Assessment of the national eco-industrial park standard for promoting industrial symbiosis in China

Eco-industrial park (EIP) projects have become more prevalent in China. In order to evaluate the performance of such innovative projects, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) has set up a new national standard for EIPs, the first of its kind globally. This article examines the applicability and feasibility of the indicator system established in the standard. It first presents the details of this new standard. Then benefits and challenges in the standard's application are analyzed. The analysis shows that the new indicators are ecoefficiency-oriented and do not address the essence of the EIP. In the future, there will be a need to revise this set of indicators by considering the principles of eco-industrial development and local realities in order to ensure that the indicators are indeed used to promote sustainable development of industrial parks.