Combining Industrial Symbiosis With Sustainable Supply Chain Management for the Development of Urban Communities

Abstract

Growing urban population is putting pressure on the supply of natural resources leading to global environmental impacts and calling for new ways to manage urban development. Circular economy strategies can provide the means to both increase resource productivity and generate new business opportunities. Industrial symbiosis is one such strategy. We explore an industrial symbiosis application in this paper. While most previous industrial symbiosis applications have been limited to eco-industrial parks, here we propose an adaptation of the industrial symbiosis and sustainable supply chain management concepts to urban areas in general. It is a way to develop economic clusters incorporating symbiotic links between multiple products supply chains. A proposed iterative facilitated industrial symbiosis method identifies an economic cluster focus, stakeholders, opportunities for resource exchange, and sharing of infrastructure, as well as other important elements. The method provides systematic guidance for practitioners seeking ways to grow local industry and economy, increase resource productivity, reduce wastes, and better utilize local resources. Benefits of industrial symbiosis and barriers to its implementation are also identified in the method. The method comprises five phases, each illustrated on an example drawn from our application of the method in an urban development in Gothenburg, a city in Sweden.