Non-technical barriers to (and drivers for) the circular economy through industrial symbiosis: A practical input

Lombardi, Rachel

doi:10.3280/efe2017-001009

Cited by 27 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Despite the proven benefits brought by IS, today, only 0.1% of the 26 million EU enterprises are known to be active in this field [42]. This phenomenon can partly be explained by the fact that, during the past two decades, companies had access to relatively cheap and abundant resources [43].…”

Section: Barriers To Industrial Symbiosismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, given the rising societal and institutional pressure on industries to reduce their environmental impact, as well as the possible exhaustion of some resources, there is an urgent need for solutions that could help to remove the remaining hindrances to IS dissemination. The barriers to IS are numerous and have been listed by many in IS literature [33,34,42,[44][45][46][47]. Golev et al grouped the barriers to IS in seven categories [44]:…”

Section: Barriers To Industrial Symbiosismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is particularly true when assessing the feasibility of a symbiosis. Companies are often reluctant to pursue IS projects because of the inconsistency, the inflexibility but also the volatility of the environmental regulation and its enforcement [42].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Economic infeasibility: the appropriate market conditions should be met in order to create IS opportunities [42]. In some cases, even if the symbiosis proves to be technically feasible and relevant in terms of environment and social performance, it cannot proceed because additional transaction costs are too high [54,55] and economic gains are too insignificant for the project to meet the cost-benefit requirements (low return on investment, high payback time).…”

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confidence: 99%

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A Case Study of Industrial Symbiosis in the Humber Region Using the EPOS Methodology

et al. 2019

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For the last 20 years, the field of industrial symbiosis (IS) has raised interest among academics and industries. IS consists of dissimilar entities sharing and valorising underutilised resources such as materials, energy, information, services, or technologies in the view of increasing the industrial system’s circularity. Despite the benefits brought by IS, though, barriers hindering the full dissemination of IS remain. This paper presents a methodology developed in the framework of the H2020 European project EPOS that aims at removing some of the obstacles to the implementation of IS. The method follows a multidisciplinary approach that intents to trigger the interest of industry decision-makers and initiate efforts to optimise the use of energy and material resources through symbiosis. It is applied to an industrial cluster located in the Humber region of UK. The case study shows how the approach helped to identify several IS opportunities, how one particular high-potential symbiosis was further assessed, and how it led to the creation of a business case. It was estimated that the identified symbiosis could bring substantial economic (+2000 k€ pa), environmental (−4000 t of CO2 eq. pa) and social (+7 years of healthy life) gains to the region.

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Section: Barriers To Industrial Symbiosismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Barriers To Industrial Symbiosismentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Case Study of Industrial Symbiosis in the Humber Region Using the EPOS Methodology

et al. 2019

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“…In addition to the tools presented in Table 1, a number of industrial symbiosis optimization tools were identified [61][62][63], as well as policy-related tools [64,65]. Furthermore, many recent publications are directly highlighting the link between industrial symbiosis and circular economy [59,[66][67][68], an emerging concept. These publications focus on developing tools to facilitate resource exchange among companies [59], a state-of-the-art review linking Circular Economy with industrial symbiosis and related concepts [67] and exploring non-technical barriers and drivers for Circular Economy implementation by means of industrial symbiosis [68].…”

Section: Tools For Measuring the Eco-innovation Potentialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring the Readiness of SMEs for Eco-Innovation and Industrial Symbiosis: Development of a Screening Tool

2018

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Despite the high business, innovation and sustainability potential linked with eco-innovation and industrial symbiosis, limited implementation can be observed in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In order to enhance the implementation of these concepts in SMEs, the main goal of this paper is to propose a screening tool to identify and evaluate SMEs’ potential for eco-innovation, with a special focus on industrial symbiosis and green business models aspects. In order to accomplish this goal, an action research was developed in two cycles: (1) development and testing of the screening prototype; and (2) improvement and scale-up of the enhanced screening tool, in close collaboration with the research partners. In addition to enabling a better understanding about their own internal processes and activities, the evaluation of the potential of 108 SMEs for eco-innovation provided them with detailed insights about how to reach the potential benefits with industrial symbiosis and green business models. Differently from the identified existing tools, the screening tool proposed in this research aims at supporting companies to understand what their potential for eco-innovation is, combining wider eco-innovation and industrial symbiosis opportunities and green business models, supplemented with a readiness evaluation to explore the existing potential.

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Identifying barriers and good practices for implementing circular economy principles in small and medium enterprises

Palombi,

Schiaroli,

Fraccascia

et al. 2024

Bus Strat Env

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Recently, the new industrial paradigm of circular economy (CE) has acquired increasing attention. In a CE, the value of materials is preserved by keeping them for as long as possible in the economic system, overcoming the “traditional” linear model (take‐waste‐disposal). Despite its benefits in terms of sustainability, there are still numerous barriers to the implementation of CE principles for companies, and specifically, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) find it difficult to integrate CE principles within their business models due to a shortage of resources. Hence, a qualitative multiple‐case study involving four Italian companies implementing CE principles is conducted. The findings contribute to the development of CE principles in SMEs by proposing good practices, such as encouraging SMEs to engage in research projects to secure initial investments, expanding suppliers' networks to reduce the risk of limited by‐product availability, and implementing organizational training on CE to enhance employees' awareness and skills.

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Non-technical barriers to (and drivers for) the circular economy through industrial symbiosis: A practical input

Cited by 27 publications

References 12 publications

A Case Study of Industrial Symbiosis in the Humber Region Using the EPOS Methodology

A Case Study of Industrial Symbiosis in the Humber Region Using the EPOS Methodology

Measuring the Readiness of SMEs for Eco-Innovation and Industrial Symbiosis: Development of a Screening Tool

Identifying barriers and good practices for implementing circular economy principles in small and medium enterprises

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