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Highlights •Agricultural ditches accumulate legacy P and present a risk for water quality. •Mehlich-3 soil test can identify P saturation and total legacy P amount. •Use of a common soil test allows broad scale mapping of high P risk hotspots. Abstract Agricultural soils have accumulated considerable phosphorus (P) reserves along the transport pathways within land-water continuum. Where P concentrations are excessive compared to the soil P sorption capacity, dissolved soluble P can leach to waterbodies. A phosphorus saturation ratio (PSR = P/(Fe + Al)) can be used to classify high and low risk soils based on a commonly applied Mehlich-3 soil test. PSR has been used for acid mineral soils, but in this study it was applied to sediments and drainage ditch bankside samples. Previous published data was converted to PSR and compared to P availability measurements. The results confirmed earlier findings, that a PSR threshold of 0.1 can delineate high and low P risk sites. By quantifying the amount of P in excess to the threshold, legacy P hotspots could be located in the network which would act as an additional source of P inputs to waters. In the study site, two soils contained over 80% of the excess legacy P, presenting a localized long-term risk to water quality. The findings support using the cost effective Mehlich-3 extraction to identify hotspots with most susceptible soil-P to losses and quantify the amount of potentially leachable legacy P.

Highlights • 105 farmers were asked to plan for increasing carbon storage on their fields. • The plans were evaluated through expert panel and simplified carbon balance modeling. • Farmers chose methods with co-benefits to soil productivity and yield. • Most plans were suitable for research and show potential for C-sequestration. Soil carbon sequestration is a recognized climate mitigation method, but it involves changes in the practices of more than 0.5 billion farms worldwide. Regionally customized carbon-farming programs are one way to tailor soil carbon storage to local conditions. We conducted farmer participatory research on 105 Finnish farms to investigate how farmers approach carbon (C) sequestration. We conducted training for farmers in the basics of carbon-farming and instructed them to make a Carbon Farming Plan for one of their fields. The plans were evaluated by a team of experts and through soil C balance calculations. In addition, potential nutrient limitations and the existing C stock were identified from soil tests. Although the existing C stocks were relatively high, an assessment of the plans indicated high potential for additional C storage (median 320 kg C ha−1year−1). The plans did not show any sensitivity to the existing C stock, with similar C inputs planned for low organic matter (OM) and high OM soils. The farmers either did not know their C stock or were not familiar with the C balance concept. Most soil samples showed considerable nutrient deficiencies (P, S, B and Mn), which can limit C storage. The quality of most plans was adequate for research with minor modifications. The largest C storage potential was estimated for measures with large additions of nutrient-poor amendments or in grazing. Most farmers chose measures with relatively low C storage benefits but high potential benefits for soil structure and productivity (cover crops, nutrient-rich amendments, grassland management). The C gain from some measures (subsoiling, diversity in grasslands) could not be estimated with current methodologies. The magnitude of planned C storage over 5 years on most farms was so small (

Better monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of the amount, additionality and persistence of the sequestered soil carbon is needed to understand the best carbon farming practices for different soils and climate conditions, as well as their actual climate benefits or cost-efficiency in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. This paper presents our Field Observatory Network (FiON) of researchers, farmers, companies and other stakeholders developing carbon farming practices. FiON has established a unified methodology towards monitoring and forecasting agricultural carbon sequestration by combining offline and near real-time field measurements, weather data, satellite imagery, modeling and computing networks. FiON’s first phase consists of two intensive research sites and 20 voluntary pilot farms testing carbon farming practices in Finland. To disseminate the data, FiON built a web-based dashboard called Field Observatory (v1.0, fieldobservatory.org). Field Observatory is designed as an online service for near real-time model-data synthesis, forecasting and decision support for the farmers who are able to monitor the effects of carbon farming practices. The most advanced features of the Field Observatory are visible on the Qvidja site which acts as a prototype for the most recent implementations. Overall, FiON aims to create new knowledge on agricultural soil carbon sequestration and effects of carbon farming practices, and provide an MRV tool for decision-support.

Forests and forest industries can contribute to climate change mitigation by sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, by storing it in biomass, and by fabricating products that substitute more greenhouse gas emission intensive materials and energy. The objectives of the study are to specify alternative scenarios for the diversification of wood product markets and to determine how an increasingly diversified market structure could impact the net carbon emissions (NCEs) of forestry in Finland. The NCEs of the Finnish forest sector were modelled for the period 2016-2056 by using a forest management simulation and optimization model for the standing forests and soil and separate models for product carbon storage and substitution impacts. The annual harvest was fixed at approximately 70 Mm(3), which was close to the level of roundwood removals for industry and energy in 2016. The results show that the substitution benefits for a reference scenario with the 2016 market structure account for 9.6 Mt C (35.2 Mt CO2 equivalent [CO2 eq]) in 2056, which could be further increased by 7.1 Mt C (26 Mt CO2 eq) by altering the market structure. As a key outcome, increasing the use of by-products for textiles and wood-plastic composites in place of kraft pulp and biofuel implies greater overall substitution credits compared to increasing the level of log harvest for construction. peerReviewed

Engineered nanomaterials are used to improve the properties of products. Often this results in size reduction or increased functionality, which may result in reduced environmental impacts. At the same time the manufacturing and disposal of the nanomaterials increases the life cycle impacts of the product. In this study the effects of using nano-silica polymers in power capacitors were investigated through life cycle assessment (LCA). The analysis was based on existing production technology which was modified to represent a prototype using nanomaterials. Based on the results, the nanomaterials would reduce impacts by c.a. 20% in the most relevant environmental life cycle impact categories. The main impact categories of the power capacitors were in metal depletion, land transformation and ecotoxicity. Although the nanomaterial based capacitor had slightly lower impacts, it did not resolve the main problems in these categories. Contribution analysis revealed that most of the impact is caused by only a few processes in the life cycle, especially raw materials supply for tin solders and waste treatment of insulating oil. Ecodesign alternatives for targeting the identified environmental hotspots are discussed.

Chemical pollution is, globally, a serious problem that can be induced e.g. by pesticide usage. Reduction of health and environmental risks of pesticides is a goal in the implementation of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) via the EU agricultural strategy. In this study, potential environmental impacts of agricultural plant protection products (PPP) were studied, in Finland, using freshwater ecotoxicity impact, in the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) approach, as an indicator. Potential impacts of these chemicals were studied between 2000 and 2011, and substance sale data (active ingredient kg/year) was surveyed by the Finnish Chemical and Safety Agency. The most sold agricultural PPPs in Finland are herbicides. Total sales amounted to 1707.5 tonnes in 2011, which means 0.7 kg/ha, if counted for the total agricultural land of the country. PPP emissions from field application to the different environmental compartments were modelled on the average Finnish agriculture circumstances with PestLCI. The emissions were converted into impacts using the life cycle inventory assessment (LCIA), using characterisation factors from USEtox™. The model was customised to fit Finnish regional environmental conditions by obtaining the relevant parameters from GIS. According to the results, ecotoxic pressure decreased over the period, mainly because of the decreased sales of the main hazardous substance fluazinam. Single very hazardous substances had a strong contribution tothe total impact. No correlation between the sales amount and ecotoxic pressure was found, thus PPP risks cannot be indicated based only on their sale amount. The main contributors to the total potential ecotoxic impact were fungicides, and the most hazardous substances were fluazinam (used on potato), aclonifen (used mostly on peas, carrot and onion), methiocarb (strawberries), pendimethalin (carrot, onion), and prochloraz (cereals, oil seeds). In conclusion, the first priority in the usage of this LCA approach is to identify environmental impacts of single hazardous PPPs and according to that to develop environmental management of plant protection and, if needed, build up restrictions which are specifically directed to causes of impacts.

Land-use environmental impacts are gaining attention as global demand for land is increasing. Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) is a useful measure to estimate how much of the net primary production (NPP) available for ecosystem processes is appropriated by humans annually. It accounts for the NPP extracted by biomass harvest, and the NPP losses due to land conversion. Finland is a forested country with good availability of detailed data for calculating HANPP. We estimated HANPP for Finland for a period from 1990 to 2010. Human appropriation of net primary production in Finland was on average 59% of the potential net primary production during the 1990's and then decreased fairly steadily to 50% in 2010. Net primary production harvested by humans, HANPP harv , remained fairly constant over the study period, on average 25 Mt carbon. HANPP due to land use change (HANPP luc ) decreased from 50 Mt to 38 Mt carbon during the past 20 years. The difference between the actual NPP of forests and the potential NPP without any human intervention decreased, mainly due to the growth of wood biomass stock in forests yielding larger amounts of litter production and further larger NPP. Forest HANPP luc , however contributed as much as 50% of the Finnish total HANPP in 2010. Our study shows for the first time the importance of calculating potential NPP for forests in detail.

A growing amount of construction and demolition waste (C&DW) is produced in Europe each year. Increased recycling of C&DW is required by the EU Waste Framework Directive, targeting at 70% recycling of non-hazardous C&DW by 2020. The aim of the study was to assess the performance of the common Finnish C&DW management system against this target, thus identifying the environmental and economic impacts of the system and the effects brought about by changes in the waste composition. In this study, a combination of different methodologies was applied to evaluate holistically the performance of the C&DW management system: material flow analysis (MFA) was employed to assess material and energy recovery rates, life cycle assessment (LCA) was utilised to evaluate climate change impacts, and environmental life cycle costing (ELCC) was used for measuring the costs. In addition, the applicability of the best available technology (BAT) approach for developing the efficiency of the waste management system was scrutinised. Thus, aligned with the empirical aim of assessing the performance of Finnish C&DW in reference to the EU Waste Framework Directive, the theoretical aim of the study was to test how the employment of different assessment methodologies affects the performance results of the C&DW management system.According to the results, the overall system produced environmental benefits and was economically profitable, but was far behind the target of recycling 70%. Based on the assessments, the EU Waste Framework Directive target will not be achieved, even with the likely changes in waste composition. Thus, major changes will be needed to source separation and recovery within the system, e.g. by finding recycling concepts for waste wood without decreasing the environmental and economic benefits of the system. The employment of different methodologies gave a diversified view of the possibilities to develop the system. The metal treatment performed well in all assessments; hence improvements to it would not benefit the system notably. For wood the results were controversial, since the energy recovery generated environmental and economic benefits, but did not increase the recycling rate. Material recovery concepts should be developed, but simultaneously the environmental and economic benefits should be retained. Miscellaneous waste had the potential for increasing recycling and avoiding costs and emissions. Mixed waste was identified as the worst fraction in relation to climate change impacts, costs and material recycling. Applying the BAT approach showed that BAT for waste management needs to be based on system-level rather than installation-level assessments.This multi-methodological assessment of C&DW management showed the need for analysing the environmental performance of a system from different perspectives before decision-making. In general, the recycling of waste generates greater environmental benefits than energy recovery, but this may not always be the case. Regional differences in operations and waste composition may support arguments for differing recycling targets in different regions.

There is an urgent need to develop scenarios and roadmaps for a more sustainable future than where business-as-usual is heading. This paper addresses the use of sensitivity analysis for analyzing environmentally extended input–output (EEIO) models in order to develop cost-effective and comprehensive scenario building. Main components of resource use, emission intensity and final demand are extracted from the complete network of interactions contained in the input–output tables of the national accounts. The method is demonstrated using a detailed Finnish EEIO-model (ENVIMAT). Based on the results, only 0.3% of the 23 103 interactions were found to have a significant effect on Finnish greenhouse gas emissions. The same parameters were also relevant for waste generation and land use, but not for gross domestic product. The identified main components were tested by structural decomposition. Actual development of greenhouse gas emissions from 2002 to 2005 was compared to that predicted by updating only the identified components. Based on the results, the development of greenhouse gas emissions could be predicted with high accuracy using only the identified main components. Generalizing the results, sensitivity analysis can assist in identifying the main components to be included in future scenarios for sustainable development.

Ecological footprint was combined with economic input–output analysis in order to identify the economic structures causing the overuse of biological resources. These structures were analyzed with the use of structural decomposition, path analysis and sensitivity analysis and compared to the structures which drive economic growth. The scope of the analysis was the Finnish national economy during 2002–2005. Based on the results increases in gross domestic product (GDP) and ecological footprint were found to be different subsystems of the economy. This aspect was previously hidden by country level aggregate indicators. Ecological footprint was increased by the production and consumption of primary commodities, such as wood, paper, fish, crops, animal products and energy as well as construction. In contrast, GDP growth was caused mainly by increased demand in service sectors such as renting and owning apartments, trade and business services as well as governmental services, health, education and social work. The two systems overlapped only in dairy products and forest products, which had major influences to both indicators. Ecoefficiency improved overall in the economy between 2002 and 2005 especially in some industries, such as sawmilling and electricity production. However growth in consumption resulted in increased environmental impacts nevertheless.

PurposeInclusion of land use-related environmental aspects into LCA methodology has been under active development in recent years. Although many indicators have been developed and proposed for different aspects of land use (climate change, biodiversity, resource depletion and soil quality), many of indicators have, as yet, not been tested and compared in LCA applications. The aim of this study is to test the different LCIA indicators in practice in a case study of beer production.Materials and methodsNine different indicators were selected to represent three different impact endpoints of land use: resource depletion, soil quality and biodiversity. The beer production system included all life cycle stages from barley cultivation and the production of energy and raw materials to the serving of beer at restaurant. Several optional system expansions were studied to estimate the possible impacts of substituting feed protein (soybean, rapeseed and silage) with mash coproduct from brewing. A comparison with wine production was also made for illustrative purposes.Results and discussionThe majority of the land use impacts occurred in the cultivation phase, but significant impacts were also found far down the supply chain. The system expansions influenced the overall results markedly, especially for land transformation, soil organic carbon (SOC) and several of the biodiversity indicators. Most of the land use indicators led to results that were consistent with each other. In the inventory and impact assessment phase, challenges were faced in obtaining reliable data. Additionally, the lack of reliable, regional characterization factors limits the usability of the land use indicators and the reliability of the LCIA results, especially of the SOC indicator. None of the studied indicators fulfills all the criteria for an effective ecological indicator, but most have many positive features.ConclusionsAll tested land use indicators were applicable in LCIA. Some indicators were found to be highly sensitive to assumptions on land transformation, which sets high requirements for LCI data quality. Scarcity of land use LCI data sources limits validation and cross-comparison. Interpretation of indicator results is complicated due to the limited understanding of the environmental impact pathways of land use.RecommendationsNone of the tested indicators describes the full range of environmental impacts caused by land use. We recommend presenting land occupation and transformation LCI results, the ecological footprint and at least one of the biodiversity indicators. Regarding soil quality, the lack of reliable regional data currently limits application of the proposed methods. The criteria of effective ecological indicators should be reflected in further work in indicator development. Development of regionalized characterization factors is of key importance to include land use in LCA.

The sustainability aspects of land use were assessed with an environmentally extended input–output model of Finland in 2002. The main economic industries and products causing land use were identified and the impacts were estimated with three indicators: biocapacity, human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) and ecosystem degradation potential (EDP). The results correlated well with expert assessments on the threats to biodiversity, although the influence of animal farming was not clear in all indicators. Most of the domestic land use was caused by final demand outside Finland. Based on a simplified trade balance, Finland was a net exporter of land area, mainly through wood products. Two thirds of the domestic land use was driven by export production. Therefore a regional consumption based approach is not sufficient to mitigate and control the environmental impacts of land use even in a developed country like Finland.

An environmentally extended input–output (EE-IO) analysis – environmental impacts of material flows caused by the Finnish economy – was carried out in order to improve data on production and consumption in Finland. The study resulted in the ENVIMAT model, which can be used to analyze the relationship between material flows, environmental impacts and the economy. The model is based on monetary and physical input–output tables and an environmental life-cycle impact assessment. This article summarizes the main methodological aspects and findings regarding the material flows and climate impacts caused by the Finnish economy in 2002 and 2005. The Finnish model has relatively detailed input data with 150 industries and 918 products and the data on imports was assessed according to a mixed approach with the help of life-cycle inventory data. The results of the model showed that the Finnish economy uses imported material resources as much as domestic resources. Life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by imports were equivalent to 70–80% of domestic emissions. The GHG emissions embodied in imports (emissions abroad) and exports (emissions within Finland) were of the same magnitude. The analysis showed that the service sector accounted for 44% of GHG emissions caused by the domestic final use of products. Analysis of the results also showed that the indicator of total material requirement (TMR) should not be used for environmental impact comparisons of products and services. In the future, the aim is to use the ENVIMAT model for assessing temporal changes in the economy; for monitoring sustainable development; for planning climate change mitigation; and for identifying important factors in the economy and assessing their impacts.

The purpose of the study was to compare three recent Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) models in prioritizing substances and products from national emission inventories. The focus was on ecotoxic and human toxic impacts. The aim was to test model output against expert judgment on chemical risk assessment. An emission inventory was collected for Finland describing the year 2005. The inventory included publicly reported emissions to air and water and it was complemented by the emissions of tributyltin, benzene, and pesticides from research papers and statistics. The emissions were characterized with three LCIA models: IMPACT 2002+, ReCiPe, and USEtox and priority substances were identified. The results were connected to an environmentally extended input–output model to study priority products and supply chains. A comparison was made with two integrated assessments of the chemical status and human exposure in the Baltic region. The three assessed models presented very different priorities. In ecotoxicity, IMPACT2002+ and USEtox highlighted heavy metals while ReCiPe focused on tributyltin. The integrated assessment identified both groups. In human toxicity, IMPACT2002+ and the integrated assessment focused on organic air pollutants while USEtox and ReCiPe identified mainly metals. LCIA models can be used for priority setting in chemical emission control and consumption based analyses. However the models give differing prioritizations so care must be taken in model selection. The studied models differed from expert assessment mostly in substances which are bioaccumulative. Further studies in including bioaccumulation to LCIA models of toxic impact are recommended.

European freight transport emissions and fuel consumption are projected to increase. This study focuses on long distance freight transport (LDFT) and explores possible sustainable futures through quantitative modeling. The evaluation was part of European foresight process between researchers, policy makers and freight companies (FREIGHTVISION). Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy demand of road, rail and inland waterways were estimated for an EU-27 in 2005. Development was extrapolated to 2050 based on technology and freight performance forecasts. Stakeholders found the forecasted GHG emissions and fossil fuel share unsustainable, so alternative futures were developed with backcasting. The developed emission model was run with random parameter combinations to screen a set of sustainable futures, with an 80% reduction of GHG emissions and fossil fuel share. Freight transport performance was not controlled in the backcasts, but several sustainable futures were found if significant changes in transport efficiency and energy mix are implemented. In spite of agreeing on the importance of reducing emissions, stakeholders had difficulties in choosing a preferred technological future. Simple models were found to be an effective tool for communicating the influence of various measures. Further research is recommended to screen preferable technological roadmaps from the broad range of available futures.

The use of environmentally extended input-output analysis was demonstrated for quantifying the overall sustainability impacts of forest industries in the Finnish economy in 2005. Direct greenhouse gas emission, land use, employment and import impacts of economic sectors were transformed into impact intensities of products. The intensities were used to construct a final demand based emission inventory demonstrating the relative importance of export, investment and consumption activities in causing environmental and social impacts. The calculations were presented using an aggregated input-ouput table, which makes it possible to repeat the calculations using standard spreadsheet software. Therefore the study can be used as an accessible primer to the use of input-output methods in sustainability assessment.

Biochar addition to agricultural soil has been suggested to mitigate climate change through increased biogenic carbon storage and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. We measured the fluxes of N 2 O, CO 2 , and CH 4 after adding 9 t ha −1 biochar on an agricultural soil in Southern Finland in May 2009. We conducted these measurements twice a week for 1.5 months, between sowing and canopy closure, to capture the period of highest N 2 O emissions, where the potential for mitigation would also be highest. Biochar addition increased CH 4 uptake (96% increase in the average cumulative CH 4 uptake), but no statistically significant differences were observed in the CO 2 and N 2 O emissions between the biochar amended and control plots. Added biochar increased soil water holding capacity by 11%. Further studies are needed to clarify whether this may help balance fluctuations in water availability to plants in the future climate with more frequent drought periods.

An industrial symbiosis (IS) is a group of industrial plants and other actors which exchange energy, water, by-products and waste. This article studies the evolution of an IS centred around a Finnish pulp and paper mill and analyses how the operations of the case system developed in a more sustainable direction during the years 1890–2005. We build upon basic sustainability principles known as The Natural Step (TNS) System Conditions by identifying and selecting quantifiable indicators for each of the conditions in the case of our target symbiosis. The study reveals that the environmental impacts of the case IS became more far-reaching during the 110-year period studied. Emissions, however, decreased substantially after the 1970s due to tightening environmental legislation and other policy measures and the progress in environmental technology, not due to symbiosis-type of arrangements. There has been no strong driver for more symbiosis-like cooperation among the companies in this study. It appeared that the main motives for increased collaboration were economic.

Carbon footprinting is becoming a mainstream practice in product design and marketing. At the same time, consumer products are becoming so complex that their footprinting becomes increasingly difficult. The supply chain of a typical mobile ICT device (i.e., smartphone) contains hundreds of suppliers in several continents and the product itself is composed of several complex subassemblies. The use of the smartphones also has large systemic effects (e.g., cloud computing, server load, increased consumption, and green applications), which are commonly left outside the scope of product carbon footprints. In this chapter, we argue that the parts which are most easily left out of a study are in fact the most significant for the whole product life cycle. The chapter is arranged in subchapters for each topic: components and subassemblies without emission inventory data available, energy consumption of data transfer and storage in clouds, the effect of recycling and consumer behavior, induced consumption, and the potential of green applications.

Purpose:Life cycle assessment (LCA) is being used increasingly in decision support situations. In actual cases, the sources of uncertainty are easily hidden in the complexity. Methods for taking uncertainty into account are recommended by LCA guidelines, but actual application remains rare. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the sources of uncertainty in a practical simple selection case wherein a customer makes a decision between beer and wine in a restaurant, considering the selected criteria and the given information. The uncertainty in LCA results is connected to the broader scope of decision analysis.Methods:Life cycle inventories were collected for beer and wine production from existing literature. The functional unit was chosen to be one serving of alcohol: beer or wine. For illustrative purposes, only the global warming potential indicator was included in the LCA through carbon footprint (CF). Probabilistic uncertainty analysis was applied to the CF system using Monte Carlo simulation. Water footprint was also roughly considered. In addition, three non-environmental indicators were included in the decision: weight control, price, and taste. The comparison between the two products was constructed as a multiple-criteria decision analytical problem.Results and discussion:The results indicated that beer had, on average, a higher CF value than wine did. However, the difference was not significant, and within the uncertainty range, also the opposite conclusion was possible. The ratio of wine to beer CF was dominated by the uncertainty in the N2O emissions of wine production. When all of the decision criteria were included, the level of uncertainty prevented robust overall conclusions about preference for beer or wine. However, depending on the utility differences assigned to subjective indicators, there existed also cases wherein decisions could be made at a 10 % risk level regardless of high overall uncertainty.Conclusions:In many cases, the uncertainties of LCA are dwarfed by the overall uncertainty of the decision situation. However, as shown by our example, in many cases, reasonable decisions can be made in spite of high uncertainties. The uncertainties of single LCA indicators should be considered in relation to the decision-making problem, which depends on the uncertainty of LCA indicators but also significantly on the weighting of the indicators and the related uncertainty. Successful decision making depends on both the magnitude of uncertainty and the differences in expected utility value between alternatives. More attention should be paid to uncertainty analysis considering the weighting factors.

Industrial symbioses (ISs) and eco-industrial parks (EIPs) are key concepts of industrial ecology (IE). The aim of ISs and EIPs is to minimise inefficient material and energy use by utilising local by-product and energy flows. Industrial symbioses tend to develop through spontaneous action of economic actors, for gaining of economic benefit, but these systems can be designed and promoted via policy instruments as well. A literature review showed that national programmes for eco-industrial parks can be found in different parts of the world. In the action programmes and other sustainable consumption and production (SCP) policy documents of the EU, on the other hand, industrial symbioses gain less recognition as a path to enhanced sustainable production. In this article, we consider this and also analyse how the evolution and environmental performance of an industrial symbiosis system centred on a Finnish pulp and paper mill have been affected by SCP policy instruments. With regard to the system forming the subject of the case study, and Finnish industrial systems in general, policy instruments have succeeded in reducing emissions but not in systematically encouraging operators toward symbiosis-like activities. All in all, few studies exist on the overall impact of policy instruments promoting design of eco-industrial parks. It is not self-evident that symbiosis-like production systems would be sustainable in every case, as the background assumptions for political promotion of EIPs suggest. We concluded that industrial symbioses should be analysed and developed on a life cycle basis, with documentation of the real environmental benefits due to efficient resource use and decreased emissions in comparison to standalone production. ISs can then bring eco-competitiveness to companies in relation to SCP tools, such as environmental permits, ecolabels, and future product regulation based on the Ecodesign Directive in Europe. Indirect encouragement of symbiosis through land-use regulation and planning, in such a way that material fluxes between companies are possible both in operations and in financial terms, may prove effective. The same holds for waste policies that encourage increased reuse of a company’s waste by other enterprises.