Evaluating Environmental Performance of Industrial Park Development: The Case of Shenyang

Summary In order to improve the overall sustainability of industrial parks, it is necessary to understand the development characteristics of industrial parks so that appropriate management measures can be raised. Under such a circumstance, this study analyzes the changes in the environmental performance of Shenyang Economic and Technology Development Zone (SETDZ) in terms of emergy‐based indicators and explores underlying driving forces using decomposition analysis methods. The results show that in the industrial recruitment stage (2001–2006), the total emergy increased rapidly and the sustainability level decreased significantly because of the exploitation of local resources with the expansion of industrial scale. After entering the industrial cluster and upgrading stage (2007–2010), the total emergy increased even faster, while the environmental performance did not decrease too much because of the improved resource efficiency and improved technological progress. The implementation of industrial symbiosis (IS) (2011–2013) could have further effectively reduced the total emergy consumption and improved the environmental performance, but current symbiosis efforts were not sufficient and need to be further promoted. Gross regional product and area of the industrial park were the most important driving factors to the total emergy for all the development stages. In terms of emergy sustainability, renewable emergy ratio (R 1 /U) was one key impact factor. Therefore, how to improve the ratio of renewable resources and enhance IS scopes will be the key strategies for its sustainable development.