Digital Matchmaking for Industrial Sustainability: How Knowledge Platforms Enable Circular Economy

Industrial symbiosis is hindered by information management challenges rather than technological constraints. The CORALIS webinar highlighted the necessity for effective knowledge management to initiate and sustain industrial symbiotic relationships. Despite 32 digital tools developed since 2016, their effectiveness in real-world applications is uncertain. The Sharebox project created intelligent recommender systems to suggest resource-waste matches between companies with a maximum accuracy of 33%, limited by data scarcity, privacy concerns, and inconsistent waste classification. Economic viability also requires consideration of transportation, treatment, and transaction expenses. From an industry perspective, reliance on personal networks, such as in Greece, poses risks and limits the scope of partnerships. Digital platforms are proposed to augment human relationships, not replace them. The CORALIS project emphasizes a user-centric approach with matching mechanisms, community forums, and knowledge repositories, seeking integration with existing business systems. Regulatory advancements, such as the forthcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), are expected to foster conditions conducive to digital knowledge platforms by mandating detailed, digitally tagged sustainability reports. The success of such platforms will likely depend on trust-building, user-friendly interfaces, standardized data formats, consideration of transport costs, and a balance between automation and personal interaction. Future symbioses may combine technology to form initial connections with human efforts to maintain them, accelerated by policy-driven data transparency and standardization.