NISP is International Synergies’ most recognised project and was the world’s first national industrial symbiosis programme. The model has to date been replicated in 20 countries world-wide at a national or regional level.

NISP originated as three pilot schemes in Scotland, West Midlands and Yorkshire & Humberside in 2003. Their success provided a clear evidence base to the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra), who in 2005 awarded International Synergies £27 million pounds over three years to roll out the programme across all nine English regions. Similar programmes were also initiated in Wales, N.Ireland & Scotland (SISP).

One of the reasons for the programme’s overwhelming success is the way in which it was managed and delivered. The programme operated with nationally coordinated operational focus underpinned by a local delivery structure. It is the NISP teams’ knowledge and insight into specific regional agendas on the economy and environment that enabled the programme to have such a positive impact across the UK.

Through the NISP network, NISP identifies mutually profitable transactions between companies so that underused or undervalued resources (including energy, waste, water and logistics) are brought into productive use. NISP participants included micros, small and medium businesses (SMEs) and multinational/corporates from every industry sector.

Read: The Pathway to a Low Carbon Sustainable Economy

NISP has enabled its business in England to:

• Divert 47 million tonnes of industrial waste from landfill
• Generate £1 billion in new sales
• Reduce carbon emissions by 42 million tonnes
• Cut costs by £1 billion by reducing disposal, storage, transport & purchasing costs;
• Reuse 1.8 million tonnes of hazardous waste
• Create and safeguard over 10,000 jobs
• Save 60 million tonnes of virgin material
• Save 73 million tonnes of industrial water

All figures are independently verified and relate to programme results in England between April 2005 and March 2013 with lifetime benefits.

NISP was the world’s first national industrial symbiosis initiative and has received global acknowledgements:

• Collected an edie.net Sustainability Leaders Award in 2017 for Product Innovation
• Featured as one of 30 global examples of projects that stimulate the Circular Economy in ‘Governments Go Circular’ Global Scan report compiled by Accenture (2014)
• An Innovative Network Exemplar Programme Case Study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2011)
• Accredited by the European Commission as an Exemplar of Eco-Innovation through its Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP, 2007)
• Cited as an example of ‘Best Practice’ in the European Union’s Waste Framework Directive (2008)
• Highlighted as 1 of 20 Worldwide Green Game Changing Innovations in a report commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF, 2010)
• Winner in the Best Carbon Reduction Project category of the edie.net Awards for Environmental Excellence, 2010 (subsequently entered into European Business Awards for the Environment, 2012)
• Winner of the British Expertise Award for Global Environmental Impact, 2009