The Roles of Public Actor in Catalysing Industrial Ecology

Value creation in circular economy (CE) is a result of co-creation. Under industrial ecology in CE, the collaboration has been studied extensively on company-to-company basis, but related public actor perspectives remain unexplored. Still, circular actions happen in societal contexts where public actors and logics are constantly present. For discovering the topic, the paper considers the research question “What roles can a public actor have in a CE system?”. The research relies on a multiple case study on 20 eco-industrial parks around the world. The results are based on qualitative content analysis conducted with secondary data. As a result, six distinct roles (operator, organizer, financer, supporter, policymaker and regulator) for public actor in CE systems were identified. The roles depict the concrete tools used by public actors. The study provides insights on how public actors can contribute to sustainability transitions among their territories and helps practitioners to better understand the premises for public-private interaction.