Industrial ecosystem and revitalization of brownfields

Abstract

The creation of climate-neutral industrial ecosystems based on digital leadership determines the movement of advanced countries towards competitiveness on the global stage. Industrial ecosystems of most regions of Ukraine are characterized by a low technological level of key industries and lack of organizational routines that can ensure their transition to a higher technological and resource-efficient level. The problem of forming a modern policy in the field of revitalization of abandoned areas of former industrial use (brownfields), in particular in the field of industrial waste processing, needs an urgent solution. The article is aimed at highlighting the theoretical foundations and practical aspects of creating a new industrial path through the revitalization of brownfields in underdeveloped industrial ecosystems on the example of old industrial mining regions. The paper proposes the use of a bricolage approach to create a new path of development of old industrial mining regions. This approach focuses not on the breakthrough development of the new industry, which is almost impossible in the conditions of insufficient development of industrial ecosystems, but on the gradual process of strategic cooperation of many participants (local and non-local enterprises, research institutes, local authorities, community, national and regional authorities, other stakeholders), coordination and pooling of resources at different levels, which will eventually have to evolve together, thus leading to a favorable institutional environment for the new industry. The establishment of an enterprises for the processing of coal preparation within the framework of the brownfield revitalization project is a kind of a kludge, the temporary adaptation of the community to the complex socio-economic and environmental situation, which is a consequence of the cessation of intensive coal mining, which will make it possible to create new routines of business behavior of institutions and citizens, the best of which in the process of evolutionary selection will be able to adapt to the new challenges of global technological transformations in industry and ecology. The practical implementation of the given approach is primarily represented in the creation of special institutions that are alternatives to the institutional traps of industrial development on the principles of the circular economy and relate to the introduction of more strict measures when implementing European waste management standards in national legislation and additional taxes that force enterprises to recycle waste; emergence of special enterprises (scavengers and decomposers) that use new effective disposal measures to restore and further use brownfields; creation of special community development corporations that promote economic development and environmental sustainability of the territory and ensure broad community participation in the creation of initiatives and decision-making; use of opportunities for Ukrainian integration in the field of innovation, science and education under the Association Agreement signed with the European Union in order to make effective decisions on the revitalization of brownfields.