The supply chain implications of industrial symbiosis

This paper proposes an enterprise input-output model to assess the impacts created by industrial symbiosis (IS) on traditional supply chains for production inputs, triggered by resource use change. The model is capable of measuring a variety of sustainability indicators such as resource and waste savings, total energy use reduction, employment creation, reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the model can be used to analyze IS exchanges from a dynamic perspective, since it is able to take into account dynamic scenarios in wastes production and inputs requirement. A numerical example is presented to show how the model works. This example shows how the impacts of IS strongly depend on the combined effects of upstream supply chains topology, waste treatment processes, and waste-input substitution rate.