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The concepts of industrial symbiosis (IS) and bioeconomy (BE) both focus on ways to reduce dependence on non-renewable resources. However, these two frames of reference have rarely been considered as part of a joint strategy to achieve sustainability. Here, we describe how they inter-operate, in well documented IS case studies, to identify current synergy patterns of organic by-products, their limits, and promising pathways towards integrated initiatives that pursue the respective goals of each framework. We first evaluated the nature of synergies in current practices, and how they contribute to sustainability. Second, we focused on the role of agriculture in these symbioses, due to its fundamental role in circular bioeconomy. We used three main dimensions to analyze our case studies: IS emergence, governance of synergies, and actor serendipity. We identified three main patterns of organic matter use within IS, which we termed metabolic resources, metabolic biorefinery, and global biorefinery. Our observations suggest that synergies with agriculture are undervalued, by both internal and external practitioners. We conclude that while the combination of BE and IS can bolster sustainability, it requires a dedicated implementation strategy that has yet to be conceived.

In an industrial symbiosis initiative (IS-I), an initiating actor faced with a situation aims to enroll other actors in a collective action, or response, to address the situation. The rational myth theory embeds this “situation-response” pair. This paper explores the relevance of rational myth, along with that of plausible promise, to understand the emergence and development of IS-Is. We adapt the definition of these two concepts to IS and illustrate how they take shape with real case studies, by conducting the qualitative analysis of 14 French IS-Is. We demonstrate the potential of this framework to shed new light on IS-Is, and address a new range of questions for the dynamic analysis of initiatives. This paves the way to study the role of plausible promises in the initiation and development of IS-Is, and the design of discourses that enhance initiatives in situations of high potential of synergy.

In an industrial symbiosis initiative (IS-I), an initiating actor faced with a situation aims to enroll other actors in a collective action, or response, to address the situation. The rational myth theory embeds this “situation-response” pair. This paper explores the relevance of rational myth, along with that of plausible promise, to understand the emergence and development of IS-Is. We adapt the definition of these two concepts to IS and illustrate how they take shape with real case studies, by conducting the qualitative analysis of 14 French IS-Is. We demonstrate the potential of this framework to shed new light on IS-Is, and address a new range of questions for the dynamic analysis of initiatives. This paves the way to study the role of plausible promises in the initiation and development of IS-Is, and the design of discourses that enhance initiatives in situations of high potential of synergy.

The concepts of industrial symbiosis (IS) and bioeconomy (BE) both focus on ways to reduce dependence on non-renewable resources. However, these two frames of reference have rarely been considered as part of a joint strategy to achieve sustainability. Here, we describe how they inter-operate, in well documented IS case studies, to identify current synergy patterns of organic by-products, their limits, and promising pathways towards integrated initiatives that pursue the respective goals of each framework. We first evaluated the nature of synergies in current practices, and how they contribute to sustainability. Second, we focused on the role of agriculture in these symbioses, due to its fundamental role in circular bioeconomy. We used three main dimensions to analyze our case studies: IS emergence, governance of synergies, and actor serendipity. We identified three main patterns of organic matter use within IS, which we termed metabolic resources, metabolic biorefinery, and global biorefinery. Our observations suggest that synergies with agriculture are undervalued, by both internal and external practitioners. We conclude that while the combination of BE and IS can bolster sustainability, it requires a dedicated implementation strategy that has yet to be conceived.

As scientific evidence exposes the need for paradigm shifts in the management of resources of industrialized societies (IPCC, 2019), initiating collective action towards such shifts remains challenging (Berkes, 2017). Industrial Symbioses (IS) are important examples of collective regional initiatives contributing to this shift. They aim at reducing environmental burden and improving economic performance by substituting raw inputs with compatible by-products or by achieving pooling and sharing practices (Chertow, 2000). These initiatives are for instance frequent in cement or energy production (Cao et al. 2020) but also cover the management of organic waste to build synergy with local agriculture (Wassenaar et al. 2014). Understanding social dynamics beyond IS may unlock new development potential, and help to translate a known need into real change. Several authors suggest that an approach based on discourse analysis may lead to a better comprehension of IS initiatives. For instance, Queste (2016) shows the importance of rational myths (RM), which are collective justification for action (Holm, 1995), in collective waste management. We studied Industrial Symbiosis Initiatives (IS-I) as a succession of discourses and examined the key elements of these discourses, in order to improve the understanding of collective management dynamics. We selected 14 French IS-I based on national inventories (Oree, 2016, Ademe 2018), according to their diversity in terms of spatial range, type of synergies and type of actors involved. We identified discourses in these case studies, and focused in particular on the collective justification of actions - the RM - at different moments of the initiatives. This analysis shows that an important number of the actions are undertaken as a collective commitment to normative, long term and ill defined objectives. Rhetoric studies used the term ideograph to designate words that embody such objectives, which have been shown to play an important role

As scientific evidence exposes the need for paradigm shifts in the management of resources of industrialized societies (IPCC, 2019), initiating collective action towards such shifts remains challenging (Berkes, 2017). Industrial Symbioses (IS) are important examples of collective regional initiatives contributing to this shift. They aim at reducing environmental burden and improving economic performance by substituting raw inputs with compatible by-products or by achieving pooling and sharing practices (Chertow, 2000). These initiatives are for instance frequent in cement or energy production (Cao et al. 2020) but also cover the management of organic waste to build synergy with local agriculture (Wassenaar et al. 2014). Understanding social dynamics beyond IS may unlock new development potential, and help to translate a known need into real change. Several authors suggest that an approach based on discourse analysis may lead to a better comprehension of IS initiatives. For instance, Queste (2016) shows the importance of rational myths (RM), which are collective justification for action (Holm, 1995), in collective waste management. We studied Industrial Symbiosis Initiatives (IS-I) as a succession of discourses and examined the key elements of these discourses, in order to improve the understanding of collective management dynamics. We selected 14 French IS-I based on national inventories (Oree, 2016, Ademe 2018), according to their diversity in terms of spatial range, type of synergies and type of actors involved. We identified discourses in these case studies, and focused in particular on the collective justification of actions - the RM - at different moments of the initiatives. This analysis shows that an important number of the actions are undertaken as a collective commitment to normative, long term and ill defined objectives. Rhetoric studies used the term ideograph to designate words that embody such objectives, which have been shown to play an important role