Towards sustainable development in a transition economy: The case of eco-industrial parks in Ukraine

Abstract

Sustainable development for transition economies is an opportunity to accelerate and complete socio-economic transformations and at the same time an additional responsibility in situations of instability and uncertainty. The chances for strengthening sustainability are growing within the organized innovation space, which makes it possible to model scenarios of ecologically oriented development and, with the help of state and international support, to start their implementation. The paper aims to analyze the possibilities and directions of creating eco-industrial parks in a transition economy. It uses an innovative helix model in its triple, quadruple and quintuple variations for functioning and sustainable development of industrial parks in Ukraine.The study adopts a descriptive comparative analysis of data on the planning and implementation of economic, primarily environmentally relevant, activities. Based on the analysis and description of exogenous factors, in particular within GEIPP, a SWOT table on the potential of eco-industrial parks was formed. The directions of development of industrial, technological, and scientific parks in Ukraine are determined using the quintuple helix model on the plane of “knowledge-innovation”, in particular on quadruple helix transition to sustainability through the simultaneous development of socially oriented and environmental activities. Within the legislation, it is proposed to approve a sustainable form of artificially separated innovation parks, namely the “eco-industrial park”. One of the conditions for advanced sustainable development in Ukraine is the creation of a national program to support the transformation of innovation parks into their environmental versions 2.0 and 3.0, as well as investing in greenfield eco-industrial parks.