Toward Sustainable Industry: Integrating Industrial Symbiosis, Biorefineries, and Circular Economy for SDG Alignment

Abstract

The global transition toward sustainability requires connected and system wide approaches that go beyond traditional industry boundaries. This review explores how industrial symbiosis, biorefineries, circular economy, and sustainability frameworks are linked and probable ways these could together support the shift to cleaner and low carbon industrial systems. Industrial symbiosis allows industries to share resources like energy and materials, which helps to reduce waste and encourages cooperation. Biorefineries turn biomass and organic wastes into valuable products, and circular economy focuses on designing systems that reduce waste by keeping products and materials in use for longer. When combined, these frameworks could create strong synergies that support environmental protection, economic development, and social well-being, while also helping to achieve global goals like clean energy, climate action, and sustainable production. This review also looks at new tools and approaches such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, nature-based solutions, and regenerative design that help bring these systems together more effectively. Even with these promising developments, there are still challenges, such as the lack of models that work across different industries, their scales, limited attention to fairness and equity, and a need for more practical examples in developing countries. To address these, a roadmap is proposed that includes shared digital platforms, living labs, and collaboration across different fields. This paper offers a clear framework to support decision makers in policy, research, and industry in building inclusive, resilient, and sustainable industrial systems for the future.