Wastewater Symbiosis Study Tour to Denmark
September 22–28, 2024
Industrial symbiosis (IS), pioneered in Denmark, is a ground-breaking, triple-bottom-line approach to infrastructure and economic development, where one sector’s wastes – energy, water, materials– become valuable resources for other businesses. For many communities, wastewater treatment plants are among their most important capital assets. Denmark is showing how wastewater plants can serve as platforms for local IS innovation.
The Pacific Northwest wastewater community boasts a strong waste-to-resource culture of innovation, too. That is why CSI, Pacific Northwest Clean Water Assoc., and Oregon Assoc. of Clean Water Agencies hosted a PNW-Denmark Wastewater Symbiosis Knowledge Exchange, launched via a Fall 2024 Study Tour in Denmark.
This Study Tour brought 26 leaders from innovation ready PNW wastewater utilities on a weeklong tour to meet and learn from Denmark’s top Wastewater Symbiosis innovators. A key goal of our study tour is to translate inspiration and learnings into action back at our home utilities, to reshape many millions of dollars of capital investment and realize the economic and sustainability benefits of symbiosis.
The Wastewater Symbiosis knowledge exchange between the PNW and Denmark will not end with the study tour in Denmark. To maximize enduring impact, it is also essential to share the knowledge among the broader wastewater community, to identify policy priorities and build ongoing relationships between innovators in the PNW and Denmark so that valuable knowledge flows both ways.
Past CSI Study Tours:
