Digitalization and Industrial Symbiosis Within Eco-Industrial Parks

Dear Colleagues,

Industrial symbiosis (IS) is a practical pathway to circular economy implementation, enabling “traditionally separate industries” to collaborate and create competitive advantage through exchanges of materials, energy, water and by-products (Chertow, 2000). Despite its promise, IS often remains difficult to scale due to obstacles that are relational and dynamic: identifying suitable partners, coordinating exchanges reliably over time, governing interdependence and measuring performance credibly. These issues are especially relevant in clustered settings such as eco-industrial parks (EIPs), where geographical proximity helps but does not remove uncertainty, coordination costs or incentive misalignment.

In this context, digitalization can act as a key enabler of IS. Digital infrastructures—such as platforms, interoperable data architectures, IoT-enabled monitoring, analytics and traceability systems—can characterize resource streams, support partner identification and improve the planning and execution of inter-organizational exchanges. By reducing information asymmetries and improving operational coordination, digital tools may strengthen the continuity and manageability of symbiotic arrangements, increasing the visibility, reliability and performance of resource exchanges.

At the same time, digitalization raises governance challenges that can hinder adoption and impact what data should be shared, at what level of granularity, by whom, under which standards and rules and with what safeguards. Trust, confidentiality, interoperability and the distribution of costs and benefits shape participation and ultimately determine whether digital investments translate into sustained, measurable symbiosis outcomes.

This Special Issue invites theoretical and empirical (quantitative, qualitative or mixed-methods) papers that explain when, how and under what conditions digitalization supports industrial symbiosis at scale, with particular attention to EIPs. We welcome contributions that investigate the role of specific digital technologies (e.g., IoT, digital twins, blockchain, AI/analytics, data spaces, interoperable platforms) in enabling symbiotic synergies, as well as studies addressing barriers, constraints and unintended consequences.

The following topics are suggested and non-exhaustive; we welcome contributions on related issues consistent with the aims of the Special Issue.

• Digitalization and industrial symbiosis in eco-industrial parks
• The role of digital technologies in supporting circular economy practices from the perspective of resource recovery
• Data and knowledge management and sharing for eco-industrial development
• Organizational and relational aspects of digital industrial symbiosis, including governance and management of digital industrial ecosystems
• Challenges and opportunities of digital transformation in eco-industrial parks
• Digitalization as a driver of sustainability in industrial systems (e.g., eco-industrial parks)
• Inter-organizational collaboration enabled by digital technologies
• Measuring and evaluating digital-enabled industrial symbiosis, including socio-economic impacts of digitalization in eco-industrial parks
• Barriers to digital adoption in industrial symbiosis initiatives
• Future research direction on digital industrial ecosystems and industrial symbiosis

We look forward to your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Alessandra De Chiara
Dr. Maria Coscia
Dr. Anna D'Auria
Guest Editors

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• digital tools
• digitalization
• industrial ecology
• industrial symbiosis
• eco-industrial park