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Industrial Symbiosis in China: A Case Study of the Guitang Group
Author(s) -
ZHU Qinghua,
LOWE Ernest A.,
WEI Yuanan,
BARNES Donald
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of industrial ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.377
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1530-9290
pISSN - 1088-1980
DOI - 10.1162/jiec.2007.929
Subject(s) - business , competitor analysis , industrial symbiosis , reuse , production (economics) , incentive , product (mathematics) , downstream (manufacturing) , quality (philosophy) , industrial ecology , revenue , sugar , industrial organization , natural resource economics , environmental economics , economics , sustainability , marketing , waste management , market economy , engineering , finance , chemistry , ecology , philosophy , biochemistry , geometry , mathematics , epistemology , biology , macroeconomics
Summary The Guitang Group (GG), which operates one of China's largest sugar refineries, has been developing and implementing an internal and external industrial symbiosis strategy for more than four decades. The GG first invested in developing its own collection of downstream companies to utilize nearly all byproducts of sugar production. This strategy has generated new revenues and reduced environmental emissions and disposal costs, while simultaneously improving the quality of sugar. Internally, the GG's complex consists of interlinked production of sugar, alcohol, cement, compound fertilizer, and paper and includes recycling and reuse. Externally, the GG has established a strong customer base as a result of its product quality, has worked to maintain and expand its supply base through technological and economic incentives to farmers (and even to competitors), and has had to react to a strong government presence that fundamentally affects its operations. Operations to date support some of the fundamental concepts of industrial symbiosis. Significant challenges exist, though, if the company is to continue to prosper in the volatile globalized sugar market.