Bodenxt – The negative images of manufacturing often include pollution, waste, and excessive use of non-renewable energy sources. There is, however, a new type of manufacturing hub now being developed that offers a gateway toward a new, more positive and sustainable future. These new advanced manufacturing hubs utilize sustainable energy, integrate circular economies, and use green infrastructures that provide value to business, society, and the planet.
Bodenxt is leading the charge to build and operate sustainable, future-ready industrial parks. It operationalizes the International Framework for Eco-Industrial Parks, a standard created by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the World Bank. Bodenxt is demonstrating that industrial expansion and caring for the environment is possible and economically viable.
What are the attributes of Sustainable Industrial Parks?
Eco-industrial parks (EIPs) are also referred to as sustainable industrial parks. These parks fully integrate Sustainability into the planning, operations, and tenant engagement. There are three fundamental elements that define the future EIPs.
Energy Sustainability
Use of EIPs is geared toward the use of 10W carbon energy sources. To this end, energy-efficient constructions are utilized alongside spring and wind energy economic infrastructures integrated into tenant operations. The UNIDO Framework stipulates that to achieve a sustainable energy industry, parks should aim to meet and then exceed their public operational energy consumption and cost savings goals.
Waste Resource Management
Instead of putting waste in a landfill, sustainable parks see it as a resource. They use methods such as industrial symbiosis, which enables them to cut their disposal costs and lower their negative environmental impacts. Each developed area of a sustainable park has an industrial symbiosis system for waste. Each sustainable park has a target of 25% for reuse and recycling of non-hazardous waste, as well as a centralized system for waste that no individual company can recycle.
Infrastructure Development
To manage storm water, promote biodiversity, and otherwise manage coexisting ecosystems, green infrastructure is used. Sustainable parks use branches of native species, buffer and recreational zones to promote the well-being of the surrounding communities and the park’s employees.
The Business Case for Sustainability
Michigan’s sustainable industrial parks are the first of their kind and offer a positive environmental impact from their activities, and an improvement in industrial parks that have economic or operational benefits as well.
- Economic Benefits: Effective utilization of resources is directly related to improvement in costs. When industrial parks implement methods such as operational water recycling, waste elimination, and efficient use of energy, their utility and operational costs decrease. Additionally, industrial symbiosis allows for the generation of new revenue as waste can also be converted to a sellable product. EIP standards are also met in the best industrial parks, and as a result, they gain high value tenants.
- Environmental Impact: Sustainable parks utilizing circular economy principles demonstrate decreased greenhouse gas emissions, decreased water usage, and decreased waste sent to landfills. Projects that have been compared to benchmarks from the UNIDO framework have been able to save over 1 million mWh, and conserve over 11 million cubic meters of water.
- Social Value: Sustainable parks support the creation of quality jobs, the delivery of training to assist individuals to gain relevant skills, and the building of positive relationships within the community. By having dedicated social infrastructure, including, but not limited to, health care, child care, and leisure and recreation social activities, they improve the wellbeing of the employees and those living in the proximity to the parks.
Setting a New Global Standard
Bodenxt’s strategy is a reflection of where Industrial Real Estate is headed. Instead of treating sustainability as a luxury, the company approaches it as a necessity before construction begins. They select land that has proximity to renewable energy, and design land usage where materials can be exchanged between different tenants of the same parcel. They provide the basis for real and lasting decarbonization.
Because of this, they can secure and maintain the strictest and most credible international standards. The UNIDO/World Bank framework has a total of 64 elements across 4 areas of interest: park management, environment, social and economic sustainability. Parks that meet these standards are able to draw attention from the most environmentally aware tenants because their competitors have an even higher economic threshold.
Achieving Net-Zero Manufacturing Emissions
With the global focus on net-zero emissions targets, the importance of industrial parks becomes apparent. Manufacturing emissions are a large portion of the global emissions problem, and a huge shift in both the process and the place of production is necessary.
One of the solutions is building sustainable industrial parks. These give planners a way to locate groups of firms in purpose-built centers so that firms can take advantage of both functional and operational synergies that cannot be captured in a single company. For example, energy distribution networks are designed to provide renewable energy and capture and transmit waste heat for energy utilization. Centralized treatment plants are designed to treat and dispose of waste. Other systems are designed to manage the exchange of materials and information.
As more companies practice the concept of sustainability in their operations, the more industrial parks that will be built in response to the emerging market. The establishment of firm thresholds, as a result of prioritizing sustainability, creates an unprecedented demand for sustainable industrial parks.
With the necessary firm thresholds, industrial development can take place with consideration for the environment. The proper sustainable industrial parks with industrialized ecosystems and a focus on sustainability will provide a working balance of prosperity for enterprises and ecological systems.
