Digital innovation in recent years, along with the increasing focus on environmental sustainability, has triggered a genuine industrial revolution.

The progressive evolution of IoT, measurement instruments, and the development of automated systems for data detection, acquisition, and storage have facilitated and enhanced the spread of production process control and management systems. This represents a departure from the past, where efficient energy management was a common denominator and a necessary step in addressing many of the challenges faced by businesses: no longer “energy efficiency,” but “system efficiency.”

Simultaneously, driven by the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, numerous issues related to the environmental sustainability of industrial processes have emerged. Specifically, the goal has been to transform the current model of production and consumption to achieve efficient and sustainable management of natural resources, in line with the principle of “Doing more and better with less.” The concept of the circular economy has gained increasing importance, representing an economic model that transcends the old linear system based on “take, make, dispose” and aims to repurpose all products and by-products to minimize or even eliminate the amount of waste generated in a given cycle.

One aspect of the circular economy, particularly relevant to the business world, is industrial symbiosis. Drawing an analogy with natural ecosystems, industrial symbiosis involves traditionally separate industries working together through the exchange of materials, energy, water, and by-products. This approach also allows small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in the efficiency of production processes and the optimal use of resources. Energy efficiency measures are not always easily applicable in small and medium-sized facilities. Therefore, it becomes necessary to reconsider this concept from the perspective of groups of facilities (of varying sizes) located in close geographical proximity that can share energy and material flows. Specifically, the aim is to assess the potential benefits of cooperative energy and material use through shared electricity and thermal energy generation, as well as the recycling of thermal waste and scrap materials produced by one facility and used in neighboring facilities, thereby minimizing transportation costs and energy losses due to distance.

This report establishes a “state of the art” that allows for the identification of areas and production operations compatible with the application of the “district sharing” philosophy. This study constitutes the first objective of a three-year project aimed at estimating the potential of district sharing in Italy and identifying the most suitable areas for adopting this type of industrial symbiosis. The next step will be to identify industrial sites characterized by small and medium-sized enterprises from different sectors but with affinities that make resource sharing feasible.