Comparative study on the pathways of industrial parks towards sustainable development between China and Canada

As a key economic development source of urban industrial symbiosis, industrial parks are an effective strategy to facilitate economic development and have been globally recognized and practiced. However, rapid development of these industrial parks has also generated several problems, such as intensive resource consumption and increasing environmental pollution caused by industrial activities. Sustainable development of industrial parks has become a global concern. In this regard, various strategies and projects have been adopted such as eco-industrial park development, low-carbon industrial park construction, circular economy industrial park. However, due to different levels of economic development and different operational system, the pathways of industrial parks towards sustainable development between developing country and developed country have differed. Their experiences and disadvantages should be explored by other countries in similar circumstances. This paper aims to fill such a gap by carrying out case studies between China and Canada, two countries identified as a rapidly developing country and a developed country. Both countries have encouraged to develop industrial parks to support economic development and have recently began to explore whether they can lead to sustainable industrial development. To support the analysis, Tianjin Economic Development area (TEDA), the largest industrial park in terms of its economic scale in China, and Burnside Industrial Park, which is one of the largest park in Canada, were selected as comparative case studies. Through the analysis on the adopted policies strategies and practices, the results indicate that China has put much more effort into their eco-industrial park due to the urgent situation of resource pressure and environmental pollution utilizing a top-down management system. Industrial parks in Canada appear to be moving more slowly in their adoption of sustainable development.