SYMSITES engages in community building through stakeholder forums
The EU-funded SYMSITES project seeks to integrate technological innovation with community-driven strategies to valorise underutilised resources such as municipal waste, industrial by-products, and wastewater. Within this context, it organised 14 local stakeholder forums at its four pilot “EcoSites” in Greece, Denmark, Spain, and Austria.
The stakeholder forums, organised between 2023 and 2025, were designed as opportunities for relevant stakeholders “to get involved in the project design and implementation as well as for the project itself to generate useful practitioner and citizen knowledge and insights to facilitate exploitation of the results.” In doing so, these events contributed to community building and citizen engagement.
The Austrian EcoSite implemented three events with an expert audience around the topics of water & wastewater including numerous targeted sub-topics. The Danish EcoSite also focused their two meetings around the water topic, including the involvement of cross-national funding agencies in one of the events. In Greece, a total of six events took place focusing on both the civil society engagement including education as well as the more technical expert discussions on Industrial-Urban Symbiosis or sustainability. The Spanish EcoSite organised three events around themes such as waste & wastewater treatment and education.
SYMSITES has now published a report highlighting the main activities, objectives, and conclusions of each stakeholder forum. In each country the forums resulted in some interesting insights. In Austria, high investment costs and regulatory requirements were identified as key barriers to successfully reuse water in food businesses, with participants noting that they would support the regulation of wastewater water reuse at EU level, with some national flexibility. In Denmark one of the key questions was who (farmers or public utilities) should invest in wastewater treatment, whether that’s innovative or conventional. This uncertainty affects long-term planning, stakeholder commitment, and the viability of scaling the technology.
In Greece, two stakeholder forums were held at primary schools, focusing on “creating eco conscious learning environments through inclusive stakeholder engagement.” The forums raised awareness, generated practical suggestions and secured stakeholder buy-in for future projects. In Spain, the forums were also aimed at raising awareness, and received strong interest from both children and adults in learning more about water treatment, waste separation, and circular economy practices. The interactive nature of the workshops made it easier for people to understand complex processes such as wastewater treatment and the importance of proper waste sorting.
More information on each stakeholder forum can be found here.
