Its name may not be snappy, but the environmental and economic benefits to organisations of all sizes and sectors that are involved with the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) are hard to ignore. Aside from its remit to help reduce carbon emissions, divert landfill waste and save virgin materials, NISP also helps businesses create additional sales and cost savings and drive innovation and knowledge transfer. As its founder and programme director Peter Laybourn says: "From April 2005, when we went national, we've helped companies save £110m, achieve new sales of £126m and in that same period reduce CO2 by 3.9m tonnes and divert 3.8m tonnes from landfill."

Industrial symbiosis, in layman's terms, means putting businesses in touch with each other so that one can use the other's waste material to create new markets and use their resources more efficiently. As an example, Toshiba wanted to find a home for the waste foam from its transit packaging. NISP South West found a business, Cardew Pottery, which could use the grey packaging foam to protect its pottery. Consequently, 13 tonnes of foam waste have been diverted from landfill, Toshiba has saved money in waste disposal costs and Cardew Potteries has gained £5,000 of cost savings in transit packaging.

Laybourn says he's been "amazed and delighted" by membership take-up. It's gone "from nothing to 10,000 companies in three years". He thinks directors are engaging with NISP because they see it as a business opportunity. "It's all about competitiveness," he says. "If people are resource inefficient they're going to be less competitive. And while many are doing tremendous amounts within their own boundaries, what NISP does is show what they can achieve together—that by creating a business opportunity, you can do well by business and also do well by the environment."

The programme is funded by Defra's Business Resource Efficiency & Waste (BREW) funding programme, but Laybourn is keen to point out that it is business-led. What that means, he says, is that NISP has a sharp business focus on whatever it does. "We have a regional business advisory group. And we have the big company members, which act as champions, and behind them we have a massive number of small firms with ideas and solutions for innovation."

Despite the programme's success so far, Laybourn feels he's only scratched the surface. "We may have 10,000 companies involved, but compared to the company population of the UK, that's still tiny. We can do much more. We can also be more predictive, so that we identify those companies that aren't currently in our membership that should be working together."

Now he's more wrapped up with funding and people issues, Laybourn says he's slightly envious of his team. "My hands-on activity is pretty limited. The people who work on the programme, who typically come out of industry, get tremendous job satisfaction. It's like being in a sweetie shop: you can work with any sector, and any size of business. The possibility is endless."

www.nisp.org.uk