As the government request for capacity building on advanced technologies and environmental applications that could follow from application of Industrial Symbiosis framework, industrial zone is targeted in the National Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) Programme. The background of industrial estate development is due to the uneven distribution of industrial development, in which mainly are still concentrated in Java Island. Based on the Master Plan of National Industry Development Year 2015-2035, the development of industrial estates is carried out to accelerate the deployment and even distribution of industry throughout the territory of the Republic of Indonesia. The government has obligated the company running its business to be located in industrial estates (MoI, 2015). It makes industrial estate development in Indonesia becomes more strategic.
In the National RECP Programme, 2 regions outside Java and 1 region in Java are selected which are Makassar (South Sulawesi), Batam (Riau Islands), and Surabaya (East Java). The types of industries within those industrial parks are different. For example, in the on-going project location in Makassar the industries are mainly small to medium scale domestic capital investment with rather straightforward production line, compared to Batam which resides medium to large scale foreign capital investment enterprises with more complex processes.
Taking the definition from a book by Ernest Lowe (2001), eco-industrial park is a community of manufacturing and service business located together on a common property which its member seeks enhanced environmental, economic, and social performance through collaboration in managing environmental and resource issues. One of the main output for RECP implementation in industrial park is compilation of resource use and waste/emission profiles of each company which is identified through resource mapping to achieve collective resource efficiency. It seeks synergies between companies within industrial park by collective resource recovery, exchange by-products, waste heat and/or waste water reutilization, power generation, etc.
In the last three years, the 3rd generation of industrial estate development starts to introduce standards guiding towards sustainability. Looking at the current situation in Indonesia, some challenges need to be tackled to achieve eco-industrial park:
- Business relations between company. This include how businesses within industrial estate collaborate, what type of network they have, what information they share.
- Resource flows between facilities. Exchange of by-products from one factory to another is to maximize utilization of resources by recycling material and energy in the greatest possible, which is the definition of industrial ecology.
- License to operate in terms of government endorsement and/or approval for applications of the recovered resources. The symbiosis should be acceptable to community and government.
- Greening existing industrial parks. Enhance the adoption of new environmental technologies in industrial areas, industrialize environmental goods and services, provide waste management services.
