Building Sustainable Industrial Areas: Experience and Perspectives from the Mediterranean and Western Balkan Countries

An EU research project (Mediterranean Eco-Industrial Development, (MEID)) which involves different actors from Mediterranean and Western Balkans region, is currently in progress. Its general objective is to provide innovative management figures and a decision support tool (model) to plan, build and manage more competitive Sustainable Industrial Areas (SIA) in the involved region. In order to correspond to a coherent solution, an accurate research has been performed. The methodology implemented to detect the main issues under survey has been a SWOT analysis of several target IAs. Following its results, there have been defined the most relevant aspects aiming at sustainability of IAs in the area. The model introduces or encourages the continuous improvement of environmental performances of the Mediterranean industrial areas in the following fields: integrating production and dismissal of solid wastes, energy saving and use of renewable energies, reducing water consumption, better viability and avoid the deposit of dangerous material. Thanks to this “green approach”, SMEs will be the final beneficiaries, fostered to eco-innovation, competitiveness and transnational cooperation. This paper presents the general context and results of the MEID project.