Online tool opens new Sudbury business opportunities.

• Author: Stewart, Nick
• Position: SUDBURY

The Greater Sudbury Development Corp. (GSDC) is working to create a ground-breaking and publicly accessible online tool as part of its Eco-Industrial Networking Strategy.

The 12-member Eco-Industrial Committee, an arm of the GSDC, has been working to develop an initial database of 100 local businesses across a variety of sectors, whose locations, by-products and needs will then be plugged into an online mapping tool. More businesses are expected to participate as the project moves forward, with the tool allowing them to log in and add information themselves.

"Sudbury is leading the way on a regional scale," says Tracy Casavant, president, Eco-Industrial Solutions. "It's the first municipality to develop a publically accessible software tool to have this kind of capability."

This tool, which is slated to be implemented and released in the coming spring, will allow local companies to search through the listed criteria and view their locations on a scalable map. Interested parties will then be able to work together from that point in order to develop eco-industries by considering ways to maximize or recycle the use of waste.

"The synergy-finding tool will help businesses find other business to reduce energy, costs and environmental impacts," says Gil Rinaldi, chair of the GSDC's Eco-Industrial Committee.

"It's a unique opportunity for the city and one that's sorely needed."

As an example of one such eco-industry, Rinaldi points to a hypothetical company, which creates a great deal of steam as a by-product of its daily business. Through the use of this online database, this company could seek out additional businesses and form a cluster in order to harness the steam to produce...