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Sustainable Urban-Industrial Symbiosis
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Sustainable Urban-Industrial Symbiosis

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Social Ecology and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2022) | Viewed by 9320

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zhe Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Population and Development Studies, School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Interests: environmental system analysis; environmental policy and management; circular economy; eco-industrial development; urbanization and sustainability; climate change
Dr. Minoru FUJII

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Interests: zero-carbon industry/city; circular economy; waste to energy
Dr. Liang Dong

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Public Policy, School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR 999077, China
Interests: industrial symbiosis and eco-industrial parks (EIPs); urban sustainability and sustainable urban planning; environmental management and policies; industrial ecology and environmental system analysis; low-carbon city; eco-city and smart city
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In 1989, a cluster of companies from different industries and a community that were intensively sharing resources was uncovered in Denmark. Afterward, it became known as a “regional industrial symbiosis (IS) at Kalundborg”. The most commonly cited definition for IS was proposed in 2000, which was defined as “a physical exchange of materials, energy, water, and/or by-products to promote resource efficiency between traditionally separate industries with the intent of promoting collective competitive advantage”. Urban symbiosis (US) is an extension of IS was proposed by Van Berkel and his colleagues in 2009, defined as “the use of byproducts (wastes) from cities (or urban areas) as alternative raw materials or energy sources in industrial operations”. The difference between IS and US is that IS recognizes the exchanges of wastes and by-products between firms that conventionally do not exchange, while US recognizes the use of municipal solid waste as inputs to industries that conventionally do not accept. Both IS and US focus on waste recycling and symbiosis network that can offer apparent benefits to the whole society by saving virgin materials and/or reducing environmental emissions and even greenhouse gas emissions reductions. However, regarding sustainable development of urban–industrial symbiosis, there are few studies in this research area. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to highlight such a topic to collect the studies associated with sustainable development of urban–industrial symbiosis.

Papers related, but not limited, to methodologies, analysis and optimizations associated with sustainable development of urban-industrial symbiosis are welcome in this Special Issue. Papers related to fundamental research and policy in the regard of sustainable development of urban-industrial symbiosis are also welcome. Papers submitted to this Special Issue will be selected via a rigorous peer-review procedure.

Dr. Zhe Liu
Dr. Minoru FUJII
Dr. Liang Dong
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • urban symbiosis
  • industrial symbiosis
  • sustainable development

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1158 KiB  
Article
How Can Biodigesters Help Drive the Circular Economy? An Analysis Based on the SWOT Matrix and Case Studies
by Suzy C. Cortez, Adriana C. Cherri, Daniel Jugend, Gessica M. K. Jesus and Barbara S. Bezerra
Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 7972; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14137972 - 30 Jun 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3252
Abstract
The use of biodigesters and the circular economy (CE) has been gaining attention in recent years. Both biodigesters and CE have the potential to minimize negative impacts—not only environmental, but also economic and social. However, little attention has been paid to the relationship [...] Read more.
The use of biodigesters and the circular economy (CE) has been gaining attention in recent years. Both biodigesters and CE have the potential to minimize negative impacts—not only environmental, but also economic and social. However, little attention has been paid to the relationship between biodigesters and CE. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to identify and analyze the implications of the use of biodigesters in the light of a CE concept. To do this, a SWOT matrix was developed based on the opinion of experts and two case studies were conducted in companies operating in different sectors in Brazil. The results showed that the use of biodigesters can drive CE through biogas, which is a renewable energy source, closing the cycle of organic materials, increasing the economic power of companies and small producers, improving basic sanitation in remote areas, and stimulating industrial symbiosis. However, this study identified barriers in the use of biodigesters in the context of CE, such as lack of government incentives and composting being shown to be more cost-effective than the use of biodigesters for the treatment of solid waste. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban-Industrial Symbiosis)
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14 pages, 1429 KiB  
Article
Potential Contribution to Carbon Neutrality Strategy from Industrial Symbiosis: Evidence from a Local Coal-Aluminum-Electricity-Steel Industrial System
by Jiajia Huan and Ling Han
Sustainability 2022, 14(5), 2487; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052487 - 22 Feb 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1901
Abstract
Urban sustainability is a critical target under the sustainable development goals (SDGs), especially considering the response of cities to most of the resource and carbon footprints of human beings. The circular economy (CE) strategy offers an innovative and important pathway for forwarding sustainable [...] Read more.
Urban sustainability is a critical target under the sustainable development goals (SDGs), especially considering the response of cities to most of the resource and carbon footprints of human beings. The circular economy (CE) strategy offers an innovative and important pathway for forwarding sustainable urban development in terms of resource saving and waste mitigation. A particularly important measure of the circular economy is the urban industrial symbiosis, which, as an imitation of the ecological system, is viewed as an effective way to achieve the sustainable and low-carbon transformation of industries and downtown areas. However, evidence of its comprehensive environmental benefit is less reported. With this circumstance, this paper aims at identifying the environmental benefits of urban industrial symbiosis, with a focus on urban carbon footprints (CFP). With this basis, we shall also discuss the promotion of urban industrial symbiosis as a critical component in support of the carbon neutrality strategy. A hybrid approach integrating a process-based inventory analysis and an input–output analysis (IOA) is developed to analyze urban CFPs. Results imply that considerable savings in resources and the reduction of CFPs could be achieved via the coal-aluminum-electricity-steel industrial symbiosis. In detail, the eight designed synergies, with the aluminum-electricity-steel plants as the hubs, could reduce CO2 by 1.09 Mt per year, which accounted for 3.63% of the total CFPs in the city in a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario in 2012. This could partly offset the increase of CO2 emissions due to the economy’s expansion and realize a second mitigation effect apart from the efficiency change in technologies. A crucial understanding of the function of industrial symbiosis in accelerating the sustainable transformation of cities could then be reached. Finally, further implications on policy when tackling the gaps in regional eco-industrial development are proposed and discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban-Industrial Symbiosis)
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26 pages, 6853 KiB  
Article
Exploring the Sustainability of Resource Flow and Productivity Transition in Vietnam from 1978 to 2017: MFA and DEA-Based Malmquist Productivity Index Approach
by Ta-Thi Huong, Liang Dong, Izhar Hussain Shah and Hung-Suck Park
Sustainability 2021, 13(21), 11761; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111761 - 25 Oct 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3194
Abstract
Resource efficiency is a primary policy goal in many developing countries that are resources suppliers. This study performed a first try to explore the resource productivity and efficiency of an emerging world factory, Vietnam, by applying an improved economy-wide material flow analysis (MFA) [...] Read more.
Resource efficiency is a primary policy goal in many developing countries that are resources suppliers. This study performed a first try to explore the resource productivity and efficiency of an emerging world factory, Vietnam, by applying an improved economy-wide material flow analysis (MFA) integrated with a data envelopment analysis (DEA)-based Malmquist productivity index approach (MDEA). Resource flows from 1978 to 2017, and the corresponding utilization efficiency considering the unexpected environmental outputs, as well as productivity were explored in depth. The results highlighted a positive correlation between rapid growth among domestic material consumption (DMC), GDP per capita, and material intensity (DMC/capita) in Vietnam during the last four decades. Meanwhile, the resource productivity (USD/DMC) increased from 82.4 USD/ton to 125 USD/ton (2017), presenting a much slower pace than that of Japan and China. The IPAT-based decomposition analysis highlighted the contribution of rising affluence (94%) and population (21%) to the rapid growing DMC, while the technology factor (DMC/GDP) needed to be further enhanced. Finally, the total factor productivity, when comparing between Vietnam, China, South Korea, and Japan, showed that, on the one hand, the Vietnamese economy has strongly been changed in a positive direction with EFFCH 1.061 and TECHCH 1.046 during the last four decades. One the other hand, Vietnam is still material intensive and has low material productivity. Our analytical results recommend Vietnam to strengthen technology innovation and aim for efficiency enhancement through closely coordinated policies on sustainable resource consumption, carbon reduction, and economic growth, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 (SDGs 2030). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Urban-Industrial Symbiosis)
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