Features of the Higher Education for the Circular Economy: The Case of Italy

The higher education system plays a critical role in supporting the transition towards a circular economy (CE). It helps create business leaders and policymakers having appropriate skills, competences, and consciousness referring to the CE challenges. Nevertheless, few studies have specifically investigated how the higher education system is addressing the CE, how the current academic offering is integrating the CE principles, and which skills and competences are currently provided. This paper overcomes these limitations by investigating the current offering of the higher education for the CE in Italy. We analyze the academic programs, courses, and modules at different levels of 49 Italian universities and, by means of a detailed classification of the learning outcomes, provide a clear picture of the knowledge, skills, and competences offered by the CE education. We finally discuss implications of our findings concerning the development of CE education and CE jobs

Ecosystem indicators for measuring industrial symbiosis

Industrial symbiosis (IS) is a collaborative approach among firms involving physical exchanges of materials, energy, and wastes, which creates economic advantages for firms and environmental benefits for the society. In this paper, we adopt an ecosystem approach to conceptualize the network of firms involved in IS relationships (ISN), in terms of organisms (firms), functions (waste exchange), and services (environmental benefits), and provide new insight on how to assess and compute IS performance indicators. In particular, we designed five classes of indicators aimed at assessing 1) the impact of services provided by ISNs on the environment, 2) the performance of the ISN services, 3) how the single functions contribute to ISN services, 4) the performance of the ISN functions, and 5) how the single firms contribute to ISN functions. A numerical example is also discussed showing how to compute them and the information they provide. The proposed indicators are useful to develop proper strategies to increase the efficiency of the system in exploiting the IS synergies, to improve the symbiotic exchanges carried out in ISNs, and to identify firms contributing most to IS benefits. Hence, they may assist managers of ISNs and policymakers in decision-making aspects, an urgent need of the literature

Decision-Support Tools for Smart Transition to Circular Economy

The sustainable transition towards the circular economy requires the effective use of artificial intelligence (AI) and information technology (IT) techniques. As the sustainability targets for 2030–2050 increasingly become a tougher challenge, society, company managers and policymakers require more support from AI and IT in general. How can the AI-based and IT-based smart decision-support tools help implementation of circular economy principles from micro to macro scales? This chapter provides a conceptual framework about the current status and future development of smart decision-support tools for facilitating the circular transition of smart industry, focussing on the implementation of the industrial symbiosis (IS) practice. IS, which is aimed at replacing production inputs of one company with wastes generated by a different company, is considered as a promising strategy towards closing the material, energy and waste loops. Based on the principles of a circular economy, the utility of such practices to close resource loops is analyzed from a functional and operational perspective. For each life cycle phase of IS businesses – e.g., opportunity identification for symbiotic business, assessment of the symbiotic business and sustainable operations of the business – the role played by decision-support tools is described and embedding smartness in these tools is discussed. Based on the review of available tools and theoretical contributions in the field of IS, the characteristics, functionalities and utilities of smart decision-support tools are discussed within a circular economy transition framework. Tools based on recommender algorithms, machine learning techniques, multi-agent systems and life cycle analysis are critically assessed. Potential improvements are suggested for the resilience and sustainability of a smart circular transition

The impact of internal company dynamics on sustainable circular business development: Insights from circular startups

The circular economy is commonly acknowledged as a solution to ecological problems such as resource depletion and waste emissions. New economic opportunities emerge by transitioning from a linear to a circular economy and innovative business models are needed to translate these opportunities into business reality. In recent years, researchers have investigated a variety of approaches to circular business models, but few studies have been conducted associating internal company dynamics with sustainable circular business approaches. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to investigate the internal dynamics of young and small-scale companies in Germany that adopt a sustainable circular business model. This study focuses on internal barriers, enablers, competences and drivers to sustainable circular business model implementation. A case-based research design was applied, drawing on semi-structured interviews with 12 founders of businesses and organisations with a sustainable circular business model. The study develops four strategies to overcome barriers to sustainable circular business model adoption in young and small-scale companies: (1) human-centeredness in all activities affected by circular business model adoption, (2) high commitment for circularity on the managerial level, (3) requirement of special skills and competences and (4) consideration of cultural aspects inside and outside the company. Further empirical research about established and international incumbents with a sustainable circular business model is needed to be able to compare the internal dynamics of big and small companies in international contexts

Energy-based industrial symbiosis: a literature review for circular energy transition

Nowadays, industrial symbiosis (IS) is recognized as a key strategy to support the transition toward the circular economy. IS deals with the (re)use of wastes produced by a production process as a substitute for traditional production inputs of other traditionally disengaged processes. In this context, this paper provides a systematic literature review on the energy-based IS approach, i.e., IS synergies aimed at reducing the amount of energy requirement from outside industrial systems or the amount of traditional fuels used in energy production. This approach is claimed as effective aimed at reducing the use of traditional fuels in energy production, thus promoting a circular energy transition. 682 papers published between 1997 and 2018 have been collected, and energy-based IS cases have been identified among 96 of these. As a result of the literature review, three categories of symbiotic synergies have been identified: (1) energy cascade; (2) fuel replacement; and (3) bioenergy production. Through the review, different strategies to implement energy-based IS synergies are highlighted and discussed for each of the above-mentioned categories. Furthermore, drivers, barriers, and enablers of business development in energy-based IS are discussed from the technical, economic, regulatory, and institutional perspective. Accordingly, future research directions are recommended

What, where, and how measuring industrial symbiosis: A reasoned taxonomy of relevant indicators

During the last two decades, the literature devoted great attention to industrial symbiosis (IS) as an effective strategy to achieve environmental, economic, and social benefits. Accordingly, a wide range of numerical indicators – highly different among them for scope, definition, purpose, and applications – have been developed, to characterize and measure IS. The paper proposes a taxonomy of these indicators with the aim of facilitating their adoption and proper usage in practice. The taxonomy is developed on the basis of a literature review and is addressed to answer three main questions: (1) what to measure, (2) where to measure, and (3) how to measure. This offers a clear picture of available relevant IS indicators in terms of purpose, context, and methodology

Industrial symbiosis within small cities: the influence of urban features

Purpose - This paper concerns the adoption of the industrial symbiosis at the urban level as a tool to improve their environmental sustainability. Accordingly, urban wastes can be valued in new products or energy, able to reduce the amount of wastes landfilled and the amount of inputs purchased from external sources. In particular, we focus on small cities. We are interested to identify which urban features are able to influence the amount of produced urban wastes that can become inputs for processes of industrial symbiosis. As urban features, we take into account household features and the economic and productive structure of cities.Design/methodology/approach - We adopted a multiple case study approach for six small municipalities located in the Alto Bradano Area (South Italy). For each municipality, we collected data of produced urban wastes which can be used for symbiotic processes. In particular, we analyze the influence of two kinds of urban features: i) socio-economic parameters reflecting household features; ii) the area of nonresidential activities, which we consider a proxy for the economic and productive structure of cities.Originality/value - This paper spreads new light on the industrial symbiosis application at the urban level. Differently from previous studies about waste production, we focused on small cities and we analyzed the effect of the economic and productive structure of cities on the amount of urban wastes. The value of this work lies in the identification of which urban features should be considered in evaluating the implementation of symbiotic projects at the urban level.Practical implications - This study provides interesting managerial implications about the industrial symbiosis approach at the urban level. In particular, the present work can offer a useful guide to define the symbiotic loops that could be significant for a city