Low-Carbon Industrial Parks: How Does the “Ecosystem” Work?

An industrial park cannot become low-carbon simply by installing rooftop solar panels or adding more green space. Behind the model is an ecosystem linking companies, infrastructure, energy, resources, data, and governance, with emissions measured and reduced across the entire park.

More than a collection of “green” factories

A conventional industrial park is often understood as an area where many manufacturers are concentrated and share basic infrastructure such as roads, electricity, water, and wastewater treatment.

In a low-carbon model, companies are connected by more than shared land and infrastructure. Production facilities look for joint opportunities to cut emissions, use resources more efficiently, and make use of one another’s energy, water, material, or by-product flows.

A low-carbon industrial park can therefore be understood as one that is planned, invested in, and operated to progressively reduce greenhouse-gas emissions per unit of product or value created, while moving toward a development pathway consistent with net-zero emissions.

There is currently no single globally harmonised legal definition of the term “low-carbon industrial park”. In international practice, it often appears alongside concepts such as green industrial parks, circular industrial parks, and eco-industrial parks.

In Vietnam, the term specifically defined in law is “eco-industrial park”. Decree No. 35/2022/ND-CP and Circular No. 05/2025/TT-BKHDT provide a framework for developing, converting, and certifying eco-industrial parks. Carbon reduction is an important objective in that process, but the eco-industrial model also includes broader environmental, economic, social, and governance requirements.

Six links in a low-carbon ecosystem

A low-carbon industrial park can be pictured as an ecosystem made up of six interconnected links.

Clean energy and energy efficiency

Energy is often one of the largest sources of industrial emissions. The transition therefore needs to begin by understanding how much energy companies use, when they use it, and in which processes.

Solutions may include upgrading equipment, optimising production lines, recovering waste heat, deploying energy-management systems, developing rooftop solar, or accessing lower-emission electricity sources in line with regulations.

What makes the ecosystem model different is that optimisation is not limited to individual factories. An industrial park can develop shared energy infrastructure, coordinate demand between companies, or use excess heat and steam from one facility in another.

Industrial symbiosis

Industrial symbiosis is one of the defining features of eco-industrial and low-carbon industrial parks.

In a symbiotic relationship, by-products, waste, treated water, excess heat, or surplus energy from one company can become inputs for another, provided technical, environmental, and legal requirements are met.

For example, waste heat from one factory may be used for drying; treated water may be reused for suitable purposes; and production by-products may become raw materials for another industry.

This mechanism reduces demand for newly extracted resources, cuts the amount of waste requiring treatment, and lowers emissions associated with producing and transporting raw materials. To work in practice, however, industrial symbiosis requires transparent information on material flows, technical standards, responsibilities between parties, and benefit-sharing mechanisms.

Shared low-emission infrastructure

A low-carbon ecosystem needs a layer of park-wide supporting infrastructure instead of leaving every company to solve the same issues independently.

This infrastructure may include water supply and reuse systems, wastewater treatment, waste collection and sorting, energy supply, warehousing, logistics, internal transport, charging stations, and facilities for preventing environmental risks.

When planned in an integrated way, shared infrastructure can reduce duplicated investment costs, improve resource efficiency, and enable smaller companies to access low-carbon solutions.

Conversely, if each factory optimises its own operations while the park as a whole still depends on high-emission energy, inefficient transport, or infrastructure that cannot circulate resources, the total emissions reduction will remain limited.

Data and greenhouse-gas inventories

Emissions that are not measured cannot be managed. Greenhouse-gas inventories and data systems are therefore foundational to a low-carbon industrial park.

Each company needs to identify direct emissions, emissions from purchased energy, and relevant indirect sources. The park management board or infrastructure developer also needs to track energy, water, fuel, transport, waste, and environmental indicators across the whole industrial park.

These data help identify major emission sources, prioritise solutions, set reduction targets, and evaluate results over time.

A credible system needs clear rules for data collection, standardisation, quality control, and confidentiality. Without consistent data, an industrial park will struggle to demonstrate emissions reductions, access green finance, or meet customer requirements in international supply chains.

Governance and multi-stakeholder coordination

Exchanges of energy, water, or by-products between companies do not happen automatically just because factories are located close to one another.

The industrial-park management entity must play a coordinating role: preparing the transition plan, building databases, identifying symbiosis opportunities, mobilising investment, and tracking implementation. Infrastructure providers, tenant companies, local authorities, financial institutions, technology providers, and surrounding communities are all part of the ecosystem.

The international eco-industrial park framework developed by UNIDO, the World Bank, and GIZ identifies four main performance areas: park management, environmental performance, social performance, and economic performance. This approach shows that a sustainable industrial park cannot focus only on emissions-reduction technology while ignoring governance capacity, workers, and communities.

Companies and supply chains

Companies are the actors that directly implement most emissions-reduction measures. Increasingly, however, the pressure and incentives for transition also come from outside the industrial park.

International customers, investors, and leading supply-chain companies are paying more attention to the carbon footprint of products. Companies that use energy efficiently, maintain transparent emissions data, and meet environmental standards may strengthen their ability to join supply chains, access markets, and attract investment.

Low-carbon industrial parks therefore address more than an environmental challenge. They also help companies adapt to new requirements in trade and investment.

What benefits can the transition bring?

According to UNIDO, eco-industrial parks can improve resource efficiency, promote cleaner production, reduce pollution, and generate economic and social benefits for workers and surrounding communities.

At company level, reducing energy, water, and material consumption can lower operating costs. Sharing infrastructure and exchanging by-products can create new value from material streams that previously had to be treated as waste.

At industrial-park level, the model can make a site more attractive to investors concerned with environmental, social, and governance standards. Well-planned infrastructure can also improve resilience to water shortages, energy disruptions, and climate-change impacts.

The World Bank’s Country Climate and Development Report for Vietnam also notes that converting industrial parks into eco-industrial parks can contribute to emissions reduction and support Vietnam’s net-zero target.

Potential in Vietnam

Vietnam has piloted the conversion of industrial parks toward an ecological model with support from UNIDO and international partners. Activities have focused on cleaner production, efficient resource use, industrial symbiosis, and greenhouse-gas reduction.

Decree No. 35/2022/ND-CP introduced provisions on eco-industrial parks and eco-enterprises. Circular No. 05/2025/TT-BKHDT subsequently provided guidance on developing and assessing eco-industrial parks, giving the transition in Vietnam a clearer implementation basis.

This experience shows that a low-carbon industrial park is not a facility that can be “completed” through a one-off investment. It is a continuous transition that begins with assessing current conditions, gathering data, and identifying solutions, followed by investment, performance monitoring, and progressively more ambitious targets.

From separate factories to one ecosystem

The greatest value of a low-carbon industrial park lies in creating efficiencies that individual companies would struggle to achieve on their own.

When factories, infrastructure providers, and management authorities share information, use common solutions, and build symbiotic networks, the waste from one process can become a resource for another. Energy and water can be managed more efficiently, while emissions are tracked across the whole system.

That is why a low-carbon industrial park is described as an ecosystem: each component has its own role, but the parts must connect, exchange resources, and improve together. One link making a transition can create some impact; only a system-wide transition can build a durable emissions-reduction pathway for industry.