Int. J. Sustainable Development, Vol. 19, No.

1, 2016 15

Industrial symbiosis as sustainable development

strategy: adding a change perspective

Veerle Verguts*
Social Sciences Unit,
Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO),
Burg. Van Gansberghelaan 115 box 2, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
Email: veerle.verguts@gmail.com
*Corresponding author

Joost Dessein
Social Sciences Unit,
Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO),
Burg. Van Gansberghelaan 115 box 2, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
and
Department of Agricultural Economics,
Ghent University,
Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Email: Joost.Dessein@ilvo.vlaanderen.be

Art Dewulf
Public Administration and Policy Group,
Wageningen University and Research Centre,
P.O. Box 8130, 6700EW Wageningen, The Netherlands
Email: art.dewulf@wur.nl

Ludwig Lauwers
Social Sciences Unit,
Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO),
Burg. Van Gansberghelaan 115 box 2, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium
and
Department of Agricultural Economics,
Ghent University,
Coupure Links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Email: ludwig.Lauwers@ilvo.vlaanderen.be

Copyright 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

16 V. Verguts et al.

Renate Werkman
Public Administration and Policy Group,
Wageningen University and Research Centre,
P.O. Box 8130, 6700EW Wageningen, The Netherlands
and
Network for Research and Advice,
Commissarislaan 50, 8016LB Zwolle, The Netherlands
Email: renate.werkman@kantelwerkers.nl

Catrien J.A.M. Termeer

Public Administration and Policy Group,
Wageningen University and Research Centre,
P.O. Box 8130, 6700EW Wageningen, The Netherlands
Email: katrien.termeer@wur.nl

Abstract: Industrial symbiosis (IS) is the coordination of energy and material

flows among geographically proximate firms to increase economic
performance while reducing environmental impact. Although IS is gaining
popularity as a sustainability strategy, implementation is proving difficult. In an
attempt to understand these roadblocks to implementation, we analyse the
development and realisation of IS systems as complex change processes. Based
on insights from organisational change literature we introduce the
dual-perspective framework as an additional way to look at these IS change
processes. Our framework combines two different but complementary
perspectives to analyse IS: episodic change, meaning occasional and radical
change driven by exogenous factors or interventions; and continuous change,
meaning ongoing changes resulting from constant micro-adaptations. By
adding insights on the nature of change, this framework extends the analytical
reach and identifies situation-adapted intervention strategies. The framework is
applied to a case of Flemish (Belgian) eco-industrial greenhouse park
development.

Keywords: industrial symbiosis; sustainable development; eco-industrial

development; change perspective; episodic change; continuous change;
intervention; change process; industrial ecology; sustainability; greenhouse
parks; dual-perspective framework.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Verguts, V., Dessein, J.,
Dewulf, A., Lauwers, L., Werkman, R. and Termeer, C.J.A.M. (2016)
Industrial symbiosis as sustainable development strategy: adding a change
perspective, Int. J. Sustainable Development, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp.1535.

Biographical notes: Veerle Verguts works as a coordinator of scientific

research at the Manure Policy Unit of the Division for Rural Development and
Manure Policy of the Flemish Land Agency. At the time of writing this article,
she worked as a Scientific Researcher at the Social Sciences Unit of the
Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO) and as a civil servant
Greenhouse Horticulture Advisor at the province of Antwerp, and she had been
affiliated with the Public Administration and Policy Group at Wageningen
University.
 Industrial symbiosis as sustainable development strategy 17

Joost Dessein is Scientific Coordinator of the Social Sciences Unit of the

Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO) and Professor at the
Department of Agricultural Economics at Ghent University. He is Vice-Chair
of the COST action Investigating Cultural Sustainability. He has published in
several international, peer-reviewed journals on topics such as processes of
region formation, multistakeholder processes, the role of participation in rural
development and the tensions between scientific knowledge and societal
expectations.

Art Dewulf is an Associate Professor at the Public Administration and Policy

Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands. He received his
PhD in Organizational Psychology at the KU Leuven in 2006, with a
dissertation entitled Issue framing in multi-actor contexts. After a year of
interim lectureship and post-doc research at Leuven, he started working at the
Public Administration and Policy Group at Wageningen University. He has
been and still is involved in research projects on river basin management,
adaptive water management and climate adaptation governance. He has
published various articles on topics such as issue framing, social learning,
sustainability governance, uncertainties and interdisciplinary research.

Ludwig Lauwers is a Scientific Director at the Social Sciences Unit of ILVO

(Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research, Merelbeke, Belgium) and
Guest Professor of Farm Management at the Department of Agricultural
Economics, Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium). He supervises research on
farm, agricultural and rural development and works on clarifying sustainability
choices at these levels. His fields of expertise are farm management,
sustainable agricultural systems and integrated ecologic-environmental
assessment. His main publications are in the field of environmentally adjusted
efficiency measurements.

Renate Werkman works as independent researcher and as a facilitator in

learning and change processes. Her key focus area is facilitating people in
organisations and networks to think and act outside of dominant paradigms and
to create out-of-the-box solutions for complex problems. At the time of writing
this article, she worked as an Assistant Professor at the Public Administration
and Policy Group at Wageningen University.
Catrien J.A.M. Termeer is Chair of the Public Administration and Policy Group
at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Her research addresses the
governance of wicked problems in the policy areas of sustainable agro-food
systems, adaptation to climate change and vital rural areas. Past employment
includes the Erasmus University of Rotterdam; the Technical University of
Delft; the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food and at Sioo, a Center for
Organizational Change and Learning.

1 Introduction

Industrial symbiosis (IS) is the coordination of energy and material flows among
geographically proximate firms. The goal is to increase economic performance while
reducing environmental impact via the exchange of waste streams and by-products or by
sharing utilities and other services (Ashton, 2008). Eco-industrial parks are a typical
example of IS. Despite the widely studied technological and economic feasibility of
engineered designs (Jacobsen, 2006), the real-life application of IS has proven to be
18 V. Verguts et al.

difficult (Chertow, 2007; Deutz and Gibbs, 2008; Gibbs, 2009). This implementation gap
is not well understood. In order to stimulate IS developments, scholars are increasingly
concerned with the organisation and governance of IS (Hoffman, 2003; Mirata, 2004; Yu
et al., 2014). Developing and organising the material exchanges also requires
non-material exchanges as part of a change process towards to new thinking, new
behaviour and new relationships (Fusco Girard, 2009). We consider IS to be a dynamic
change process (Baas and Boons, 2004).
IS literature describes different processes that can possibly lead to IS development:
planned versus emergent IS developments and processes in between those two extremes.
Different authors conceptualise aspects that make the actual occurrence more likely,
for example the possibilities of imagination (Cohen-Rosenthal, 2000), problem definition
(Mirata and Emtaira, 2005), trust relationships (Gibbs, 2003), brokerage (Paquin
and Howard-Grenville, 2009) and short mental distances (Ashton and Bain, 2012; Paquin
and Howard-Grenville, 2009). This conceptual diversity is fed by different theoretical
angles and backgrounds and is an enrichment of IS understanding (Boons and
Howard-Grenville, 2009). The relation between these the concepts is not always clear,
which makes it difficult to detect whether IS development is progressing or not or
whether (and which kind of) interventions are needed. There are still questions
concerning the nature of facilitation of IS developments and the robustness of the system
when responding to different degrees of intervention (Paquin and Howard-Grenville,
2009). From a change perspective, one example is the contradictory observation of
stagnation in visible macro-level change process, while at micro-level informal contacts
and interaction are proceeding. Are these proceedings a precursor of change or is there
really stagnation and are there interventions needed? Progress is needed to unravel the
relation between micro-changes and the large change dynamics of IS projects.
In this article, we draw on the organisational literature to examine change in the
context of IS developments. This literature addresses how organisational change
processes can be understood, whether change is merely revolutionary or evolutionary
(Malhotra and Hinings, 2013), whether or not change is planned and whether it is based
on macro events or on micro-level adaptation. Moreover, we discuss what makes change
difficult and what facilitates change, intervention strategies and we cover the role of
change agents (Munduate and Bennebroek-Gravenhorst (2003). As the twin perspectives
of episodic and continuous change (Weick and Quinn, 1999) are very informative to
understand the nature of change, they form the main underpinning or our argument. The
episodic change perspective considers change as occasional and radical, driven by
exogenous factors or interventions, whereas the continuous change perspective considers
change as the result of constant micro-adaptations in daily working practices. We
translate these twin perspectives to IS change processes and refer to this combination as
the dual-perspective framework. This framework introduces an additional way to look at
dynamic IS processes to better describe and analyse how the construction of IS
exchanges is organised. By developing and applying this framework, we provide ideas
for the types of intervention that are needed at different times during the realisation of IS
projects. This framework enables the understanding between the different change related
aspects in IS literature (above) that make IS occurrence more likely.
This article aims to answer on the following questions: how does IS literature address
change? How can the dual perspective framework provide insight to better understand IS
development and intervene in IS change processes?
 Industrial symbiosis as sustainable development strategy 19

To illustrate and apply our theorising, we use a case study of the development of the
first greenhouse park in Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), within the wider
context of policies and plans to promote sustainable greenhouse park development using
IS principles: coordination of energy flows (sharing of steam and power production),
material flows (CO2, water, wastes) and other services (such as joint transportation)
(Rogge et al., 2011).
In Section 2, we treat key theories of change in the IS literature, differentiating
between the analytical planned-emergent dichotomy and continuum approaches, i.e.,
approaches on a continuum between these extremes. We then argue the necessity of an
additional way to look at IS change processes. Last, we apply the approaches from IS and
the dual-perspective framework to a the greenhouse park case study. We discuss what the
dual perspective framework adds to the case and the additional insights of the framework
in understanding and intervention in IS change processes.

2 Theories of change in the IS literature

In this section, we discuss how IS addresses change and what the limitations are. We first
present the analytical plannedemergent dichotomy as a way of categorising IS projects
(Cohen-Rosenthal, 2000; Chertow, 2007; Hewes and Lyons, 2008; Romero and Ruis,
2013). Second, we consider the continuum approaches. These combine elements from
planned and emergent IS typologies and look at IS projects as if they are located
somewhere on a continuum between planned and emergent IS. In combining planned and
emergent elements of IS, these approaches attempt to obtain a more contingent analysis
and intervention strategy. For all these approaches, we will discuss why an addition
change perspective is necessary.

2.1 Planned or emergent change?

Within IE [industrial ecology] literature, there is a tug of war between two basic
strategies for IS: engineered [or planned] systems and self-organized [or emergent]
systems [Hewes and Lyons, (2008), p.1330]. We therefore start our theoretical overview
from the dichotomy between planned and emergent change, which has empirically been
used to categorise IS projects (Chertow, 2007; Deutz and Gibbs, 2008). Chertow (2007,
p.21) defines planned IS as [a] conscious effort to identify companies from different
industries and locate them together so that they can share resources across and among
them and emergent IS as an industrial ecosystem [that] emerges from decisions by
private actors motivated to exchange resources to meet goals such as cost reduction,
revenue enhancement or business expansion. Unplanned, privately-driven developments
that were (initially) not intended to be IS, seem to be more successful than intentional,
government-driven IS projects (Chertow, 2007; Deutz and Gibbs, 2008). The latter are
generally seen to fail (Gibbs, 2009), but then failures in emergent IS might never be
detected or identified as such. A merit of this approach lies in the that emergent change
characteristics are considered to be beneficial for IS development. It remains difficult,
however, to understand how all these emergent change characteristics are related in
actual IS development processes.
20 V. Verguts et al.

Further, in this approach, planned and emergent IS can be considered as two ideal
types, two clearly defined and contrasting forms of IS development. This typology
bundles a number of contrasts to characterise planned and emergent IS:
1 planned versus self-organising
2 intentionally aimed at IS versus unintentionally resulting in IS
3 public versus private.
In practice these different aspects may not be so well aligned as the ideal types would
suggest. Private initiatives, for example, can be included in a governmental planning
project. Public initiatives can also lead unintentionally to IS developments and can
develop in a way that is more organic and self-organising than planned. Furthermore, the
distinctions may not be as clear-cut as the typology suggests either. The contrasts can
also be considered as dimensions or scales, such that any particular IS project can be
positioned on a scale from completely planned to completely self-organised, from
completely intentional to completely unintentional and from completely public to
completely private. In other words, an overly strict categorisation could lead to
overlooking characteristics of IS projects that are positioned differently on these scales or
dimensions.

2.2 A continuum between planned and emergent change?

Moving beyond a two-pronged categorisation, IS work has also started to rely
on a continuum between planned and emerged to describe development of IS
development. We discuss three of these approaches. The first two facilitated IS (Paquin
and Howard-Grenville, 2009) and the middle-out approach (Costa and Ferro, 2010)
are directly linked to the IS literature. We add transition management as a third example
of a continuum approach (Kemp et al., 2007). Although not originating from the field of
IS, transition management relates to industrial ecology (Adamides and Mouzakitis, 2009;
Baas and Huisingh, 2008; de Vries and te Riele, 2006; Geels, 2005; Rotmans and
Loorbach, 2009) and IS (Gibbs, 2009).
Paquin and Howard-Grenville (2009) see facilitated IS in terms of network
development, facilitation and brokerage. This approach has elements of planned change
(an administrative brokerage organisation stimulates IS on a regional scale by building up
a network with the goal of promoting IS) and of emergent change (the targeted network
actors are private actors, firms willing to participate in IS exchanges, who enlarge their
network of like-minded firms and can let initiatives emerge and develop their own
initiatives). Facilitated IS thus positions itself somewhere in the middle on the continuum
between planned and emergent change. In facilitated IS, only companies and a brokerage
organisation are considered; not all actors (and their ideas) are included in the network.
This can lead to overlooking potentially interesting actors and their ideas.
In the middle-out approach, Costa and Ferro (2010) build on this by focusing on the
process environment in which IS can emerge and add the importance of learning and
monitoring. Monitoring starts with a system analysis that reveals ongoing IS in its current
context. Then interventions are monitored for their influence on a supportive context
for IS emergence. The knowledge gained feeds subsequent interventions. This approach
is also located somewhere in the middle on the continuum between planned and emergent
change. Many but not all of the investigated interventions are part of planned
 Industrial symbiosis as sustainable development strategy 21

change, which contrasts with the focus on an environment in which IS can emerge. The
middle-out approach could benefit from understanding the natural and developmental
pace of change, which would help to accelerate the learning process by using some rules
of thumb for choosing the best intervention strategy at the right time.
Transition management (Rotmans and Loorbach, 2009; Kemp et al., 2007) focuses on
transitions, or long-term societal change processes. Again the focus on structures and
goals (the definition of the common problem and vision) are characteristics of planned
change, while room for experiments and emergent niches are merely emergent change.
As such, this approach joins the two previous approaches somewhere in the middle on the
continuum between planned and emergent change. In transition management, key actors
are gathered in a transition arena an open-minded setting for talking, visioning and
initiating transitions. In order to reach long-term goals, this transition arena creates
partnerships and networks to build up a continuous pressure for change. The arena has
different roles at multiple levels: the macro level of vision (Geels, 2005), developing
transition experiments at the micro level; and building support structures to create niches
and disseminate knowledge, at theme so level (Geels, 2005; Gibbs, 2009). In this way,
arenas for problem definition and common goals build the necessary social structure for
IS development (Mirata and Emtairah, 2005).
One problem here could be the exclusion of actors and ideas (Cohen-Rosenthal, 2000;
Boons et al., 2011) from the arena and a lack of a common goal of all the (innovative)
actors in the system (van de Ven and Sun, 2011) and a too-tight focus to a common goal.
Goals differ from actor to actor as well as on the societal and project levels. An arena can
be a forum for innovation (Mirata and Emtairah, 2005), but in cases where a common
goal can be found, too strict goal-orientation can cause innovative ideas to be excluded,
with the risk of getting stuck in the current approach and ideas. This can lead people to
overlook important aspects of change, which can negatively influence leverage for policy
and intervention. An example is the possibility for overlooking possible combinations
with other industries. When people get bogged down in the currently adopted approach
and ideas, innovations for sustainability that are outside the (predetermined) focus could
be unconsidered or even undermined (Termeer and van der Peet, 2009). This clouds the
insight into how the system is already adapting to the changing environment and could
possibly lead to overlooking project specificity and ignoring solutions and actors
(Werkman, 2009).
The three continuum approaches have elements in common, which are also
largely supported in other IS literature. All three approaches analyse actor networks
(Cohen-Rosenthal, 2000; Posch, 2010), facilitated by a broker or an organisation
(Burstrm and Korhonen, 2001; Hewes and Lyons, 2008; Mirata 2004). They all include
public and private actors and assume goal-orientedness towards IS or another common
goal. All three approaches are multi-level, where most see IS occurring at two levels: a
macro level (nation or society) for IS concept dissemination (Boons et al., 2011; Gibbs,
2009) and a project level (regional industrial system) for practical IS application (Boons
et al., 2011). Concerning interventions, the middle-out approach and transition
management foresee a strategy with consecutive steps: system analysis, actor selection,
action, monitoring actions and feedback. Paquin and Howard Grenville (2009) explicate
questions that still remain when delving into these kinds of strategies. These questions
treat the nature of facilitation, network dynamics and the robustness of the system when
responding to different degrees of intervention (Paquin and Howard-Grenville, 2009).
22 V. Verguts et al.

The continuum approaches have still a narrow focus on change: the strategies, which
are often conceived as consecutive steps, to be applied in all processes, give people an
anchor, an idea of understanding and agency, that inspires them to take action (Rip, 2006;
Shove and Walker, 2007). However, the strategies risk being too deterministic (Shove
and Walker, 2007) or too strongly based on one theoretical angle (Boons et al., 2011;
Dewulf et al., 2009). The sets of rules are indeed a simplified version of reality (Rotmans
and Loorbach, 2009), hiding some unexplained flexibility in its application and sequence
(Paredis, 2009). These black boxes in the theory hamper the translation of theory
into practice (Paredis, 2009) and practitioners need to fill in details from their own
experiences. Our purpose is to make some of these tacit practical experiences
more explicit. Most current successful practices are a result of learning-by-doing. In
broadening the focus on change using the organisational change theories with the
concept of sensemaking (Weick et al., 2005), we will add to better understanding of this
learning-by-doing process.
To add the required insights on the nature of change and to broaden the focus of the
theories of change in IS, we will introduce the dual perspective framework, which
extends the analytical reach of how to look at change processes and enables identification
of situation-adapted intervention strategies.

3 The dual-perspective framework for analysis and intervention

3.1 Building blocks for the framework

To more fully understand emergent change and inclusion of actors and ideas, the scope of
the current IS approaches must be broadened. To do so we build on the organisational
change literature. Traditionally, revolutionary episodic change and evolutionary
continuous change were competing concepts in the literature to describe how change
processes occur (Malhotra and Hinings, 2013). In contrast, our way of looking at change
processes links these concepts and shows they coincide together in one and the same
process (Hakonsson et al., 2013).
Our dual-perspective approach encompasses both episodic and continuous change
(Weick and Quinn, 1999). Before showing how we apply them to IS, we first discuss
them as building blocks for our framework. Episodic and continuous change are two
different perspectives or lenses to observe and conceptualise change.
From the episodic change perspective, quiet periods of slow change alternate with
short periods of radical change. Organisations and people are seen as inert: they hardly
adapt to changing environments (Munduate and Bennebroek-Gravenhorst, 2003). As time
goes by, they become increasingly ill-adapted to their environment and remain so until an
external event induces change. This can be an abrupt shift in the environment or an
intervention by a change agent outside the system. The change agent is a first mover who
creates change by seeking leverage mechanisms to break through inertia and to bring the
system to a new equilibrium.
The continuous change perspective sees change as constant, emerging every day
and cumulatively over time. People and organisations are able to adapt themselves to
the environment through constant modification and adaptation (Munduate and
Bennebroek-Gravenhorst, 2003). Change comes from within the system and seeks
equilibrium with the environment through improvisation, self-organisation and frequent
 Industrial symbiosis as sustainable development strategy 23

interactions among actors. Intervention in this kind of change merely stimulates actors to
make sense of what is already happening. The change agent redirects change, but the real
change comes from within the system (Kofman and Senge, 1993).
The dual perspective framework shows that both perspectives can be applied to the
same change process and each yields different but complementary interpretations, which
are both valid (Weick and Quin, 1999).
Table 1 The dual-perspective framework: IS as episodic and continuous change

IS Episodic change Continuous change

Ideal change Network of firms = open and changing increasing linkages
process
Conceptualisation Inertia Adaptability
Change externally induced Change from inside
Need for external event Self-organisation, interaction and
reflection
Replacing Evolving
Interventions Intervention from the outside Redirection of what is really there
Unfreeze-transition-refreeze Freeze-rebalance-unfreeze
Change technological and Sensemaking and translation
meaning system
Persuasion Logic of attraction
Change agents Powerful actor All actors
Prime mover creates change Sensemakers redirects change
Source: Adapted from Weick and Quinn (1999) and Termeer and van der
Peet (2009)

3.2 Translating the dual-perspective framework to IS

To apply the dual-perspective framework to IS, we need to translate the concepts used by
Weick and Quinn (1999) to the world of IS (Table 1). Although Weick and Quinn (1999)
focus on the organisational level, the framework has been successfully applied to
inter-organisational contexts as well (Termeer, 2009). For each of the perspectives, we
consider what the ideal IS project would look like; how the development of IS projects
can be conceptualised; how interventions can be organised; and what the role of change
agents can be (Table 1).
The only common element in both perspectives is how they see the ideal IS project:
an open and changing network of firms who adapt to economic and ecological demands
by establishing linkages and closing loops as efficiently as possible. For the other
analytical elements mentioned above, the perspectives show a considerably different
view of IS developments, as one primarily focuses on inertia and the other primarily
focuses on movement.
From the episodic change perspective, industrial systems are not very flexible and
they change very slowly (inertia). Hence, IS developments do not occur by themselves
but need to be induced by external pressure in the form of a crisis or an intervention. The
focus is on the shifting meaning systems (e.g., a well-developed vision on sustainability)
and on the demanding requirements for IS implementation (great efforts in technological
24 V. Verguts et al.

innovation, long-term investments and commitment). Change involves then the rapid
replacement of the old industrial structure with a new network of linked firms.
Interventions come from outside. The inert system starts to shift, the technological system
changes, as do the meaning systems by persuading key actors. Afterwards, the system has
to retain the change and to prevent relapse to the old situation. Examples of intervention
measures include: restructuring existing systems; setting new standards; or strong
technical and financial support from the government. From this perspective, the change
agent creates change in the role of a first mover with a strong position (power,
legitimacy). This can be either an innovator or a strong government as regulator or
facilitator.
From the continuous change perspective, industrial systems are continuously in
motion and adapting to their changing environment. IS developments occur by
themselves because self-organising actors experiment continuously, use their creativity
and learn through regular updates and reflection. In this way, organisations form
networks and discover linkages step-by-step, depending on informal contact and local
circumstances. Constant adaptations can accumulate over time and evolve towards a
network of linked firms. Interventions come from the inside: an actor gives the
continuously moving system a moment of thought, a standstill (freeze) to reveal what is
already there (existing resource flows, opportunities, new companies) and then redirects
these elements (rebalancing) by slightly different interpretations resulting from
mechanisms of translation. Examples are when people change and slightly adapt practices
they see elsewhere (Weick and Quinn, 1999) or sensemaking, where people selectively
attend to their environment, try to make sense of what is going on and act on these
interpretations (Weick et al., 2005). Change is driven by the logic of attraction: people
change because they want to, not because they are forced to. After this change,
interaction and continuous adaptation is resumed. From this perspective, relations, access
to information, feedback and reflection, constructive conflicts and alertness to exclusion
are important. Interveners can use any means of intervention, as long as no actors and
ideas are excluded. The change agent redirects ongoing change in the role of a participant
that stimulates sensemaking. Examples include the government as participant instead of a
steering body or members of creative, loosely coupled business networks.
Applying both perspectives in analysing empirical IS projects reveals two very
different pictures of a single IS project and how it is currently governed in practice. Both
perspectives highlight different aspects of the same IS project. Intervention strategies are
also quite different for each perspective. Following Weick and Quinn (1999) and Weick
(2000), it is wise to start from the continuous change perspective because this reveals and
redirects the variability and change possibilities that already exist in the system. Only
when change is blocked and possibilities for continuous interventions no longer achieve
results, do more drastic interventions from the episodic perspective become necessary.
When the continuous adaptation process resumes, the intervener switches back to the
continuous intervention perspective. This framework gives direction for interventions that
fit the systems needs. To connect the framework more thoroughly to IS, we will apply
our theorising to the case of the Koekhoven greenhouse park.
 Industrial symbiosis as sustainable development strategy 25

4 Methods

We present the case of the greenhouse park Koekhoven within the Flemish policy context
on greenhouse parks. We use case study research because the boundaries between
phenomenon (the case we want to study) and context are not clearly evident (Yin, 2003).
Our case is an informational and deviant single case (Flyvberg, 2006), which has been
chosen because Koekhoven emerged as the first greenhouse park in Flanders while after
10 years of debate and planning, thus far not a single cluster [planned pilot of a
greenhouse park] has been realized [Rogge et al., (2011), p.335].
Data were collected in the period of 20082010 through interviews, observations in
project meetings, field visits, regular updates from key persons and documents. The
interviews began with very open questions about how and why the respondent became
involved with the project and what has happened since then. The interviews moved then
to a semi-structured format. Interviews were transcribed and coded, using the software
package N-Vivo 8/9. Generated codes were reorganised in themes as input for a
chronological story. Analysis is inspired by processual research (Pettigrew, 1997) as the
studies unit of analysis is a process: a sequence of individual and collective events,
actions and activities unfolding over time in context. The analysis generates empirical
insights into the different theoretical concepts or the mechanisms (Pettigrew, 1997).
Validation and triangulation of the already collected data occurred while having an
insiders perspective as civil servant greenhouse horticulture advisor at the province of
Antwerp in 20122013.

5 Results

5.1 Case description

The Government of Flanders has stimulated pilot projects for greenhouse parks to
promote sustainable spatial use and sustainable development using IS principles:
coordination of energy flows (sharing of steam and power production), material flows
(CO2, water, wastes) and other services (e.g., joint transportation) (Rogge et al., 2011).
To date, the pilot projects have not been successful. However, in the municipality of
Merksplasin northern Belgium, the 140-hectare greenhouse park Koekhoven has been
established; it houses 70 ha of greenhouse firms. Greenhouses in this park use
cogeneration for heating and transmit the generated power to the power grid. A biogas
cogeneration firm uses manure and corn from various farmers to generate electricity. This
firm transmits power to the grid and the heat generated goes to manure-drying and a
greenhouse in the park. This firm has joint ventures with others: first, to remove the
packaging from organic waste from retailers so that the waste can be used as input for the
biogas installation; second, to commercialise dried manure pellets; and, third, to invest in
cogeneration of jatropha oil. The concentration of cogenerations led to building
infrastructure to allow power transmission to the grid (see Figure 1). We now discuss the
Koekhoven eco-industrial greenhouse park in its Flemish policy context.
26 V. Verguts et al.

Figure 1 IS cluster in Koekhoven, Belgium: linkages developed (January 2010)

5.2 Analysis of the case based on IS change theories

In Flanders, variations of the greenhouse park idea have circulated for decades within
administration and knowledge institutions (Lauwers, 1988; Volckaert, 1978) as a possible
solution to an inconsistent spatial planning context for greenhouse establishment and
enlargement. Spatial reorganisation and eco-efficient interlinking of greenhouses by
sharing infrastructure and energy exchange could provide legal security and increased
competitiveness. Further, modernisation is becoming increasingly urgent in response to
rising energy prices, environmental demands and global competition. Only in the last
decade has the idea of greenhouse parks entered policy and resulted in initiatives at
several different policy levels (Flemish administration, provincial level and the Flemish
land agency). None of these planned greenhouse parks has been realised thus far (Rogge
et al., 2011). In this planned context, at the same time, a cluster of ten greenhouse firms
emerged independently. Looking more in detail, at the emergence of the Koekhoven
greenhouse park, we discover many planned elements: policymakers were the ones who
addressed the increasing competition for land between farmers and horticulturalists who
run and own greenhouse firms. They allocated an area where further greenhouse
development was possible along other agricultural activities (Koekhoven) and an
area where it was restricted. In practice, Koekhoven filled up very quickly with almost
exclusively individual greenhouses. Owing to this unexpected success/effect of the
policy, we can consider this greenhouse park as an unintended consequence of a
government-initiated local spatial planning process. The anchor firm, however, was
 Industrial symbiosis as sustainable development strategy 27

inspired by loop-closing and saw opportunities for IS. The anchor firm appears to be
responsible for the linkages, which either emerged in a self-organising process (grasping
opportunity by opportunity, with linkages as a result) or were planned as a business
strategy (step-by-step plan with milestones in the direction of a predetermined idea). The
private IS initiatives need public permits (construction permits and/or environmental
permits) to build pipelines or cogeneration of energy. Further, some actors in small
municipalities naturally combine public and private positions: in our case, one anchor
firm entrepreneur is also a municipal councillor and an aldermans son owns the
greenhouse linked to it. This illustrates that planned and emergent change cannot easily
be separated from each other because elements of both types of IS development can be
identified.
If characterising these IS developments in terms of a dichotomy between planned and
emergent IS runs into problems, should we conclude that they should be characterised as
a mix of the two, to be positioned somewhere near the middle of a planned-emergent
continuum?
Using the continuum approaches, we look more explicitly then in other approaches at
different levels to analyse the greenhouse park development: we consider the greenhouse
park development in Flanders as the macro level and Koekhoven as micro-level. At the
macro level we see the creation of a common vision, creating greenhouse parks and the
creation of networks to setup pilot projects. The greenhouse park in Koekhoven (micro),
was not set up by the Flemish government. It developed without the intention of it
becoming a greenhouse park. In Koekhoven, the municipality was in charge of a land
planning process of visioning and implementation to comply with new spatial planning
legislation. This led to a beneficial environment for a greenhouse park in Koekhoven.
The uncoordinated initiatives from different horticulturists to use this potentiality led to
the organic development of a greenhouse park. Further, the IS network around the anchor
firm in Koekhoven was initiated by its entrepreneurs and their goal of sustainability.
They used network building as a strategy, learned from other projects and exploited
business opportunities.
Based on the common elements in the continuum approaches, the most influential
interventions for the emergence of the Koekhoven greenhouse park are the
municipalities spatial planning as a new vision or a precursor of future regulation; the
Flemish governments subsidies for investment and sustainable power production, which
boosted the construction of large-scale greenhouses (also in Koekhoven); and the
municipalities adaptive support by post-hoc infrastructure building for the greenhouse
park. Other influential interventions in Koekhoven were the private actors continual
search for business opportunities and the development of relations with other business
managers.
These examples show the analytical value of the continuum approaches to analyse
projects in terms of networks, facilitation, actor types, goals, multiple levels, intervention
strategy and learning. In Koekhoven, the spatial planning aspect happened in a formal
network, but the internal spatial organisation of greenhouses was not discussed. The IS
linkages grew without an arena but rather with informal contacts between actors. The
participating actors (horticulturists, policymakers and government and the anchor firm)
had different goals and different reasons to cooperate. Multiple levels (macro level and
project level) are recognised.
However interesting this analysis may be, as long as we position IS projects on a
continuum from completely planned and completely emergent, qualifying an IS project as
28 V. Verguts et al.

more planned means qualifying it as less emergent and vice versa. What if we could fully
account for both the planned and emergent sides of the same IS project? This is what the
dual-perspective framework on IS change intends to do.

5.3 Analysis of the case with the dual-perspective framework

To analyse greenhouse park developments in Flanders and in Koekhoven according to the
dual perspective framework, we consider the building blocks discussed above
(conceptualising the ideal greenhouse park development, the actual development,
interventions and change agents), each time according to the episodic and continuous
change perspectives. From the episodic and continuous change perspectives, the ideal
greenhouse park development can be conceptualised similarly as a geographical
concentration of greenhouses, where horticulturists adapt their activities to economic and
ecological demands for eco-efficient production such as by establishing linkages with one
another and other industries.

5.3.1 Conceptualisation of change

From the episodic change perspective, Flemish greenhouse horticulture has been coping
with spatial and economic pressures for a long time (Rogge et al., 2011; Volckaert,
1978). Economic and energy crises have been increasing awareness about reorganisation
needs and technological changes (Rogge et al., 2011; Volckaert, 1978), but somehow
these triggers seem not to be strong enough to make the changes really happen (Rogge
et al., 2011). Above these preconditions, in Koekhoven, the municipal land-planning
decisions were an additional trigger for change that ultimately induced the Koekhoven
greenhouse park development. Economic pressure also triggered the anchor firms
development in Koekhoven: The initial idea was to turn excess manure and excess
maize into biogas. We had to give away our corn at a price below cost Can we create
added value with it? (anchor firm entrepreneur).
The continuous change perspective shows that greenhouses in Flanders historically
concentrated in organically developed clusters (Porter, 1998) near centres of knowledge
or close to an auction (a trade cooperative for horticultural products). In these clusters,
including Koekhoven, horticulturists cooperate to buy inputs or share logistics. Over the
last few years, there has been increasing cooperation and even collective start-up of
entirely new greenhouse firms (horticulturist). Some horticulturists in Koekhoven
cooperate within and outside the greenhouse park. The (sometimes non-IS) linkages can
evolve and over time to IS linkages and to linkages with more and more industrial
sectors. For example, the interaction that the anchor firm started between the cattle
farmers who wanted a biogas cogeneration and evolved to interaction with the
horticulturist lacking heating capacity for an enlarged firm resulting in a pipeline
under the road for heat exchange. Similarly, the anchor firm developed linkages with
trusted business partners from different sectors.
Looking from both perspectives juxtaposes inertia of episodic change with movement
of spontaneous developments. This juxtaposition can be puzzling for actors in the change
process, because at some point the inertia seems to be dominant In the beginning (civil
servants name) thought that politics imposes, takes decisions, resulting in greenhouse
parks and everything will be fine, but this does not seem to work (extract from field
notes), while at other locations in the same context, constant adaptations lead to change
 Industrial symbiosis as sustainable development strategy 29

and IS development. Also here the effect can be different than expected: You should
develop a zone at once, because now there are a lot of lost pieces (). If one builds like
this and another like that, growing historically, there remain skewed pieces in between
that you can no longer use (local policymaker, Koekhoven). The case shows, however,
that understanding both episodic and continuous change perspectives helps to understand
how inertia and movement coincide together, resulting in a certain outcome.

5.3.2 Interventions
Employing the episodic change perspective shows the following interventions occurring
on the Flemish regional level: setting up greenhouse park pilot projects for sectorial
restructuring, subsidies for investment and sustainable power production and an
innovative horticulturists network. The major purpose of these interventions is to
accelerate developments and persuade horticulturists to move to greenhouse parks in the
future. In Koekhoven, the spatial planning process and post-hoc infrastructure building
for the greenhouse park are different interventions. In the anchor firm, the entrepreneur
turned his problems into business opportunities.
Within the continuous change perspective, we see that excursions were organised to
functioning greenhouse parks in the Netherlands to show different actors what a
greenhouse park is or to get ideas for translation: we went looking over there to see how
we thought we possibly could do it (auction stakeholder). Another example of
translation is the way some horticulturists to acquire a plot, with an adequate acreage and
shape for a greenhouse, which is similar to public land acquisition: acquiring land in the
wider region and exchanging it with farmers who own the land of interest. Furthermore,
the Flemish innovative horticulturists network channelled participants reflections on
existing greenhouse park plans and the media focused attention on the Belgian
horticulturists move into a Dutch greenhouse park. In Koekhoven, spatial planning
decisions unintentionally attracted horticulturists (logic of attraction) throughout the
whole region. A sensemaking civil servant sees Koekhoven as the first greenhouse park
in Flanders and thus informs interested observers about it or invites them for field visits.
By inviting others to take a look and talk about it, he stimulates reflection. [The planned
pilot projects] are amazingly exaggerated, while we are already a zone like that.
(horticulturist). The anchor firm entrepreneur makes sense of his energy farm and the
energy cluster Koekhoven as the most efficient energy project in the world and gives
tours to individuals and groups.

5.3.3 Change agents

Both perspectives reveal different ways of intervening. Very visible episodic
interventions contrast with continuous interventions which are often more subtle. From
the episodic perspective, change agents are the policymakers who decide on regulations
as well as the initiators of greenhouse park projects. These are civil servants found on
various policy levels and prime movers in the projects such as the auction, horticulturists,
a wind energy firm and so on. In Koekhoven, the change agents were the local
policymakers who started a spatial land planning process and innovators such as the
anchor firm entrepreneur. Using the continuous change perspective, however, all actors
that can do sensemaking translate and create attraction are change agents, such as the
media, the civil servant, researchers writing articles about greenhouse parks and so forth.
30 V. Verguts et al.

Both perspectives (episodic and continuous change) reveal entirely different ideas about
who change agents are and the way the intervene in change processes.

6 Discussion

Through literature and a case study, we have shown how change is currently addressed in
IS and contrasted it with the analysis of the dual perspective framework. We now discuss
more in detail how organisational change literature adds to our understanding of IS
development and how the dual perspective framework can provide insight for better
understanding of and intervention in, IS change processes.
In its conceptualisation of change, the dual-perspective framework highlights
different aspects of the process that might otherwise go unnoticed; these are mainly
continuous aspects. Comparison of the analysis of the common elements in the
continuum approaches with the analyses of this framework shows that a more inclusive
system analysis is possible than is performed in transition management and in the
middle-out approach. Remarkably, many of the continuous conceptualisation of change
that are covered in our case study are covered by the IS literature that incorporates social
network analysis (Ashton, 2008; Ashton and Bain 2012; Paquin and Howard-Grenville,
2009, 2012), or regional economic theories (Chertow, 2007; Deutz and Gibbs, 2008).
Further, our examples of established or potential linkages indicate the necessity of a
sheltered environment by means of trust (Gibbs, 2003) and short mental distances among
the partners (Ashton and Bain, 2012; Paquin and Howard-Grenville, 2009). This analysis
of the conceptualisation of change confirms the power of the theoretic multiplicity in IS
(Boons and Howard Grenville, 2009): each theory has blind spots (Termeer and Dewulf,
2012) but together, they can cover the range of the episodic and continuous change
conceptualisation. Our analysis of change shows the cohesion between these theories and
concepts and it adds a way of presenting the concepts as a complement of two different,
always valid perspectives which can further the understanding of how apparently
unexpected process outcomes result from the coincidence of inertia and movement.
The major contribution of the dual-perspective framework to IS literature lies in the
understanding of interventions and the detection of possible change agents. Therefore we
now discuss how this framework provides insights into possible intervention strategies as
well as venues for influencing the realisation of IS projects. When looking at possible
intervention strategies, the case shows clearly that the episodic interventions are well
covered by this approaches, while the more subtle continuous interventions, based on the
mechanism of translation, the logic of attraction and sensemaking are much less a point
of analysis. This confirms Weick (2000), who pointed out that the extent to which change
is continuous is typically underestimated. The continuous change interventions seem to
be too trivial or to unimportant to be noticed or remembered, but the accumulation of
these small interventions can result in major changes. These interventions are so small
that only observers that are close to the process can see them. Moreover, these
interventions can only be detected as interventions in hindsight, after they have
accumulated into more visible larger changes. Further, everyone who can do
sensemaking could be a possible change agent for these kinds of small interventions. As
such a wider range of sometimes surprising change agents can be detected.
Our framework shows that the continuum approaches could adopt more of a
continuous perspective on interventions to see how the system is already adapting to the
 Industrial symbiosis as sustainable development strategy 31

changing environment (Werkman, 2009). The dual-perspective framework could inspire

these approaches in their quest for understanding of how these linkages evolve by
enlarging the focus to the mechanisms of translation, attraction, continuous adaptation
and sensemaking. Taking the continuous change agents also into account can lead to
inclusion of new actors and ideas and make it possible to trigger them to take up their
role as a change agent. For transition management, the framework reiterates the
importance of inclusion, creativity and sensemaking, or the act of repeatedly opening up
for new actors, new ideas and alternative interpretations. As a vision (Geels, 2005;
Rotmans and Loorbach, 2009; Baas and Boons, 2004), IS can create attraction but it is
not by itself persuasive enough to engage actors (Deutz and Gibbs, 2008) because of the
low relative importance of the by-product in comparison to the firms core product and
the level of confidentiality that is needed to establish linkages (Deutz and Gibbs, 2008).
In terms of intervening in the realisation of IS projects, the dual-perspective
framework does not prioritise episodic or continuous interventions, as it links their use,
intensity and frequency to the specific systems needs. Weick and Quinn (1999)
recommend starting with interventions that initially adopt the continuous perspective and
only switching to episodic change in the event of lock-in and when continuous change
interventions are no longer effective thus requiring episodic change intervention to
remove blockades. This illustrates how the dual-perspective framework is indeed
robust to different degrees of interventions. Interventions need to be adapted to the
systems contingencies at each specific moment, starting with the rather soft and indirect
interventions of the continuous perspective and only moving occasionally to more
drastic interventions when this is not sufficient. In line with our findings, Paquin and
Howard-Grenville (2012) suggest that a balance of goal-directed and non-goal-directed
interactions remain important in the later phases of IS development.
Finally, an interesting parallel can be found between Chertows (2007) idea of
uncovering and the intervention strategy of the dual-perspective framework. This parallel
is based on situation-dependent switches between episodic and continuous intervention
strategies. According to Chertow, IS has to emerge. This is even possible with actors that
are not familiar with IS: actors have to make sense of their environment themselves and
will spontaneously develop linkages. The influence of policy is rather indirect, in that it
creates conditions in which this kind of change is possible. At a certain stage,
developments are uncovered by external actors (Chertow, 2007). At that point, the
change can be influenced and steered. The parallel with the dual-perspective framework
hence lies in starting with continuous change interventions and shifting at a certain point
(after uncovering) to episodic change interventions. In our framework, the timing of the
shift is not coincidental (when the change process stagnates) and the shift need not be
permanent. Here our framework can help to maintain the variation in analysis and
intervention and to indicate interventions that are adapted to the system.

7 Conclusions

Based on various threads in the literature, we have developed a dual-perspective

framework that considers both continuous and episodic change in IS development
processes.
Our case shows that greenhouse parks are possible in Flanders. Energy gains
importance. Heating a greenhouse is expensive while vegetable prices are declining;
32 V. Verguts et al.

selling electricity is a resource for the manure processing company. This situation could
drive more energy-related linkages. Currently, many greenhouse park projects stagnate in
the planning phase. While spatial planning processes are typically perceived as inertial
and time consuming, our study suggests making use of continuous developments that are
already present, related to regional economy approaches and social network analysis that
often overlooked by planners. Based on this the government can provide goals and
guidance by making greenhouse parks attractive and leave some aspects of realising the
project to the horticulturists themselves.
For wider IS development, our framework shows the analytical importance of the
combination of different theoretical angles in IS literature and shows explicit
arrangements of continuous interventions that, when accumulating, can result in major
changes. As such, IS may be inspired by the mechanisms of sensemaking, translation and
the logic of attraction. The understanding of interventions and the detection of a wider
range of possible change agents enlarges the set of intervention strategies. Combining the
analytical elements from plannedemergent and continuum approaches with the
additional way of looking to changing from the dual-perspective framework provides for
promising strategies in understanding the change processes behind the practical
realisation of IS. When used in this way, the framework can contribute to fill the
implementation gap between theory and practice of IS projects (Gibbs, 2009). The
dual-perspective framework makes an abstraction of power relations between actors and
differentiates between public and private actors. The framework can be hence applied to
analyse IS developments in different policy contexts such as other EU countries. In
countries as China, the framework is less important for the circular economy, because
failure of planned initiatives is less at stake (Gibbs, 2009).
Our analysis of the Koekhoven greenhouse park using the dual-perspective
framework has illustrated its usefulness for analysing IS projects. Future research will
refine and validate the analytical capability of the framework by conducting comparative
case-study research. Intervention opportunities need to be validated by following up the
effect of recommendations to governmental agencies and practitioners in the field.

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