Abstract

The Italian industrial system, albeit with different nuances between the various production sectors, has always been affected by higher energy supply costs compared to other European countries: the gap between Italian energy prices and that of leading international partners has led and continues to lead to a competitive disadvantage for our companies. In such a framework, Italian companies have long started a process of containing energy consumption and today it is increasingly necessary to direct industrial policy choices towards the so-called «circular economy» - i.e., towards a development model focused on the sharing of resources and the minimization of energy losses and material waste. This study, whose results are illustrated in this paper, stems from that. After having identified and analyzed the needs and the energy and material availability within the Industrial District of Brindisi, it proposes - in a logic of circular economy - a hypothesis of development of an infrastructural network for the sharing of the main currently available resources (heat, demineralized water and electricity)used only in part by the companies present there or even dispersed in the environment.