Environment: Circular economy, technical standards for industrial symbiosis

ENEA has published a volume designed to assist companies and organizations implement industrial symbiosis, a process in which companies exchange by-products and waste, turning one company's waste into another's raw material.

The volume was created as part of the SUN (Symbiosis Users Network), the first Italian network for industrial symbiosis which involves 40 partners including universities, institutions, research organizations, companies and technology networks.

In particular, a SUN working group provided a broad and organic overview of existing standards and ongoing standardization initiatives, while also exploring national and international experiences. The book provides technical references to implement sustainable business models like industrial symbiosis, to encourage companies to confront challenges and opportunities concerning environmental, social, economic and governance sustainability.

"Industrial symbiosis is a mutually beneficial colllaboration whose benefits extends beyond the organizations directly involved, benefiting local communities where shared resources, materials, energy and by-products are enhanced rather than wasted, improving traceability, reliability, integrating innovative solutions in production processes and overall efficiency, while reducing waste," explained Tiziana Beltrani, ENEA researcher at the Tools for Sustainability and Circularity of Production Systems Laboratory and coordinator of the working group that developed these guidelines, together with Silvia Sbaffoni (ENEA), Carlo Brondi (CNR) and Eleonora Perotto (Milan Polytechnic).

The standards act as a “shared language” to communicate, transfer and share resources and modus operandi, facilitating monitoring and impact assessment of activities and improving management of resource flows through better collaboration between companies.

These themes are aligned with policies addressing climate change and resource scarcity, like the European Commission's Green Deal and Circular Economy Action Plan, and aim to strenghten the role of technical regulations in driving a transition to a circular and sustainable economy

To download the volume in italian language: Technical Standards for Industrial Symbiosis - A Guide to Voluntary Standards in Industrial Symbiosis