Study of the performance of eco-industrial park development in China

The Chinese national demonstration eco-industrial park program has received significant attentions in the field of industrial ecology. The program has just passed its ten-year anniversary. This study aims to assess the economic and environmental performance of the 17 accredited sector-integrated national demonstration eco-industrial parks. A selected group of ten metrics, including resource consumption, economic development, and waste emissions, are applied to assess the performance by comparing the difference of metrics between reference years of eco-industrial park planning and accreditation. The main findings include: (1) industrial added value of the 17 eco-industrial parks as a whole increased by 56%; (2) for comprehensive energy consumption, fresh water consumption, industrial wastewater generation, and solid waste production, the 17 eco-industrial parks had an overall increase of 20%, 18%, 12%, and 6%, respectively. The quantity of energy and fresh water consumption, wastewater and solid waste generation in some eco-industrial parks started to decrease with economic growth. Meanwhile, the average intensity of the four metrics decreased by 22%, 25%, 28%, and 32%, respectively; (3) for chemical oxygen demand and sulfur dioxide, the eco-industrial parks accomplished a two-fold decrease in both total quantity of emissions and intensity. Chemical oxygen demand emissions and its intensity decreased by 25% and 52%, respectively. Sulfur dioxide emissions and its intensity decreased by 51% and 69%m respectively. Measures supporting the performance improvement of Chinese national demonstration eco-industrial parks are also discussed, which mainly include cleaner production and environmental management, infrastructure sharing, energy-saving practices at the firm level, the pillar industries, and industrial symbiosis. [Display omitted] •We studied economic-environmental performance of 17 Chinese EIPs.•By applying 10 metrics on resource consuming, economics, and waste emission.•Chinese EIPs had robust improvement in economic and environmental performance.•COD and SO2 achieved great decrease both in emission quantity and in intensities.•Five key measures supporting the performance improvement of the EIPs.