Industrial symbiosis grant funding opportunity (Washington State)

Commerce is now accepting applications for collaborative projects to spur the circular economy, diverting waste streams generated by one industry into beneficial resources for another. Industrial symbiosis project investments help foster a locally resilient supply chain, grow economic opportunities and ultimately reduce environmental impacts in communities across Washington state.

About $2,425,000 is available from the Industrial Symbiosis Grant Program. Applications can request funding within the award range of $40,000 to $500,000 for projects located across Washington state. Awarded projects are required to provide 1:1 (one-to-one) match funding from a non-state source. Funding for these grants is made possible by the Climate Commitment Act.

This competitive Request for Applications (RFA) is open to private, non-profit, tribal and public entities. As outlined in RCW 43.31.635, applications for innovative research, development and deployment projects may include:

• Conceptual work by public utilities to redirect their waste to productive use
• Existing inventories or project concepts involving specific biobased wastes converted to renewable natural gas
• Research on product development using a specific waste flow
• Feasibility studies to evaluate potential biobased resources
• Feasibility studies for publicly owned utilities to evaluate business models to transform to multiutility operations or for the evaluation of potential symbiosis connections with other regional businesses
• Projects which help facilitate the development of industrial symbiosis parks across Washington state
• Other local waste coordination projects as determined by Commerce

As a special preference, projects which facilitate the development of industrial symbiosis parks are encouraged to apply. These are shared sites or properties that enable organizations to co-locate and partner in the use of resources more sustainably through integrating by-product waste streams into production processes, such as waste materials, wastewater or waste heat.