Circular economy and industrial symbiosis, a new path for the manufacturing industry

In the coming decades, the transition to a circular economy may represent a new paradigm of sustainable and economically advantageous growth, decoupling growth from resource consumption. Recent studies hypothesize that, thanks to advances in the digital field, making current business models sustainable will lead to a return of $ 4.5 trillion by 2030.
The seminar organized by CRIT therefore aims to provide the participating companies with the key elements for understanding the new industrial paradigm of the Circular Economy and its potential applications in the context of manufacturing companies.
First, the theoretical principles and aims of the Circular Economy will be presented, highlighting their role at the center of the European agenda for economic development, and underlining the importance of management levers (design, servitization, reverse logistics). Particular emphasis will be given to the links with the Industry 4.0 development plan and related technologies, such as Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, Big Data & Analytics, Cloud and digital platforms.
Subsequently, the approach based on the life cycle analysis (LCA) will be illustrated. The LCA approach represents one of the main tools for the evaluation of consumption and process planning, useful for the development of Circular Economy strategies.
The seminar will continue presenting some case studies, illustrated by companies already active in this sector. Astelav, one of the leading European companies in the distribution of spare parts for household appliances, will illustrate the RIGENERATION project (https://www.ri-generation.com/it/) concerning the interception and reconditioning of electrical equipment waste and electronic devices (WEEE). Next, the Spanish research center IRIS will present principles and case studies relating to the application of industrial symbiosis in manufacturing contexts.
In conclusion, there will be a brief moment of comparison, which will offer a brief summary of the contents that emerged during the seminar, focusing on the main levers of action and on the possible strategies to be adopted during the transition phase towards a new industrial paradigm aimed at to circularity.

The seminar is part of the activities of the European project NUCLEI of which CRIT is the coordinator, and which has among its objectives the creation of innovation clusters among the countries participating in the Interreg Central Europe program, in order to promote more effective international value chains , especially in the advanced manufacturing sectors.