industrial sectors. The focus is on the construction value chain scenario, which includes steel, aluminum, natural stone, ceramics, chemical and demolition and construction sectors. Different industrial partners belonging to these sectors are putting their efforts in establishing industrial symbiosis success stories.

The specific objectives of the project are manifold: it aims at demonstrating closed loop recycling processes and manufacturing processes, developing the eco-design of eco-innovative construction products and developing instruments to facilitate the instauration of IS establishment, such as the software platform and the living lab concept.

Closed loop recycling processes are necessary to transform waste into valuable acceptable secondary raw materials. Similarly, eco-design is a key element to manufacture innovative products (new Eco-Cement and Green Concrete, innovative ceramic tiles and Rubber Wood Plastic Composites) that are competitive with respect to the state of the art. Thanks to the knowledge developed within the project, all the necessary steps to establish IS will be identified and solutions to overcome technical barriers will be proposed, in particular through activities related to the case studies.

At the same time, the necessity to investigate also less technological aspects has been highlighted during the project as it could really promote the success of the IS. The development of the FISSAC ITC Platform is considered as a key element, since different stakeholders can use this instrument as a support in decision making in material flow analyses and industrial clustering. Indeed, through the Platform the facilities can retrieve information about Industrial Symbiosis opportunities and obtain information for their instauration; perform feasibility assessment and assess the networks performances from the environmental, economic and social point of view; get in contact with other facilities through the marketplace and search for a list of solution providers, able to support facilities in this process.

In addition to that, the project has been evaluating and successfully exploiting the concept of Living Lab. A Living Lab is, as a user-centered, open-innovation ecosystem, often operating in a territorial context. Since the necessity to create trust among stakeholders have been identified as a very important point in the formation of networks, guidelines and examples are provided to organize Living Labs and use this instrument to facilitate the IS establishment.

All these elements are summarized within the FISSAC methodology and  model. The methodology is a part of the FISSAC model and describes the necessary steps to establish industrial symbiosis. Within the FISSAC project these steps are realized and applied to the construction value chain and validated through different case studies. The FISSAC Platform, supporting various steps of the IS methodology including opportunity identification, opportunity assessment and network design, acts as an enabler of the IS methodology and helps the FISSAC IS Model to be replicable beyond the construction value chain.

The real experience gained (reported within the library/database) as well as the main outcomes of the projects (e.g. the platform or the Living Lab concept) will be part, together with the methodology, of the final model which will be published at the end of the project. It will report the main achievements obtained and propose it as a pathway for the replication of Industrial Symbiosis in other contexts.

On 4 and 5 June 2019, the 8^th FISSAC General Assembly project meeting took place in Bilbao, at the TECNALIA Research & Innovation premises, placed in the nice Industrial Park nearby the city (Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Bizkaia).

The first day started with a morning session to overview the main activities carried out by the partners over the last 6 months, focusing on the progresses delivered and the connections among the partners of the Consortium. The developments of the real scale demonstrations activities, the IT platform challenges and the outcomes of the Living Labs were in the focus. In the afternoon FENIX organised a workshop to analyse the potential exploitation of the project results. This was a nice opportunity to actively involve all the partners around a strategic topic.

The second day was dedicated to visit the laboratories of Tecnalia, the KUBIK building (the experimental building where TECNALIA has been implementing several innovative actions about the energy and material efficiency in the building sector) and the result of the pilot activity carried out by TECNALIA in Zestoa (the slab realized with green concrete).

We take this chance to thank TECNALIA for the wonderful and warm welcome in Bilbao.

The objective of this third multidisciplinary workshop was to learn about some of the current digital tools which allow to concentrate data and visualize materials flows available in a territory and that can therefore serve as powerful tools to promote the creation of synergistic networks within the construction sector.The third FISSAC Living Lab was organised as a free side event at the construction fair BBConstrumat 2019 and gathered, like in previous editions, experts who represented different professional activities within the construction value chain (designers, architects, manufacturers, associations, universities, construction companies, consultancy companies, etc.).

After the presentation of several tools (MatMap, Escrapalia, RecursResidu, and the Fissac Platform) the workshop concluded with an open debate: What would the different potential users expect from an ideal platform?, which features should it include?, what kind of data should it show?, who should manage such a platform?

Curious about the third FISSAC Living Lab? Don’t hesitate to contact Adriana Sanz Mirabal ([email protected]) from the Símbiosy team!

The report titled “Industrial Segmentation, criteria and correlation to the FISSAC first application” deals with the replicability of the FISSAC model. It investigates this topic by setting up a methodology for industrial segmentation, aimed at evaluating the replicability potential. A list of tailored criteria guides the assessment of different opportunities.

Have a look at the report!

Tools to enable the shift to a circular building sector have been developed by the BAMB project – Buildings As Material Banks. FISSAC is therefore pleased to share a new report released by BAMB’s consortium titled «Materials Passports – Best Practice Innovative Solutions for a Transition to a Circular Economy in the Built Environment», produced in cooperation with Techincal University of Munich.The report is available here.