Nature is no longer “Outside” the Economy. Commissioner Jessika Roswall opened the conference with a keynote that set the tone for the two days: healthy ecosystems are not a luxury to be protected at the margins of economic activity, but foundational infrastructure underpinning food production, water security, climate resilience, public health and long-term competitiveness. Biodiversity loss, soil degradation and water stress, she argued, are not environmental issues alone. They are economic and security risks.
This framing was reinforced throughout the programme. The opening high-level plenary “Investing in Nature, Investing in Resilience” brought together Astrid Schomaker, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and Anthony Agotha, Special Envoy for Climate and Environment Diplomacy at the European External Action Service, alongside representatives of the Capitals Coalition and the World Economic Forum. Their shared message was that in a context of geopolitical instability and mounting pressure on food, water and energy systems, nature must be placed at the heart of Europe’s resilience agenda, and not as a “nice to have,” but as a strategic necessity.
The finance dimension was equally prominent. The “Show Me the Money” panel, featuring Eva Mayerhofer from the European Investment Bank and Stine Lehman Shack of Danske Bank, explored how to close the nature-finance gap and make long-term investment in ecosystems bankable. The session on “Nature Credits” added a further dimension, examining whether biodiversity and restoration credits can become credible, scalable instruments for mobilising private capital. Estimates discussed at the conference suggest that every euro invested in nature can generate between eight and thirty-eight euros in economic benefits, figures that reframe conservation as productive investment.
A parallel strand explored soil, urban greening, regenerative farming and rural resilience, consistently returning to the same insight: ecosystems are productive systems. When they function well, they underwrite the economy. When they are degraded, the costs are borne across sectors.
What this means for Industrial Symbiosis? For the Industrial Symbiosis community, EU Green Week 2026 was not a backdrop but a call to reposition.
Industrial Symbiosis has traditionally been understood as the exchange of material, energy and water flows between industrial actors, the waste of one process becoming the input of another. This model has delivered measurable results across Europe. But the Green Week agenda points to something larger: a new logic in which industrial systems are embedded within a broader territorial network that includes secondary raw materials, biomass flows, ecosystem services, carbon sequestration and environmental data infrastructures.
In this expanded frame, Industrial Symbiosis evolves beyond industrial networks into a model of territorial resource governance, one that connects industry, agriculture and ecosystems as functional components of the same system. The resilience of an industrial cluster is inseparable from the resilience of the natural systems surrounding it. And conversely, well-designed symbiotic exchanges of heat, water, organic residues, by-products can actively support ecosystem regeneration rather than simply reduce industrial waste.
INSET’s Policy Brief: Building the Evidence Base for IS in Europe
INSET, which is an European Erasmus + project working to mainstream Industrial Symbiosis as a tool for sustainable territorial development, is working in parallel with this evolving policy landscape. Following an analysis of the state of Industrial Symbiosis in five European countries (France, Spain, Italy, Slovenia and Lithuania), INSET has cross-referenced national findings with the EU regulatory framework and identified persistent barriers to scaling IS practice.
The lack of visibility over resource flows and potential synergies between actors remains one of the most significant obstacles to IS development. Digital tools as waste and by-product tracking systems, AI-assisted matching platforms, product digital passports, life cycle assessment tools, and integrated environmental data infrastructures, have the potential to transform this, enabling the identification and coordination of resource exchanges at territorial scale. Industrial Symbiosis could shift from fragmented local initiatives to coordinated, territorially optimised resource systems.
Equally, governance emerges as a central enabling condition. Effective IS implementation requires coordination across industries, farmers, public authorities, financial institutions, researchers and civil society. This reflects the broader shift toward integrated territorial governance models that the Green Week conference made visible, models in which economic, ecological and social systems are managed together rather than in separate policy silos.
INSET has translated these findings into a Policy Brief that identifies concrete recommendations for enabling IS at national and European level. The document is now entering a public stakeholder consultation phase across the five partner countries. This is a critical moment: the Brief’s recommendations will be stronger, and more likely to influence policy, the more they reflect the experience of those who are actually working at the intersection of industry, resource management and territorial development.
Are You Working on These Issues? We Want to Hear from You!
If you are active in France, Italy, Spain, Lithuania or Slovenia as an industrial practitioner, a local authority, a researcher, a sector association, a financial institution or a civil society organisation, and your work touches on resource flows, circular economy, waste valorisation, territorial development or the future of industrial areas, INSET wants to interview you.
Your experience is exactly what the consultation is designed to gather. The findings will feed directly into a Policy Brief aimed at shaping how Industrial Symbiosis is supported, funded and governed across Europe.
Get in touch with the INSET partner active in your territory, and help turn one of Green Week’s most important messages into policy reality: that nature and economy are not in competition. They are, when managed well, the same system.

L'articolo Nature as infrastructure: what EU Green Week 2026 means for Industrial Symbiosis proviene da INSET: industrial symbiosis for entreprises and training.

Industrial Symbiosis is often associated with collaboration between companies, where one organisation’s waste becomes another’s resource. However, before these exchanges can take place, a structured process is needed to identify opportunities, assess their feasibility and support implementation.

This is precisely why the INSET project focuses on developing the capabilities required by Industrial Symbiosis professionals.

The journey typically begins with understanding the territory. Resource mapping and data analysis help identify material, water and energy flows, providing a clear picture of the local industrial ecosystem. Combined with stakeholder engagement, this information allows potential synergies and collaboration opportunities to be identified.

Once opportunities have been detected, the next step is to evaluate their potential impacts and feasibility. This includes assessing environmental, economic and social benefits, prioritising the most promising initiatives and defining a roadmap for implementation. Governance, financing mechanisms and business models also play an important role at this stage.

Finally, successful Industrial Symbiosis projects require implementation and coordination. Facilitators and project managers work closely with companies and stakeholders to transform identified opportunities into operational solutions. Monitoring, impact assessment and reporting ensure that results can be measured and continuously improved.
The INSET training programme has been designed to equip current and future Industrial Symbiosis professionals with the knowledge and practical skills needed throughout this process. Through learning pathways for Industrial Symbiosis Planners and Industrial Symbiosis Project Managers, participants gain practical tools to support the transition towards more resource-efficient, circular and collaborative industrial ecosystems.

Industrial Symbiosis does not happen automatically. It requires trained professionals capable of connecting data, stakeholders and opportunities to create tangible environmental, economic and social value.

Interested in developing these competences?

The INSET training programme offers a practical learning pathway for current and future Industrial Symbiosis professionals. Through modules covering Industrial Symbiosis fundamentals, resource mapping, project design, implementation, financing, governance and communication, participants can acquire the knowledge and skills needed to plan and manage Industrial Symbiosis initiatives effectively.

Whether you work in public administration, business support organisations, clusters, consultancies or industry, INSET provides flexible online training tailored to different professional profiles.

Ready to take the next step? Explore the INSET training programme and gain the knowledge and practical skills needed to design, manage and implement Industrial Symbiosis projects. Register now and access the online training platform free of charge.

L'articolo The competences behind successful Industrial Symbiosis projects proviene da INSET: industrial symbiosis for entreprises and training.

Industrial Symbiosis is often associated with collaboration between companies: one company’s waste becomes another company’s resource. But before any exchange can happen, there is a more fundamental challenge to solve.

How do we know which opportunities actually exist?

In many industrial territories, potentially valuable resources remain invisible. Residual heat, organic by-products, secondary raw materials, wastewater streams or underused infrastructure are often dispersed across industrial areas without a clear understanding of their quantity, location or potential compatibility with other actors.

As a result, many opportunities for Industrial Symbiosis are never even identified.

This is one of the less visible barriers to circular economy implementation: the lack of operational knowledge about territorial resource flows.

Most existing data systems were not designed to identify industrial synergies. Waste classifications, aggregated statistics or sectoral databases rarely provide the level of detail needed to understand how resources circulate within a territory. In practice, this makes it difficult for companies, industrial parks or public administrations to detect viable opportunities for collaboration.

Industrial Symbiosis therefore begins much earlier than the collaboration phase itself. It starts with understanding the industrial ecosystem.

This is where territorial analysis and resource mapping become essential.

By combining different sources of information — such as industrial activity data, land use, waste declarations, sectoral patterns or energy consumption estimations — it becomes possible to build a clearer picture of how materials and resources move across a territory. The objective is not necessarily to obtain perfect data, but to generate sufficient intelligence to identify realistic opportunities and support decision-making.

This type of analysis helps answer practical questions:

Which sectors generate potentially valuable residual resources?
Where are compatible resource flows geographically concentrated?
Which industrial areas show potential for heat recovery, biomass valorisation or material exchanges?
Where could collective infrastructure become viable?

In this sense, resource mapping is not simply a technical exercise. It is a strategic planning tool.

Several territorial initiatives across Europe already demonstrate the value of this approach. In rural and industrial regions alike, mapping exercises have helped identify local biomass potential, estimate recoverable organic flows, assess energy self-sufficiency opportunities or detect possible synergies between companies that had never previously interacted.

These analyses often become the starting point for broader Industrial Symbiosis strategies, helping territories prioritise investments, design infrastructure and create the conditions for future collaboration.

This perspective is also increasingly reflected in Industrial Symbiosis training and capacity-building initiatives. Within the INSET approach, competencies related to systemic thinking, data analysis, resource mapping and opportunity identification are considered essential for future Industrial Symbiosis professionals.

Because Industrial Symbiosis is not only about connecting companies.

It is about understanding how industrial ecosystems function before collaboration even starts.

L'articolo Industrial Symbiosis starts with resource mapping proviene da INSET: industrial symbiosis for entreprises and training.

Earth Day, celebrated on April 22nd, serves as a global reminder of the urgent need to rethink how we produce, consume, and manage resources. In this context, the Circular Economy (CE) has emerged as a key framework to redefine competitiveness while addressing environmental challenges.

Among its most transformative approaches is Industrial Symbiosis (IS), a model based on collaboration between industries, where the by-products of one process become valuable inputs for another. By closing resource loops, IS not only reduces waste and environmental impact but also improves economic efficiency and fosters innovation across sectors.

Despite its potential, the widespread adoption of Industrial Symbiosis still faces several challenges. These include limited awareness and knowledge of IS practices, difficulties in coordinating collaboration between companies, and a lack of skills needed to implement and manage such systems effectively.

Addressing these barriers requires more than technological solutions. It calls for capacity building, cross-sector collaboration, and the development of new professional skills aligned with circular practices.

In this context, initiatives like the INSET project contribute to bridging the gap between sustainability needs and practical implementation. By focusing on training, skills development, and knowledge sharing, INSET supports both private and public stakeholders in better understanding and applying Industrial Symbiosis.

Through actions such as the development of a skills map, digital training tools, and an open-access observatory on regulatory frameworks and existing practices, the project helps create the conditions needed for IS to scale. At the same time, its policy-oriented outputs aim to support decision-makers in removing structural barriers to its adoption.

As environmental challenges intensify, moving from awareness to action becomes essential. Industrial Symbiosis represents a concrete pathway to accelerate the transition towards a more resilient and circular economy, one where collaboration, innovation, and skills play a central role.

L'articolo From Earth Day to Action: Advancing Industrial Symbiosis for a Circular Economy proviene da INSET: industrial symbiosis for entreprises and training.

In industrial symbiosis, the conversation often starts with technology: new recovery processes, innovative treatment solutions, or alternative uses for industrial by-products. But in practice, technology is rarely the main bottleneck.

The real challenge lies elsewhere.

Every year, large volumes of potentially valuable resources remain unused—not because solutions do not exist, but because they require multiple actors to work together. In many cases, no single company can capture the value alone. Making these opportunities viable means aligning interests, aggregating flows, sharing risks, and coordinating decisions across organisations.

This is where many symbiosis initiatives stall.

Industrial symbiosis is often presented as a matter of matching a waste stream with a use. In reality, the most impactful solutions are not simple exchanges—they are structured, multi-actor projects. They involve designing new value chains, building agreements between companies, and ensuring long-term operational and economic viability.

This requires a specific set of capabilities that are still largely underdeveloped: the ability to connect stakeholders, facilitate collaboration, and structure projects across organisational boundaries.

In this sense, industrial symbiosis is not only a technical or environmental challenge—it is also a skills challenge.

As highlighted in the INSET training approach, roles such as the IS Planner and the IS Project Manager are essential to bridge this gap: identifying opportunities, engaging stakeholders, and managing the complexity of implementation across different actors .

These roles are not about replacing companies or making decisions on their behalf. They are about enabling collaboration—reducing friction, building trust, and translating potential into concrete, operational projects.

Reframing industrial symbiosis in this way changes the question. Instead of asking what each company can do with its own resources, it becomes a question of what can be achieved when the right actors are connected and supported by the right capabilities.

Because in many cases, the difference between an unrealised opportunity and a functioning symbiosis project is not technology—it is the ability to make collaboration work.

L'articolo Industrial symbiosis doesn’t fail because of technology—it fails because of missing collaboration skills proviene da INSET: industrial symbiosis for entreprises and training.

Industrial symbiosis is often presented as a smart matching process: identifying by-products, surplus heat, wastewater or secondary raw materials and connecting companies that can use them. We analyse technical feasibility, regulatory pathways and environmental savings.

Yet one decisive factor often determines whether a symbiosis opportunity becomes reality or remains theoretical: logistics.

Industrial symbiosis is built on physical flows — solid residues, liquids, gases or energy streams such as waste heat. What moves between companies is not just a “resource”, but a continuous flow that must be collected, sometimes stored or pre-treated, transported safely and properly documented. Without reliable and economically viable logistics, even the most promising exchange will not materialise.

Geography plays a central role. Transport costs can quickly undermine the business case, especially for low-value or high-volume materials. Proximity, load optimisation and coordinated planning often determine success.

Environmental performance also depends on transport design. If poorly organised, logistics can offset part of the environmental gains of a symbiotic exchange. Assessing distances, transport modes and handling requirements is therefore essential.

Logistics is also closely linked to regulation. When materials are still classified as waste, traceability, documentation and compliance requirements become critical. The legal status of a material directly affects how it can be transported and by whom.

Industrial symbiosis does not end with identifying a match. Real impact emerges when materials circulate in a stable, efficient and compliant way. In this sense, logistics is not a secondary detail — it is a core enabler of circular value chains.

L'articolo The Circulatory System of Industrial Symbiosis: Why Logistics Makes (or Breaks) Circular Value Chains proviene da INSET: industrial symbiosis for entreprises and training.

Today, however, with the entry into force of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the new ESRS standards, European companies are required not only to reduce their environmental impact, but to measure it, certify it, and make it reportable.

Processes such as Industrial Symbiosis — namely the collaborative use of waste streams between companies — remain one of the most promising yet still underutilized strategies to support businesses in optimizing waste management and creating new value. While European initiatives like INSET work to raise awareness and develop the necessary capabilities for these practices through education and digital tools, the question remains:
how does all this translate into real-world implementation?

Sistemi Formativi Confindustria, has identified Regusto as a best practice example providing a compelling answer. Selected by SFC for its proven results, Regusto’s journey — from facilitating food donations to enabling cross-sector resource exchanges — demonstrates how digital platforms can support industrial symbiosis.

Within this shift — from operational cost to ESG data — Regusto fits in as an Italian digital platform that, over the past ten years, has transformed surplus recovery into a true infrastructure for industrial symbiosis and sustainability reporting.

Founded in 2016, alongside Italy’s Law 166 against food waste, Regusto initially focused on food. But its scope soon expanded: non-food items, furniture, technical equipment, industrial by-products, construction materials, and upcycling.

What started as a system to facilitate donations has now become a digital ecosystem connecting companies, non-profit organizations, and public administrations, transforming waste streams into traceable environmental, social, and economic value.

From food to the circular economy: a “natural” evolution:

“The creation of Regusto followed both market developments and regulatory changes,” explains Paolo Rellini, CEO and Co-Founder.
“We started with food, then companies asked us to manage non-food items, furniture, and by-products. It was an almost natural evolution, driven by real needs.”

The model, designed from the outset, has remained the same:
companies make their surplus available, non-profit organizations recover it, while public administrations monitor the flows across the territory.
Three actors, each with tangible benefits, connected through a digital platform.

From waste management to ESG value creation:

Traditionally, disposal represents only a cost.
Regusto reverses this logic: surplus becomes measurable assets.

Each recovery operation generates certifiable data: CO₂ avoided, resources saved, economic value recovered, social impact on the territory, reduced disposal costs, and tax benefits.

These indicators are processed according to international standards, validated with academic partners and third parties, and automatically feed into ESG reports ready for sustainability reporting.

“In fact,” explains Rellini, “companies that join already obtain part of their ESG report developed. Everything we track becomes reportable data. Not just communication, but verifiable numbers.”

The result is a paradigm shift:
recovery is no longer an occasional activity, but a structured, scalable process that can be integrated into corporate strategy.

The technological infrastructure:

At the core of the system is a platform that combines:

• geolocalized matching between supply and demand
• digitalization of document flows
• blockchain-based traceability
• artificial intelligence algorithms for logistics optimization
• certified calculation of environmental, social, and economic impacts
• automated ESG dashboards and reports

However, technology is not just an operational tool.

“Our role also includes project support,” Rellini emphasizes.
“We help companies digitize processes, access tax incentives, and simplify bureaucracy. We make recovery simple and convenient.”

A network growing across the territory:

Today, Regusto connects over 2,000 non-profit organizations — including Banco Alimentare, Caritas, the Red Cross, and Progetto Arca — alongside major retail and industrial groups.

The local model reduces logistical distances and facilitates exchanges, but the platform is designed to be scalable at regional and European levels.

Concrete use cases include:

• recovery of surplus retail food and non-food items
• redistribution of PPE and healthcare materials
• management of corporate relocations with furniture recovery (Generali, Deloitte, eBay, L’Oréal, Saipem)
• thousands of goods diverted from disposal and put back into circulation

At the same time, B2B pilots are emerging, where one company’s waste becomes another’s production input, creating true industrial symbiosis schemes.

Do platforms really work at the local level?

When asked whether models like this only make sense at a territorial scale, Rellini explains:

“The local dimension is essential to initiate relationships and reduce logistical impacts. But technology enables scaling. The model can be replicated in other territories, districts, or countries. In fact, that’s where it becomes truly powerful.”

Regusto is currently launching pilot projects in Spain and German-speaking countries, where stricter regulations make traceability even more strategic.

The construction sector: a new frontier

Among the sectors with the greatest potential is construction.

“It’s a complex world, but with enormous environmental impacts and huge recovery opportunities,” the CEO notes.
“In Spain, there are already regulatory obligations pushing companies to track and certify materials. In Italy, we are still in an exploratory phase, but interest is strong.”

Construction sites, demolitions, and new developments generate large volumes of recoverable materials. Digitizing them means obtaining environmental certifications, financial advantages, and easier access to green credit.

What is slowing down adoption?

According to Rellini, the main barrier is cultural and regulatory.

“In Italy, without an obligation or economic incentive, companies struggle to take action. Where there is a concrete benefit, change happens quickly.”

For this reason, Regusto also works with industry associations and public administrations, which can use territorial data for environmental policies, monitoring, and even waste tariff reductions.

A data infrastructure for circularity:

After ten years, the project has moved beyond the logic of simple donation. Regusto is increasingly positioning itself as a digital infrastructure for the circular governance of territories, capable of:

• reducing waste and costs
• generating social impact
• producing certifiable ESG KPIs
• simplifying reporting
• fostering industrial symbiosis between companies

In a Europe that demands transparency and measurability, the value lies not only in recovering resources, but in demonstrating the impact generated.

It is precisely in this transition — from waste to certified data — that Regusto’s distinctive contribution takes shape.

L'articolo Regusto: the Italian platform turning waste into measurable ESG assets proviene da INSET: industrial symbiosis for entreprises and training.

A key topic for Europe’s transitions

Under the theme “Local loops, global impacts”, the event highlighted industrial ecology as a strategic lever for rethinking production and consumption systems. Through a keynote lecture, testimonials from practitioners and a roundtable discussion, participants explored both the territorial dimension of ecological transition and the skills required to support it. Discussions emphasized the importance of cooperation between universities, businesses and public institutions, as well as the growing role of innovation and circular economy approaches within European climate and energy policies.
A dynamic multi-stakeholder ecosystem at the heart of the event
One of the defining strengths of the JEEI was the remarkable diversity and scale of its participation. The event mobilised a broad range of internal stakeholders from the University of Strasbourg, demonstrating strong institutional engagement across faculties, services and initiatives. Beyond the university, the JEEI brought together a rich ecosystem of external partners, highlighting the deep anchoring of the INSET project within its socio-economic and European environment. This included the Industrial Ecology Club of Aube (CEIA), Autonomous Port of Strasbourg, Initiatives Durables, local and regional authorities, economic development actors, as well as numerous European partners involved in Erasmus+ projects. Companies, professional organisations and associations were also strongly represented, contributing concrete field experiences and showcasing innovative practices in industrial ecology.
This broad participation created a vibrant space for dialogue, collaboration and knowledge exchange, reinforcing the JEEI as a truly European platform connecting academia, public institutions and industry around shared sustainability challenges.

A strong professionalisation experience for students

At the heart of the INSET project, the JEEI fully embodies the ambition to bridge academic training and real-world practice. For students from IRIUS and across the University of Strasbourg, the event provided a meaningful immersion into a rapidly emerging sector with strong career potential. It contributed to the development of key transversal skills, including project management, communication and intercultural cooperation, while also creating direct opportunities to engage with potential employers and partners. In addition, it offered a valuable platform for showcasing academic work within a professional and applied context.

A structuring initiative within the INSET ecosystem

Beyond a one-day event, the JEEI is part of a broader INSET dynamic aimed at building sustainable connections between European industrial ecology stakeholders. It reinforces the role of universities as key actors in ecological transitions, at the crossroads of education, research and innovation. By bringing together academic knowledge, professional expertise and territorial initiatives, the JEEI confirms its ambition to become a structuring and recurring European event, supporting a more sustainable, collaborative and resilient economy.

L'articolo European Day of Industrial Ecology: Connecting Knowledge, Territories and Stakeholders proviene da INSET: industrial symbiosis for entreprises and training.

L'articolo INSET Observatory structure presented at Marazzi Workshop in Sassuolo proviene da INSET: industrial symbiosis for entreprises and training.

The SYNERGie® Platform is a professional digital system developed by International Synergies to support the implementation of industrial symbiosis. It enables companies, industrial parks, and regional authorities to identify, develop, and monitor resource exchange opportunities that turn waste into value.

Industrial symbiosis is based on collaboration between businesses, where one company’s by-product, surplus material, energy, water, or waste stream becomes a resource for another. The SYNERGie® Platform facilitates this process through structured data collection, intelligent resource matching, and impact tracking.

At the core of the platform is a resource-matching system that analyses company inputs and outputs to identify technically and economically viable exchanges. Instead of informal networking alone, SYNERGie® provides a systematic and scalable approach to opportunity identification.

Key features of the platform include:

• Resource matching between businesses,
• Identification of cross-sector collaboration opportunities,
• Tracking of environmental impacts such as CO₂ reduction and waste diversion,
• Monitoring of economic benefits including cost savings and new revenue streams,
• Data-driven reporting for regional and national programmes.

The platform is widely used in industrial symbiosis programmes worldwide and supports policymakers, facilitators, and companies in delivering measurable circular economy outcomes. It enables regions to move from isolated pilot projects to structured and replicable symbiosis networks.

By combining digital intelligence with facilitation methodologies, the SYNERGie® Platform helps accelerate the transition toward a resource-efficient, low-carbon industrial system.

Link to the platform 

L'articolo Digital Resource Matching for Industrial Symbiosis Networks proviene da INSET: industrial symbiosis for entreprises and training.