Place-based approaches to Industrial Ecology. Considerations about the application in long-standing industrial clusters.

Place-based approaches to Industrial Ecology suggest solutions aimed at improving socio-economic and environmental performances of communities of co-located companies, through a synergic management of material and energy flows within the production sites. Their application can lead to the development and diffusion of new Industrial Ecology-based organizational models, recognized as Industrial Ecosystems. A number of contributions outline potential benefits deriving from the adoption of such sustainable paths of local industrial development; despite of this, few experiences of functional Industrial Ecosystems can be found. This paper presents a brief review on the application of place-based approaches in existing industrial clusters, on which the implementation of an Industrial Ecosystem could be considered as a “system eco-innovation”. Considerations about some specific criticalities in the case of long-standing industrial clusters, and potential enrichments of the framework are also provided.