Modelling Stakeholder Goals in Industrial Symbiosis

Industrial symbiosis is one of the mechanisms to achieve a more sustainable industrial ecosystem. It promotes the establishment of waste and by-product exchange between independently operating industries to reduce the generation of waste and the consumption of virgin resources. Some of these networks have evolved organically; however, there have been attempts to engineer the industrial system to catalyze their formation. The challenge is in creating mechanisms which not only encourage industries to participate but also achieve environmental goals. Modelling stakeholder goals in the design of industrial symbiotic networks (ISNs) is critical in identifying feasible and sustainable networks. This work reviews the different approaches used for modelling stakeholder objectives in ISNs. The literature shows that integrating game theoretic principles in modelling stakeholder objectives either to determine the optimal design of the network or to simulate how the network evolves provides conditions which can be used as starting points for drafting agreements and contracts between network participants.