As part of the development of its business park, the inter-communal authority of the Bassin de Pompey, in partnership with the Val Lorraine Entreprendre association, decided to begin giving thought to the circular economy in 2017. The purpose of this initiative is to set up together practical economic development actions and develop effective inter-company partnerships that generate economic, environmental and social benefits.

This initiative took the form of a workshop to identify synergies between 25 companies in the region, which led to the emergence of 299 "potential synergies". Subsequently, companies were invited to say how they were expecting to prioritize the various synergies.

This collective thinking has led to the production of an "Industrial and Territorial Ecology" (ITE) action programme consisting of 27 actions, divided into 3 main areas:

- synergies for equipment sharing between companies

- synergies for sharing and pooling resources

- synergies for pooling inter-company skills

In 2018, with support from ADEME and the Grand Est Region, the Pompey area recruited an ITE project manager to lead the initiative and implement the action programme.

The objective was to launch the first synergies in late 2018, still in partnership with the Val Lorraine Entreprendre association.