EU project boosts eco-efficiency in Sri Lanka’s industrial parks

An EU-funded project is strengthening industrial practices in Sri Lanka to make industrial parks more efficient, environmentally responsible, and economically competitive zones, contributing to the country’s broader green development agenda.

The large-scale capacity-building programme aimed at promoting the Eco-Industrial Park (EIP) concept in Sri Lanka targets more than 1,000 stakeholders across the country’s industrial sector.

It is conducted by the EU-funded Green Recovery Facility project, implemented by Expertise France, Sri Lanka’s National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC), and German consultancy firm Adelphi (adelphi.de).

“EU experience with eco-industrial parks shows that linking parks to innovation, cleaner technologies and markets is key to attracting investment and scaling circular economy practices, and that the strongest results come when companies choose to work together voluntarily rather than through top-down instruction,” Dr Johann Hesse, Head of Cooperation at the Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, said.

The programme includes 25 policymakers, 32 industrial park operators, 475 tenant industries, and 640 members from neighbouring communities.

“By engaging government, park operators, tenant industries and neighbouring communities, this programme helps create the conditions for competitive, low-carbon industrial growth,” Hesse said.