WISP was initiated by the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT) in April 2013. It is currently funded by the City of Cape Town through the Mayor’s Office and is part of the Mayor’s Portfolio of Sustainability Initiatives. WISP is one of the City's vehicles to drive its Zero Waste to Landfill Strategy. The programme is delivered by GreenCape, a not-for-profit company that works in Africa to grow the green economy.

Initially the initiative was created to address *landfill airspace and unemployment issues the economy was experiencing. The intention was to divert waste away from landfills and stimulate the economy through the various value add interventions implemented through **industrial symbiosis. The initiative aids with transforming the largely consumptive and wasteful linear economy model into a more circular economy model where secondary materials can be integrated back into the economy.

*Landfill airspace can be defined as the volume of space on a landfill site that allows for the disposal of municipal solid waste.

**Industrial symbiosis describes how a network of diverse organizations can foster eco-innovation and long-term culture change, create and share mutually profitable transactions—and improve business and technical processes.

The initiative takes what some businesses have been practicing at an individual site level (node optimization) and scales it up to a network level involving multiple businesses to the benefit of the whole economy (system optimization). It is adaptive as it takes a dynamic and iterative approach to achieve results due to the ever-changing waste landscape. It has moved beyond landfill diversion to conducting *material flow analysis (MFA) on industrial areas to determine opportunities for interventions to increase resource efficiency. The inclusion of enterprise development allows for the establishment of new business initiatives that take advantage of the opportunities identified.

To get buy-in from the businesses, the initiative is pitched from an economic point of view, so that businesses can immediately see that their bottom line will not be impacted negatively. Facilitators directly engage businesses through site visits and meetings. There is a secure database for storing company information which is not shared with anyone, and a carbon calculator has been developed to measure CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) emission reduction potential of the exchanges.

The initiative targets businesses in the manufacturing sector and works closely with academia and relevant governmental departments to ensure the creation of an enabling environment for industrial symbiosis to thrive. The programme was initially guided by a steering committee from these three stakeholders. Academia is leveraged for research & development based on gaps and opportunities identified in industry and relevant governmental departments are consulted on various policies and legislation to ensure compliance with regulations. Information is relayed between the stakeholders to ensure decisions are made with a full understanding of the landscape.

The programme focuses on industrial areas, however, special attention is given to entrepreneurs and SMEs as they need the most assistance with regards to business development and understanding the green economy. Efforts are put into integrating informal businesses from neighbouring communities like waste pickers with established businesses for mutual benefit.

The initiative evolves with time making sure the work done is still relevant in the changing waste economy landscape. Each subsequent year a new layer is added to the traditional core activities of the initiative, the work has grown from making individual business resource efficient to optimizing whole new areas.

*Material flow analysis (MFA) is an analytical method to quantify flows and stocks of materials or substances in a well-defined system.

The City of Cape Town is the lead agency for the project and has provided funding since 2016.

Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism (DEDAT) initially funded the programme from 2013 to 2016.

University of Cape Town - collaboration with the chemical engineering department on research.

National Cleaner Production Centre – Collaborate on resource efficiency and cleaner production audits.

International Synergies Limited UK - offered technical and methodology support to initiate the programme.

The resource exchanges facilitated by WISP divert waste from landfill, generate financial benefits for members, reduce the carbon intensity of production processes and create jobs; ultimately making the manufacturing sector more competitive and resilient to climate change.

Application of industrial symbiosis and circular economy principles ensures the maximum utilisation of available resources before virgin resources can be exploited which can lead to the decoupling of economic growth from resource use. The initiative bridges the communication gap between industrial sectors that do not traditionally associate with each other and increases collaboration to the mutual benefit of the businesses involved with regards to environmental social and economic performance. Business can explore various waste treatment technologies and select the most appropriate for their purposes.

Over 70% of the businesses in our network of over 1000 companies are practicing resource efficiency in one form or another through commitments to divert waste from going to landfill by utilising more sustainable value add waste treatment options. This has led to an increased awareness to environmental issues and how our economy is vulnerable to shocks and stresses like droughts and lack of skills. The initiative’s presence is primarily concentrated in the city of Cape Town but also extends to the whole province and even nationally.

The biggest indicator used is the amount of waste diverted from going to landfill as this is easily quantifiable. From the data calculated, benefits accrued to businesses (additional revenue due to businesses selling some of their waste streams, cost reduction due to reduced waste generation, avoidance of transport and disposal costs) and use this data to demonstrate to funders and other businesses that the initiative is adding value. The data is aggregated for all the businesses and can be disaggregated per industrial sector.

Going into the future, more people will be impacted by the initiative as new waste value-add businesses are added to the areas creating new employment opportunities for low skilled labour in surrounding communities.

Through WISP  104 900 tonnes of waste have been diverted from landfill, 309 200 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions saved (equivalent to the annual electricity usage of 83 340 households in South Africa).

WISP facilitators provide business members with dedicated time and technical expertise, connecting companies with unused or residual resources such as materials, energy, water, assets, logistics and expertise.

By sharing resources, WISP members:

• Cut costs and increase profit
• Improve their business processes
• Create new revenue streams
• Learn from each other
• Operate more sustainably

Initially, WISP had little local evidence of the benefits of implementing industrial symbiosis resulting in companies being reluctant to engage with WISP due to lack of trust and/or knowledge of IS. As resource exchanges were completed, and case studies created, WISP’s credibility was established, and the programme was better able to recruit new members into the network.

Businesses’ lack of capacity and technical expertise to implement non-core activities meant companies only focused efforts on core activities and sustainability was and continues to be seen as a non-core activity by some businesses, particularly within SMEs. WISP fills this gap by making facilitators available to companies.

Other cities can learn about how industry, academia and government can work together for sustainable growth of the economy. There is usually an information gap between these three spheres, an industrial symbiosis initiative such as this helps to bridge this gap by increasing *triple helix collaboration. Through sharing of resources, economies can decouple economic growth from virgin material consumption putting less strain on the environment as the already depleting natural resources are preserved and businesses are able to reduce their carbon footprints. The businesses implementing the initiatives are always willing to share their learnings through case studies which are publicly available. The City is also willing to partner with other Cities to train and share insights on how the initiative can be implemented. The Non-Profit Organisation that delivers the programme is also willing to conduct training workshops and collaborate with organisations in other Cities to deliver a similar initiative.

*The triple helix model of collaboration refers to a set of interactions between academia, industry and government.

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