Industrial Symbiosis

As it is recognized that the interconnectedness of communities within an ecosystem is determinant for its sustainability, the latest IE research has been focusing on how to promote these linkages, which have come to be loosely known as Industrial Symbiosis. According to Chertow (2000), IS “…engages traditionally separate industries in a collective approach to competitive advantage involving physical exchange of materials, energy, water, and/or by-products”, the keys being collaboration and the synergistic possibilities offered by geographic proximity. This approach allows an increase in the resource use efficiency through the system, considering the cluster of existing industrial processes, thus diverging from more “traditional” within company environmental management strategies, such as cleaner production or pollution prevention.