Eco-industrial parks (EIPs) can help mitigate the climate impact of industries by scaling up resource productivity, minimising waste, promoting recycling, and improving the economic, environmental and social performances of businesses, said speakers at a consultation on Monday.
They observed that Bangladesh's industrial sectors that so far relied heavily on cost competitiveness, rather than environmental resilience, contributed to the GDP with an environmental cost.
The emergence of EIPs offers a vital opportunity to reshape this model, as EIPs offer a structured framework to reverse these trends by embedding resource efficiency, circular economy practices, renewable energy and industrial symbiosis, where one firm's waste becomes another's input.
They also emphasised formation of a coherent national EIP framework with clear sustainability standards, incorporating criteria on energy, water, waste, emissions and social safeguards across industrial zones.
The observations and suggestions came at a consultation of stakeholders, titled "Eco-industrial parks for just transition, green jobs, employment, skills and social inclusion in Bangladesh", held at a city hotel.
The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), together with Research and Policy Integration for Development (RAPID), organised the event under the pilot initiative of Eco-Industrial Parks Light Touch Activities in Bangladesh under UNIDO's Global Eco-Industrial Parks Programme (GEIPP II).
RAPID Executive Director Dr M Abu Eusuf said EIPs would be a way to take Bangladesh forward at a time of its graduation from LDC status and to create employment.
Compliance is very important, if the country wants business, foreign direct investment and job creation. If compliance is ensured, US$12 billion foreign currency could be earned from leather sector by exporting leather products, he added.
Presenting a keynote, RAPID Deputy Director Md Jahid Ebn Jalal said industrial growth came with hidden costs.
Showing economic success, he also said industrial sector contributes about 34-38 per cent to the GDP with environmental cost, as industrial pollution accounts for about 60 per cent of river contamination.
Stressing the need of EIPs in Bangladesh, he said EIPs are not just about pollution control, but about increasing resource efficiency by lowering costs, higher competitiveness, industrial symbiosis from waste-to-resource business models, and social infrastructure like childcare, training centres, housing, and meeting global buyers' requirements (the EU Due Diligence).
EIP Light Touch Activities national project coordinator in Bangladesh Chandramallika Ghosh said EIPs are managed industrial areas that promote cross-industry and community collaboration for common benefits related to economic, social and environmental performance.
Presenting the key benefits of EIPs, she also said the approaches help reduce procurement costs and environmental, economic and social risks, while increase competitiveness and profitability and help attract investment ensuring good-quality jobs and workers' health and safety.
UNIDO policy expert Mohammad Avi Hossain and BEPZA deputy director Ummay Hani Islam, among others, also spoke at the event.
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