Navigating Industrial Symbiosis Complexity: Understanding Actors' Perspectives for Enhanced Collaboration

Industrial symbiosis is a collaborative approach that aims to enhance resource efficiency and sustainability by facilitating exchanges between industries and other societal actors. Traditionally, industrial symbiosis focused on optimizing physical resource flows, such as excess energy, waste materials, and by-products. However, over time, the concept has expanded to also include, for example, collaboration regarding infrastructure, logistics, and knowledge exchange, fostering more sustainable and resilient systems. This evolution reflects the growing recognition that industrial symbiosis is not just about improving existing resource flows, but also about creating innovative, long-term solutions to complex environmental and societal challenges. To begin with, this thesis explores how the varying perspectives and conditions of individual actors - such as industries, public actors, associations, academia, and other research institutions - affect collaborations in industrial symbiosis. By examining the factors that drive or hinder participation in these collaborations, including the expected benefits and perceived risks, this research provides valuable insights into the dynamics of industrial symbiosis collaborations. The thesis employs qualitative research methods to identify the challenges and opportunities that arise when different actors with diverse priorities collaborate. Based on the knowledge generated in this thesis, a key outcome is the development of two tools aimed at facilitating the implementation and development of industrial symbiosis initiatives. One tool helps map the distribution of benefits and drawbacks across different impact levels, while the other serves as a guiding framework for evaluating and supporting the implementation process. These tools are designed to improve communication, align objectives, and enhance decision-making among actors, ultimately promoting more effective and sustainable collaborations. The findings highlight that successful industrial symbiosis requires a comprehensive understanding of the complex, dynamic relationships between actors. By acknowledging these differences and fostering better collaboration, industrial symbiosis can help build more resilient and sustainable systems for the future.