Call for Papers due July 15, 2017. The importance of circular economy and resource efficiency have increased at both European and international level, because of the strategies and actions which are being implemented to promote the transition of Europe to new sustainable and inclusive economies. Among the available tools, new business models are of particular importance, including industrial symbiosis, i.e. the transfer and sharing of resources (raw materials, water, waste, energy, services, skills, tools, databases) from one operator to another. In fact, industrial symbiosis is explicitly cited in the Action Plan on the Circular Economy developed by the European Commission in 2015 (COM / 2015/0614 final) and in its revision of 14 March 2017.
The implementation of industrial symbiosis and the subsequent benefits achievement is growing both at national and international level thanks to territorial measures (regional actions, inclusion in the Waste Management Plan and / or APEA Guidelines, Smart Specialization Strategy - S3) and to its development through national and international projects (POR-FESR, H2020, KIC-RM). The knowledge and experiences sharing on industrial symbiosis practices can highlight success cases, tools for its implementation and dissemination, monitoring and experiences sharing, as well as obstacles and barriers which have to be overcome in order to increase the potential for its application in both technical terms (process of exploitation and transformation of by-products and waste for their re-use), information technology (databases and tools), and in management, logistical, procedural, administrative and regulatory terms.
At Italian level, examples and realization of industrial symbiosis are being implemented and spread, and new scenarios are being introduced, also through greater clarity of regulatory instruments (Decree on by-products, Ministerial Decree of the Ministry of Environment (DM No.264 / 2016) and explanatory circular May 30, 2017) and through specific local and national planning tools, eg. The Regional Law on the Circular Economy of the Emilia-Romagna Region (LRN 16/2015) which contains provisions in support of the circular economy, or the so-called “Collegato Ambientale” (Law No 221 of December 28, 2015), which, by means of the "Green Act " that is currently being finalized, will provide useful tools for the creation of green jobs, for economy decarbonizing and for promoting the efficient and sustainable use of resources. Tax and financial incentives will be useful accompanying measures to facilitate this transition to a circular economy
Call for papers
In order to focus on the state of industrial symbiosis implementation in Italy and to facilitate the comparison about the major challenges and opportunities which this tool leads to, we invite the industrial and technical-scientific community to participate to the Call for papers which will be presented at the First SUN (Symbiosis User Network) Conference as oral presentation or as contribution to the poster session.
The aim of the session is to collect real experiences of industrial symbiosis, performed both by industries and scientific community, best practices and cases (implemented or under implementation) at national and international level, with the final aim to promote the adoption of industrial symbiosis as an operational and systematic tool for the circular economy.
Interested parties can submit their contribution, prepared according to the indications in the "Call for paper format" document, by 15th July 2017 at info.sun@enea.it, specifying whether they prefer to participate with an oral contribution or a poster.
The extended abstracts should preferably be written in English, also for a greater visibility of their contents, and their length must be 2 pages maximum. However, contributions written in Italian will be accepted as well.
All extended abstracts received by the deadline will be reviewed by the conference Scientific Committee for their acceptance.
The accepted contributions will be published in the Conference Proceedings (ISBN publication).
Moreover, after the conference, authors will be invited to submit a comprehensive version of the paper for their inclusion in a dedicated ENEA-SUN publication (ISBN publication).
The participation to the conference for the presentation of the papers, the publication on the proceedings and the subsequent dedicated publication is free of charge.
Topics
- Industrial symbiosis real cases implementation;
- New technological and commercial opportunities for the transfer of resources (materials, energy, water, logistics and skills) between businesses and operators;
- Development of tools and databases at national and international level;
- Areas for the potential development of industrial symbiosis (in terms of both supply chain and geographic);
- Potential for the development of industrial symbiosis networks at national and European level;
- Regulatory framework and specific regulatory instruments available at local, national and European level;
- Administrative framework: roles and tools for the implementation of industrial symbiosis pathways in the territory;
- Identification and adoption of industrial symbiosis good practices;
- New business models for the effective application of industrial symbiosis models;
- Indicators for industrial symbiosis.