Eco-industrial park of Rantasalmi

Introduction 

Eco-industrial parks usually evolve on their own, without any conscious or intentional vision. However, Rantasalmi project is said to be the first attempt to plan and organize an eco-industrial park in Finland. The Engineering office Rejlers Oy won a competitive bidding and was chosen to lead the project. The park is located around the Rantasalimi station area with a concentration on wood processing industry. The nearest cities are 45km and 75km away. 

It consists of seven companies: a real estate agency, a wood processing company, a wood product company, a log house manufacturer, a carpentry factory, a family owned transportation and forklift truck service company, a blade maintenance company and a restaurant. There are also many co-operations outside the area whose activities could be relevant to Rantasalmi companies, for example, a fine carpenter company, a regional energy company, a pre-cut house manufacture and marketing company and wood suppliers. Also a consultancy company is involved to bring representatives from the industries together to find ways to increase energy and material efficiency. The management of the team working is done by the committee of the eco-industrial park, under the real estate company(49% government owned). The cooperation among the companies to increase transportation and cost-efficiency is shown in the figure below. 

Saikku, Laura. (2006).

Structure of the regional network

The engineering office Rejlers Oy plays the role of coordination and connecting all actors in the park. It has a central role in the knowledge networks but not in the material&energy exchange network as it is not a material based company.  

The real estate company, Real Estate Rantasalmen Silva Oy manages and maintain the land, also, it acts as a development company to attract more business to the area. It is half owned by the municipality and half owned by Rantasalmi Oy, a log house manufacturer. As shown in the illustration, Rantasalmi Oy has a central role in the resource network because its material connection to most of the other actors. 

Linkage with non-local actors

Non local actors are: Parlatuote Oy, a fine carpenter company; Suur-Savon Sähkö Oy, regional energy company; Ascus Tech Oy, manufactures and markets pre-cut houses. As we can see from the illustration, these companies also play important roles in the material and energy exchange. Parlatuote provides log panels and floor boards to the log house manufacturer, which later sends its wood parts for precut houses to Ascus and the energy company takes all the wood processing waste and turns them into energy used by the park. 

Functions of the network

Eco-industrial park of Rantasalmi provides the benefits of material& energy exchange, collaborating and sharing of networked knowledge and creating values. Its very aim is to increase the competitiveness, attractiveness and environmental image of the firms in the region as well as to reduce the environmental effects  of  the  activities. 

With the supervision of the municipality and help from the engineering office, local companies was able to collaborate, resulting in efficient material flow and energy exchange. The smaller companies produces windows and panels for the production of log house manufacturing through the service of the transportation company. The blade service is also very useful for the park since most businesses involve wood processing. The waste produced in the region, waste wood and saw dust were sent to the nearby power plant to produce electricity and heating for both the park and adjacent residential areas. 

As material and energy efficiency increased, and the amount of waste to landfills, and environmental emissions decreased. This network provided the companies with good corporate image which gave them legitimacy.

Possible constraints 

As discussed above, the network provided connection through the actors in the eco-industrial park and enabled them to share information and resources. However, there are still possible threats. One of the biggest one resulting from social factor, the trust level between the actors. “Relational capacity: capacity for collective action based on the quality of the relationships of actors, such as the number and range of actors involved in the community as well as the level of trust between them” (Spekkink, 2014). In this case, as the project is lead by the municipality and the most powerful local business with the consultancy of an engineering office, it is reasonable to expect the trust factor between companies and the knowledge capacity are high. However, the resource dependency is relatively high, as there is only one transportation company, one blank production and one blade service. If one of them decides to quit, the park might face complications if replacement was not found quickly. 

Saikku, Laura. (2006). Eco-industrial parks: A background report for the eco-industrial park project at Rantasalmi. Publications of Regional Council of Etelä-Savo 71:2006

Spekkink, W. (2014). Building capacity for sustainable regional industrial systems: an event sequence analysis of developments in the Sloe Area and Canal Zone, Journal of Cleaner Production, in press.

Saikku, Laura. (2006).