Industrial Symbiosis as a Green Corridor For Small Communities: The Econexus Model

Sustainable actions to transform waste into resources are current concerns for local, national, regional and global communities. Practices for managing water, energy and material flows are concerns for local communities. These concerns are integrated within research that aims to achieve a technology transfer from research organizations to industry and to constitute a coherent model.The approach focuses on short and controlled pathways for resource circulation, enabled through technology transfer from research institutions to local industrial and community actors. The paper outlines the conceptual architecture of the ECONEXUS framework and its early‐ stage methodological structure, encompassing performance indicators for water recovery, energy balance, material and nutrient circularity, operational stability, and system adaptability. Preliminary insights from pilot case studies are used to explore system behaviour and module interactions under diverse operational conditions. Findings suggest that modular industrial symbiosis can sustain stable local resource loops and act as a decentralized logistics corridor for secondary resources. Although the research remains in its initial implementation phase, the framework shows promising applicability to rural, peri‐ urban, and mixed territories, including port‐ related contexts, advancing broader goals of smart and resilient logistics corridors.

 

The International Maritime and Logistics Conference “MARLOG 15” “Smart & Resilient Logistics Corridors Future Gateway to the Green Trade” (Marlog 2026), E-ISSN: 2974-3141, Academy Publishing Center (APC), pp 610-622, vol. 15, Egipt, 8-10 February 2026

 

Authors: Larisa Ivascu, Nicoleta Mirea, Marius Pislaru, Aura Domil, Alin Artene