Few decades ago, the development of the industrial sector was disconnected from society’s protection. Negative effects awareness emerges from the current industrial processes through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), considering the causal implications to build up a more sustainable society. The aim of this study is to analyze the state of the art in industrial processes management to obtain positive and sustainable effects on society. Thus, a bibliometric analysis of 1911 articles was set up during the 1988–2019 period, bringing up the authors’ productivity indicators in the scientific field, that is, journals, authors, research institutions, and countries. We have identified environmental management; the impact assessments of industrial processes on the environment and its relation with a more sustainable society; as well as the study of the sustainable management of water resources as the related axes in the study of environmental protection with political, economic, and educational approaches. The growing trend of world scientific publications let us observe the relevance of industrial processes management in the implementation of efficient models to achieve sustainable societies. This research contributes to the academic, scientific, and social debate on decision-making both in public and private institutions, and in multidisciplinary groups.

Industrial symbiosis (IS) is presented as an inter-firm organizational strategy with the aim of social innovation that targets material and energy flow optimization but also structural sustainability. In this paper, we present geographical proximity as the theoretical framework used to analyse industrial symbiosis through a methodology based on System Dynamics and the underpinning use of Causal Loop Diagrams, aiming to identify the main drivers and hindrances that reinforce or regulate the industrial symbiosis’s sustainability. The understanding of industrial symbiosis is embedded in a theoretical framework that conceptualizes industry as a complex ecosystem in which proximity analysis and stakeholder theory are determinant, giving this methodology a comparative advantage over descriptive statistical forecasting, because it is able to integrate social causal rationality when forecasting attractiveness in a region or individual firm’s potential. A successful industrial symbiosis lasts only if it is able to address collective action problems. The stakeholders’ influence then becomes essential to the complex understanding of this institution, because by shaping individual behaviour in a social context, industrial symbiosis provides a degree of coordination and cooperation in order to overcome social dilemmas for actors who cannot achieve their own goals alone. The proposed narrative encourages us to draw up scenarios, integrating variables from different motivational value dimensions: efficiency, resilience, cooperation and proximity in the industrial symbiosis. We use the Dunkirk case study to explain the role of geographical systems analysis, identifying loops that reinforce or regulate the sustainability of industrial symbiosis and identifying three leverage points: “Training, workshop and education programs for managers and directors,” “Industrial symbiosis governance” and “Agreements in waste regulation conflicts.” The social dynamics aims for the consolidation of the network, through stakeholder interaction and explains the local success and failure of every industrial symbiosis through a system dynamics analysis.

Circular economy (CE) and sustainability are interrelated, without being exchangeable. While sustainability tries to reconcile the management of productive resources with their increasing consumption, CE aims to make the productive process more efficient, reducing, reusing and recycling the results of the productive process as much as possible. The aim of this paper is to ascertain the systemic structure of interactions between sustainability and CE through the analysis of the existing literature from 2004 to 2021. For this purpose, a computational literature review and a content analysis of the main contributions of CE and sustainability, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), were conducted. The results show that there is a positive impact of the synergy between CE strategies and certain SDGs. Specifically, the circular strategies that generate the greatest synergies have to do with preserving materials through recycling, downcycling, and the measurement of indicators or reference scenarios. This is what has led to the inclusion of these concepts in the formulation of policies and strategies, as their multidisciplinary nature allows them to have an impact on areas such as agriculture or innovation, which currently lack specific measures. Therefore, the knowledge derived from this study will contribute favorably to future decisions and actions to be considered, as there is still the potential to legislate in favor of an even more sustainable framework.

The impact that European and French legislation have on the circular economy implementation between market-driven incentives and state regulation emerges as the main challenge addressed in this chapter. Circular economy principles and the normative aspects of legislation constitute the best available frameworks to foresee how circular economy implementation will evolve in the building and construction sector in France. The Eiffage case study can be explained by the evolution of the normative arena composed by the current codes, environmental laws, roadmaps, and directives that frame the dynamic behavior of individual actors submitted to market pressures. A literature review of the current scientific and gray literature on circular economy in the building and construction sector was carried out in order to identify the required conditions to improve circularity in a normative way in France. Seven circular economy principles have been identified in the state of the art of Building and construction sector in France with emphasis on four of them: (1) Building lighter structures, (2) Waste reduction in the production process, (3) Intensive use of floor space, and (4) Extension of product life or recycling. Finally, we claim that the advantage of the normative approach implementation and analysis is to set the social agreement of compulsory foundation over which the market-driven initiatives and innovation could make the difference for the outstanding stakeholders of the economic sector.