Industry faces new challenges in today’s world where the cost of waste disposal is on the rise. No longer is it cost-effective to send waste to landfill. Neither is it resource-efficient or socially acceptable for environmentally conscious companies not to consider end-of-pipe impacts.
Advisory System for Process Innovation and Resource Exchange (ASPIRE):
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was developed in response to manufacturing companies talking to their local councils about high waste disposal costs, particularly those associated with increasing landfill levies.
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leveraged CSIRO's expertise in industrial engineering and industrial ecology, operations research and information retrieval to build a software tool that identifies potential business to business (B2B) resource exchanges, known as Industrial Symbiosis (IS).
Simply put, IS is where a waste or by-product from one facility is used as an input to another. This follows the common term "one man’s trash is another man’s treasure".
ASPIRE is an online matchmaking tool using innovative software, for material resource exchange that would otherwise be discarded, by bringing different parties together to exchange value.
As an impact organisation, ASPIRE identifies opportunities and connects businesses to turn circular economy behaviours into practical realities by:
- Reducing costs associated with waste disposal
- Earn money with a new revenue stream
- Save on C02 emissions using localised solutions
Support
for the project
The
roll out of this valuable tool for business was supported through funding
from Cleantech Innovations Geelong; a partnership project between the City of Greater Geelong, the Geelong Manufacturing Council and state government.
ASPIRE has expanded
ASPIRE was developed by CSIRO and Data61 in response to a need from Australian businesses and their local councils who were seeking a solution to their ever-growing waste disposal costs.
ASPIRE transitioned to a commercial operation in 2019. In March 2020, the new ASPIRE platform was launched. ASPIRE is currently expanding across networks Australia wide and in Asia Pacific
Visit the ASPIRE website.