A construção e mobilização das capacidades institucionais para o desenvolvimento da simbiose industrial no estado de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to understand how the activities developed by FIEMG – the Federation of Industries of the State of Minas Gerais, have built and mobilized the capacities for the development of Industrial Symbiosis. Industrial symbiosis - IS occurs through physical exchange of materials, energy, water, and/or by-products among (geographically close)industries in a collective approach to increase competitive advantage, thus improving the environmental performance of companies as well as reducing their total costs (Chertow, 2000; Chertow, 2007). Among several cases of IS in the world, we highlight the case of Kalundborg Industrial Park in Denmark and the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme - NISP in England. In Brazil, FIEMG coordinates the Mining Industrial Symbiosis Programme - PMSI, which is based on the British symbiosis program. Representatives of seven companies from different sectors and regions of the state were interviewed, as well as four actors: the Federation of Industries of the State of Minas Gerais, the environmental agency, an employer’s association and a cooperative of waste pickers. Data analysis aims at identifying the elements present in Spekkink framework (2014) Contexts, Institutional Capacities, Actors, Interactions and Network of Symbiotic Exchanges in mining reality. The results show how FIEMG uses its institutional capacity to promote the PMSI; how the actors are involved in symbiosis through their beliefs, desires and opportunities; the way the interactions occur between these actors and the results as a symbiosis network. This study evidences the importance of the IS promoter and its connection with the actors, especially the employer’s associations; the little influence of governance, economic and physical contexts in promoting PMSI; the low participation of some actors, as the environmental agency, in the symbiosis process and the barriers that come from the exchanges between companies.