Journal of Cleaner Production 15 (2007) 1706e1715

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Material flow analysis adapted to an industrial area

Cristina Sendra, Xavier Gabarrell*, Teresa Vicent
Departament Enginyeria Quı́mica, SosteniPra Research Group, Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA),
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona), Spain
Accepted 4 August 2006
Available online 9 October 2006

Abstract

Material flow analysis (MFA) has become a useful tool for industrial ecology (IE) to analyze the metabolism of social systems, such as coun-
tries and regions. This paper proposes to use the indicators derived from MFA, complemented with water and energy indicators, to analyze the
efficiency and the materialization ranks of industrial areas. The methodology is applied to a case study of an industrial area located in Catalonia
(Spain). Despite the heterogeneity of the area, by using simple data the indicators detect companies with high consumption or inefficiency. These
companies have many opportunities to improve on these aspects and the indicators can measure and reflect their evolution. In addition, the
results show the importance that some flows such as water inputs (1.5 times higher than material inputs) and indirect flows associated with
imports, which often are omitted, can have in some study cases.
Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Industrial symbiosis; Industrial ecology; Material flow analysis (MFA); Environmental indicators; Industrial park

1. Introduction of manufacturing practices and focuses on the interrelations

Despite its youth, industrial ecology (IE) has become a
recognized field in the scientific community, with burgeoning
literature to furnish its definition and its analogy with natural
ecosystems. Many experiences have begun and are working
around the world, where IE is applied at different levels:
from global or national level to company level (for an over-
view, see the special issue on Industrial Ecology in the Journal
of Cleaner Production [1]).
Some of the most innovative and relevant IE contributions
have been the broader perspective with which it analyses in-
dustrial systems, and how IE proposes to transform industrial
areas into eco-industrial parks (EIP). IE handles industry
integrated in its surroundings from an environmental point of
view, without compromising or deteriorating its economic and
social sustainability. The field goes beyond the improvement
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ34 935812789; fax: þ34 935812013.
E-mail address: xavier.gabarrell@uab.es (X. Gabarrell).
between the company and its surroundings, whether that is
cities, other companies or regions [2]. In fact, a report from
the US Environmental Protection Agency defined EIP as a
‘‘community of manufacturing and services companies seeking
enhanced environmental and economic performance through
collaboration in managing environmental and resources issues
including energy, water and materials. Through collabora-
tion, this community of companies can become an industrial
ecosystem’’ [3].
One of the strong points of EIP is the cooperation between
businesses to find winewin situations, where the benefits of
cooperation should be greater than the sum of individual ad-
vantages. Despite the efforts invested and the attractive defini-
tion of EIP, there are few experiences and many problems arise
when implementing IE in industrial areas [4]. First, the suc-
cess of EIP depends on many variables [5], but time and active
company participation are crucial to establish networking, es-
pecially in the conversion of existing industrial areas. Thus,
the project of conversion is usually a slow and progressive
evolution towards an EIP. In this context, indicators are

0959-6526/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2006.08.019
 C. Sendra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 15 (2007) 1706e1715
necessary and useful in order to objectively reflect and mea-
sure this constant evolution. Secondly, the larger the area
analyzed, the easier it is to find these types of situations and
the greater the opportunities. Nowadays, some interesting pro-
jects can be found at regional level [6,7]. Moreover, this sys-
tem growth leads to a rise in flows and data analyzed, thus
increasing the complexity of the system. This is when the
need to find tools to simplify the system emerges. Indicators
capable of structuring and simplifying systems data can be
one of these tools.
There is an extensive bibliography on indicators and many
have been already defined [8,9]. In general, a good indicator
should be credible, transparent, relevant, accurate, measurable,
cost effective, comparable, adaptable, able to show changes,
and readily understood [10]. Many times the estimation of
some indicators requires a high amount of precise data and
in other cases complicated ways of estimation result in final
numbers with no physical meaning. These are precisely the ad-
vantages of material flow analysis (MFA) derived indicators.
MFA is a widespread and standardized methodology [11]
for accounting the input and output material flows of a system,
and for estimating their derived environmental indicators [12].
All flows and indicators are measured in mass units, giving
a physical quantification of the system’s material require-
ments. The methodology has been mostly applied to countries
and regions in order to analyze their social metabolism
[13,14], but not to industrial areas. At this scale it is more fre-
quent to apply inputeoutput analysis, substance flow analysis
and other similar methodologies [15e17], as it is to apply en-
vironmental management accounting to companies [10]. How-
ever, the added value in applying MFA at this level is
quantifying all material flows and finding meaningful and sim-
ple indicators that will be able to detect critical points and re-
flect the state and evolution of the system’s metabolism.
The aim of this paper is to adapt MFA methodology to ap-
ply it to an industrial park and the companies located within it,
and to show the results obtained for an industrial area located
in Catalonia.
2. Analytical framework
To apply material flow accounting to the industrial park and
to the companies, the Eurostat [11] methodology was adapted
and complemented with energy and water indicators. This sec-
tion summarizes the distinctive features of the methodology
used.
2.1. System boundaries
The material flow analysis was applied to each company
and to the industrial area as a whole. Each company repre-
sented a ‘‘subsystem’’ which formed part of the total industrial
area, the ‘‘system’’. All subsystems and the overall system
were to obey the material flow balance, but the global balance
was not the sum of each subsystem’s balance. Subsystems
boundaries were defined by the territorial limits of the compa-
nies and the system area is the sum of the company’s areas.
1707
Consequently, if all the companies of the industrial park par-
ticipate in the project, the system boundaries will coincide
with the geographical limits of the industrial park.
In the case that one company or enterprise has more than
one factory, only the factories inside the system boundaries
will be included in the analysis.
2.2. Flows
The classification of flows was analogous to Eurostat clas-
sification [11]. Domestic extraction was the resources used ex-
tracted inside the system, whereas raw materials and products
from other businesses, bought or extracted outside the indus-
trial area, were treated as imports. Exports were the products
and materials used or sold outside the system boundaries,
while emissions to air, wastes and wastewater were outputs
to the environment.
When applying MFA at company level, as well as at na-
tional level, indirect flows associated with imports and exports
may or may not be accounted. Nevertheless, indirect flows of
the whole industrial area should not be accounted as the sum
of the indirect flows associated with each company, in order
to avoid double counting. For the same reason, by-products
do not have associated indirect flows; except in the case of ma-
terials specially used to modify by-product characteristics in
order to improve or reuse them.
Although water and air are strictly materials, they are con-
sidered as independent flows, as in MFA at national level, due
to the large amounts used. Material flow indicators only take
into account the amount of water and air used in manufactur-
ing processes. The rest is included in independent indicators.
2.3. Significant issues in the adaptation of MFA
to industrial parks
When MFA for national economies or regions is adapted to
industrial parks, some aspects should be pointed out:
1. MFA should be combined with energy and water flow
analysis, as it is important to measure all the resources
used by the system. Depending on the park’s location,
both resources can suppose important environmental im-
pacts. Also, situations in which material decreases at ex-
penses of energy or water consumption (i.e. recycling),
should be detected. Finally, in an EIP, as the use of all re-
sources, not only materials, should be improved, all should
be quantified.
2. Whereas at national level most of the data are statistical, in
industrial parks data are given by the companies, reflecting
better the reality and the system’s heterogeneity. Addition-
ally, indirect flows associated to companies’ production
should be estimated in situ, because the coefficient used
at national level could give erroneous values. Furthermore,
the results of indirect flows for industrial parks could be
used in the development of statistical basis to estimate in-
direct flows at national or regional level.
1708 C. Sendra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 15 (2007) 1706e1715

3. In industrial areas weak dematerialization should be tested
measuring material input per unit of product, instead of
GDP and per capita which are used at national or regional
level.
4. At national level the system is analyzed as a black box,
whereas in an industrial park its companies also should
be analyzed as well. Thus, in an industrial area, MFA
should be evaluated for the whole system (the whole in-
dustrial area) and for its subsystems, in order to measure
the companies’ flows and to detect opportunities for im-
provement, such as inter-firm’s material exchange.
5. The data basis created to evaluate MFA’s indicators will be
the main tool to detect these opportunities. Thus, not only
the indicators deducted from MFA are useful, but also the
data necessary to obtain them.
2.4. Indicators
indicators could be calculated for the whole area having
a global vision of the system, as well as for each company, fa-
cilitating the comparison of the consumption or the efficiency
of different subsystems.
Notwithstanding, material indicators are not enough to
analyze the use of resources by industries and their efficiency,
and should be complemented with water and energy
indicators.
The indicators were defined in absolute and in relative
terms. Indicators in absolute terms give information about to-
tal consumption or generation and can either reflect energy,
material or water consumption (inputs to the system), or
they can reflect waste production (outputs from the system).
On the other hand, indicators expressed in relative terms
show the efficiency in the use of materials or water. Consider-
ing energy, only consumption indicators were calculated due
to the lack of information on energy dissipation in industrial
processes.

Two input indicators from the MFA methodology at the 2.5. Case study
national level were used [11]: direct material input (DMI) and
total material requirement (TMR). The indicators were calculated for an industrial area located
DMI measures the amount of materials entering the system in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, 30 km northeast of Barcelona
to be used and/or processed, and is the sum of Domestic (Fig. 1). The town is situated in the basin of the Besós River,
Extraction (DE) plus Imports. If unused domestic extraction and occupies an area of 15.7 km2. Historically, Santa Perpètua
and indirect flows associated with imports are added to de Mogoda was an agricultural and livestock-farming town. In
DMI, the input indicator is called TMR. the 1960s, immigration originated a fast growth of the popula-
Methodologically and conceptually in accordance with tion and industrialization. In 2001, the population of the town
MFA indicators, other environmental indicators were deduced was 20,479 inhabitants and there were around 15,369 jobs.
and are presented in Table 1. The indicators will be useful to Nowadays there are more than 500 businesses in the area,
simplify the analysis of the material flows. and the city has become one of the most industrialized towns
The flows were assembled in order to obtain a global view near Barcelona [18]. The industrialization growth was fast and
of the resources interchanged between the system and the en- unorganized, as in many other parts of the world. Conse-
vironment. Depending on the type of information needed, the quently industrial development was heterogeneous and diver-
sified, with no cooperation among businesses. Despite the
Table 1 large number of businesses in the town, most of them ac-
Environmental indicators knowledge knowing little about other companies, and only
Indicator Definition Expression 3.3% cooperate with other companies, understanding coopera-
DMI (t) Direct material input Domestic extraction (DE) þ tion as any kind of mutual agreement between businesses
imports based on mutual advantages.
TMR (t) Total material Direct material Sixty businesses, located in an area of 1.34 km2, decided to
requirement input þ indirect flows þ
take part in this research. Despite the diversity of the industrial
unused DE
DMIw (t/worker) DMI/worker DMI/number of workers area, there is a predominance of chemical and metallurgical
TMRw (t/worker) TMR/worker TMR/number of workers industries and 90% of the companies are Small and Medium
TWG (t) Total wastes Total amount Size Enterprises (SME), with less than 50 workers.
generation of wastes produced
TWGw (t/worker) TWG/worker TWG/number of workers
2.6. Data acquisition
WP (t/worker) Worker productivity Total production/number
of workers
Eco-Ef Eco-efficiency Annual production/TMR The acquisition of data for the case study was done through
Eco-In Eco-intensity TMR/total production a questionnaire-survey, expressly developed for the project.
M-Inef Material inefficiency Outputs to nature/DMI The inquiries contained 26 questions, grouped into seven
TWI (t) Total water input Total water consumption
blocks:
TWWG (t) Total wastewater Total amount
generation of waste water produced
TWIw (t/worker) TWI/worker TWI/number of workers - Company organization: economic activity, environmental
TEI (GJ) Total energy input Total energy consumption policy and organization, description of the production
TEIw (GJ/worker) TEI/worker TEI/number of workers processes;
E-In (G/t) Energetic intensity TEI/total production
- Environmental problems;
 C. Sendra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 15 (2007) 1706e1715
EUROPE
Fig. 1. Localization of the industrial area of Santa Perpètua de Mogoda (northeast Spain).
- Materials requirements: types of materials, flows and
storage;
- Energy consumption: energy sources and consumption;
- Water consumption: sources and flows;
- Atmospheric emissions: composition and flows;
- Waste generation: types of materials, flows and treatments;
- Wastewater production: composition, flows and treatments.
Questionnaires were hand-delivered and later gathered
from each company. In some cases, the information was com-
pleted with face-to-face or telephone interviews. Matrices for
materials, water and energy were constructed using inquiry
data. Each row of these matrices represented a company, while
each column represented a type of material. The 60 companies
consumed more than 150 types of raw materials, manufactured
104 different products and generated 83 types of wastes. Due
to the high number of different material flows, indicators be-
came necessary to simplify the analysis of the system.
Several problems arose while revising the inquiries data:
some companies had not fully completed the questionnaires,
so there were many unknown flows; much erroneous data
were also found. Material flow balance was applied to each
company in order to verify the data (find the erroneous values)
and to quantify unknown material and water flows. After ap-
plying this methodology, 20 companies were discarded be-
cause of the incongruity in the data given, and the final
analysis was done for 40 companies.
3. Results
3.1. Discussion of indicators
In this section some of the most relevant features of the in-
dicators of Table 1 will be discussed. Evaluating DMI at
1709
CATALONIA
Sta. Perpètua
Barcelona
Mediterranean Sea
company level is useful not only for measuring material re-
quirement or the ‘‘materialization’’ or dematerialization of
the system and subsystems but also to reflect by-product ex-
change among subsystems, as shown in the example of
Fig. 2. The example of the Fig. 2 represents a theoretical
system composed of three industries. The circles in Fig. 2A
represent the boundaries to apply MFA to each company. To
evaluate the DMI of each company all input flows crossing
these boundaries are accounted, even if they are generated
by other companies of the system. However, as represented
in Fig. 2D, an increase of by-product exchange among the
companies under study is reflected in a decrease of DMI of
the whole system. But the DMI of the companies remains sta-
ble unless there is a variation in the amount of input material
flows. As DMI, TMR reflects materialization of the system
and material symbiosis, although in this case the material ef-
ficiency of suppliers is included. The more efficient material
suppliers are, the lower the indirect flows associated with im-
ports or unused domestic extraction, and the lower TMR is.
To compare the DMI and TMR results with other compa-
nies or systems, it is interesting to measure the tonnes per
worker processed, thus both indicators can be calculated per
worker. These indicators can be related with the automation
and the product processing rate of each company.
To account the amount of material output of the system two
types of flows were defined: exports and outputs to nature. Re-
cycled and reused material flows inside the system were not
accounted. For industry, it is important to distinguish among
the different types of outputs to nature, and so a specific indi-
cator is defined for wastes, total waste generation (TWG). In
mass units, emissions to air and wastewater suppose a small
fraction of the output flows compared with TWG, because wa-
ter and air are not included. In general, an aggregated indicator
to measure the total material outputs to nature is unnecessary,
1710 C. Sendra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 15 (2007) 1706e1715

Raw Materials Material Wastes A Raw Materials Material Wastes B

Fuel Oil Final Product Packaging Package
Fuel Oil Final Product
Electricity By-Product A Electricity
1 1
Water Packaging Water Product A Packaging
Steam Product A Waste’s Waste’s
2 2
Product B Product A-B Product B Product A-B
Steam
Electricity Waste water (packed) Electricity (packed)
Gas Gas Wastewater treatment
Rain water Waste water Rain water
Packaging 3 Steam Packaging 3
Raw Materials Final product Raw Materials Final product

C INPUTS OUTPUTS
D
Raw Materials MaterialWastes
Raw Materials Material Wastes
Oil Final Product Package
Oil Final Product
Electricity
1 Packaging
Water Product A Packaging
Waste’s Water Packaging
2 Rain Waste’s
Product B Steam Product A-B
water
Electricity
Gas Wastewater treatment
Rain water Gas Waste water
Packaging 3
Packaging
Raw Materials Final product Final product

Fig. 2. Industrial area composed by three industries. (A) The figure summarizes the input and output flows for each industry. In the MFA of each company the flows
accounted are the ones which cross the circle. The circles represent the boundaries for each company. (B) The figure shows the material symbiosis between com-
panies. The product A consumed by company 2 is produced in company 1, and the steam exceed of company 3 by 1. (C) The circle in this figure shows the bound-
aries of the industrial area. When applying MFA to all of the industrial area, material flows exchanged among companies are not accounted, because they do not
cross system boundaries. (D) In MFA, as shown in the figure, the whole area is treated as black box, and only the flows that cross system’s boundaries are accounted
to build up the MFA. To analyze interconnection among companies, MFA of each subsystem should be evaluated.

because its value and trend will reflect almost the same as
TWG. In particular cases, when emissions to air and water
should be accounted, it is recommended to define specific in-
dicators for these flows.
Finally, exports or production (P) is the amount of materials
exported. Dividing it by the number of workers measures an
average of worker productivity (WP) and dividing it by DMI
reflects eco-efficiency (Eco-Ef). Eco-Ef is the percentage of
DMI converted into product; needless to say, the value of
Eco-Ef is between 0 and 1.
Eco-intensity (Eco-In) is the inverse of Eco-Ef, i.e. DMI or
TMR divided by production (P). Thus, it measures the tonnes
of material input required to manufacture a tonne of product or
the amount of raw material equivalent to a product. Therefore,
the coefficient for the indirect flows (CIF) evaluation associ-
ated with a manufactured product can be calculated as:
 
DMI
CIF ¼ ðEco-InÞ  1 ¼ 1 ð1Þ
P boundaries and are shared with other systems. As the flows
Thus,
Indirect Flows ¼ CIF$P
As with Eco-In, CIF can be calculated by using TMR or
DMI and this should be indicated. In fact, using TMR is
preferable, in order to obtain the raw materials equivalent, or
the amount of materials required in the whole life of a product.
However, in many cases there is no available or reliable data
with which to estimate TMR, and Eco-In is evaluated using
DMI. In this case, Eco-In only measures the indirect flows of
this manufacturing step. The CIF could be useful to compa-
nies’ clients to evaluate the indirect flows associated with the
imports, or their TMR. In addition, CIF is a numeric value to
compare and discriminate among different products in the
market.
Material inefficiency (M-Inef) is the amount of output to
nature per unit of material processed. Thus TWG plus emis-
sions to air and water should be divided by DMI. M-Inef is
complementary to Eco-Ef, and the sum of both should be
equal to 1, if there is no addition to stocks (DMI ¼ outputs
to nature þ production).
Total water input (TWI) and total wastewater generation
(TWWG) were defined as water indicators. TWI measures
the amount of water consumed by the system from own sour-
ces (domestic) and imported from supply system, shafts and
rivers. As domestic water only the use of rain water should
be considered. Subterranean and superficial waters were con-
sidered imported flows because they usually cross system
used to evaluate TWI were measured entering the system,
the inefficiency of water use inside system limits was included
ð2Þ in the TWI. Thus unused domestic extraction was accounted,
but not indirect flows associated with imports.
TWI per worker (TWIw) also was calculated to analyze the
difference with the average of water consumption per
inhabitant.
Finally, the energy indicators defined were total energy in-
put (TEI), TEI per worker and energetic intensity (E-In). TEI
is the amount of energy consumed by the system and subsys-
tems, distinguished between energy generated domestically
 C. Sendra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 15 (2007) 1706e1715
(renewable resources on site and cogeneration) and imported
energy. In this case, the flows were measured in the entrance
of the system, so their inefficiency was included in TEI. To
make different-sized systems comparable TEI should be di-
vided by production, and E-In would be obtained.
Table 2 shows how MFA indicators can reflect the effi-
ciency of some strategies of conversion of an industrial area
into an EIP. In order to form an EIP, a decrease in resources
use (material, energy and water) is necessary, as well as indi-
cators which can reflect the change and quantify the efficacy
of the strategies implemented.
3.2. Results and discussion of Santa Perpètua’s
indicators
All the indicators were calculated for the whole industrial
area and for each company, and the results are presented in
Table 3. The table shows the results of each indicator for the
‘‘Total system’’, the industrial area as a whole; and for all
the ‘‘subsystems’’, the average values for the analyzed compa-
nies, as well as the highest (maximum) and lowest (minimum)
indicator values. To summarize the results of the case study
only some indicators will be discussed in this paper. Neverthe-
less, the results of all indicators calculated for Santa Perpètua’s
industrial area are presented in Table 3, for readers interested
in them.
Fig. 3 shows the DMI of the 40 companies of the industrial
area. Companies with a DMI lower than 5000 t/year are repre-
sented on the left side axis, whereas companies with a higher
DMI are on the right. The system (40 companies) consumes
around 240,000 t/year, although Fig. 3 shows a high dispersion
of the companies’ DMI, as might be expected for the high di-
versity of industrial sectors in the system. Whereas one com-
pany consumes almost 50,000 t, another one consumes less
than 10 t/year, with an average of 5000 t/year/company. As
seen in Fig. 3, most companies have a DMI lower than the av-
erage, but there are five companies (numbers 9, 26, 29, 30, 33)
with a high material input that raise the average. These indus-
tries belong to the chemical and paper industrial sector. The
analysis of these companies is foreground, where a decrease
Table 2
Trends of MFA indicators in the implementation of strategies of conversion of industrial area into EIP
Strategies or features Indicator
By-product exchange Y DMI or TMR
YTWG
Strong dematerialization Y DMI or TMR
Weak dematerialization Y Eco-In
Minimization of outputs to nature Y TWG
Y M-Inef
Use of system own resources Y Imports versus
[ Domestic extraction
Strategies to increase the efficiency:
Materials Y DMI or TMR
Y Eco-In
Energy Y TEI or Y E-In
Water Y TWI
1711
in the companies’ DMI supposes an important improvement
in the overall system’s DMI. To analyze their efficiency, the
eco-efficiency of the companies is illustrated in Fig. 4. The re-
sults show that company 9 has an efficiency of 51.2%. Thus,
around 50% of its DMI is converted into wastes and emissions.
Many improvements can be made in this company, finding al-
ternatives uses for these residual flows. The efficiency of com-
panies 26, 30 and 33 ranges between 88% and 92%, and
although these percentages are high, they can also be im-
proved. Company 29 has a high efficiency in material use,
99.6%, so most of the DMI is converted into desirable
products. In this case, analysis should focus on product
improvement or modification, by using eco-design criteria
for example.
Fig. 4 also shows five companies with a material efficiency
below 50% (numbers 2, 12, 17, 28 and 34). This group of com-
panies does not suppose a high fraction of the system’s DMI.
However, a more in depth analysis would be interesting to un-
derstand the reason of this high inefficiency.
Company 12, where more than 95% of DMI is converted
into wastes, is a chemical company manufacturing stickers
and gum products with a high added value that economically
sustains this high material inefficiency. In fact, by observing
the efficiency of chemical industries represented in Fig. 4,
two groups can be distinguished: five companies with over
90% of Eco-Ef and three with an Eco-Ef below 75%. As
can be expected, the second group fabricates products with
higher added value. Although, eight companies are not enough
to generalize this assumption, we can affirm that in this case
study the material efficiency in manufacturing is opposite to
the product added value in the chemical sector, or that the ma-
terial optimization is higher in products with less added value.
Companies from the paper and printing sector have an Eco-
Ef between 75% and 92%, which is higher in average than in
industries from the metal and mineral sector.
In general, the higher Eco-Ef corresponds to companies fo-
cused on trade, except for companies number 2 and 28, with
efficiencies of 40% and 32%, respectively. For company 28
wastes were related to packaging activities, which should be
improved or modified.
Material input is substituted by wastes, thus both material input and output decrease.
An absolute decrease of system’s materials requirement a long time.
A decrease in material requirement per unit of product manufactured along time.
The material outputs to nature could decrease in absolute or relative to the amount
of products manufactured.
The use of system’s resources (i.e. rain water, renewable energy.) supposes a substitution
of imported resources by domestically extracted.
Improvements in the efficiency in resources use could be reflected in a decrease in the total
amount of resources requirement or a decrease in per unit of product manufactured if the
production increases in the period under study.
1712 C. Sendra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 15 (2007) 1706e1715

Table 3 Textile Metals

Results of environmental indicators for the case study Paper & Print Other
Chemical Trade
Indicators Units Total Subsystem’s Subsystem’s Subsystem’s
Rubber & Plastic
system average maximum minimum
DMI t/year 223,828 5596 49,751 9 100%
DMIw t/year/worker 112 183 1418 1.0
90%
TWG t/year 31,472 787 11,200 0.7
TWGw t/year/worker 15.8 23 400 0.02 80%
WP t/year/worker 96.5 160 1412 0.3
70%
Eco-Ef e 0.9 0.8 1.0 0.03

Eco-Efficiency
Eco-In e 1.2 2.2 29.1 1.0 60%
M-Inef e 0.1 0.2 1.0 0.001
50%
TWI t/year 357,268 8932 171,212 61
TWIw t/year/worker 179 229 4506 6 40%
TWWG t/year 293,972 7349 170,000 60.5
30%
TEI GJ 345,673 8863 87,537 19.8
TEIw GJ/worker 174 209 1430 4.0 20%
E-In GJ/t 1.8 9.0 68.3 1.6
10%

As outputs indicators only TWG was accounted, since the
amount of material deposited to air and water was minimal
compared with TWG. On the one hand, emissions to air
were minimal because transport was not included in this
case study, and only nine companies with boilers and scrub-
bers control their emissions. These companies should be
treated in depth in future analyses and transport of materials
and workers should also be included. On the other hand,
wastewater with higher load was treated inside the companies
in their own wastewater treatment plant. Thus, the material
outputs of the system were the mud purged, accounted in
TWG, and the clean water with less materials.
Table 4 shows the distribution of TWG for the 40 compa-
nies. From the results, two groups of companies can be distin-
guished. The first group includes most of the companies, but
generates a small fraction of the TWG. In fact, 81% of the
companies generate 15% of the system’s wastes. The second
group, formed by seven companies, is responsible for the
generation of 85% of the system’s wastes. For this group,
each company should be studied alone, and personalized solu-
tions should be found. Contrarily, collective solutions could be
Left Axis
Right Axis
5000
4500
4000
DMI (tonnes/year)
0%
0 10 20 30 40
Company
Fig. 4. Eco-efficiency (Eco-Ef) for the companies, grouped into industrial
sectors.
better and cheaper for the first group. There are specific types
of wastes generated by many companies in small amounts (see
examples in Table 5), supposing high costs of treatment, trans-
port and/or storage. Thus, if companies collaborate, these
wastes could be collectively gathered, increasing the opportu-
nities of use and treatment and decreasing its costs. One pro-
posal is to install a roving collection system and a transfer
center in the industrial area, in order to promote recycling,
reusing and by-product exchange. The roving center would
collaborate with the existing by-product exchange market at
regional level (Borsa Subproductes de Catalunya [19]) with
the aim to find suitable uses for these wastes.
As mentioned above, it is important to evaluate water require-
ments in industrial systems. For areas such as Catalonia, with
problems related to water scarcity, an independent treatment
of this flow is especially necessary, since water has high environ-
mental and economical costs. TWI, in tonnes per year for the 40
companies, is represented in Fig. 5. The average is more than
350,000 t/year, 1.5 times higher than DMI. The range of TWI
variation is also higher than for materials (i.e. DMI), where 18
50000
45000 Table 4
40000 Distribution of total waste generation (TWG) in tonnes per year for the com-

3500 35000
panies of the case study
3000 30000 TWG (t/year) Number of % companies % of the wastes
2500 companies generated
25000
2000 20000 Less than 10 7 18 0.09
1500
10e50 11 28 0.72
15000
50e100 6 15 1.43
1000 10000 100e200 3 8 1.18
500 5000 200e500 2 5 2.28
0 0 500e1000 4 10 9.55
0 10 20 30 40 1000e5000 5 13 32.48
Company 5000e10,000 1 3 16.68
More than 10,000 1 3 35.59
Fig. 3. DMI for the 40 companies of Santa Perpètua’s industrial area.
 C. Sendra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 15 (2007) 1706e1715 1713

Table 5 12%
Wastes declared by more than four companies, which could be stored in a col-
lection center to be recycled ELECTRICITY (kWh)
7%
Kind of waste Number of firms Production NATURAL GAS (kWh)
(producers) GASOIL (kWh)
Oil used (l/year) 8 9561 OTHER (kWh)
Paper and cardboard (t/year) 28 9995
Toner (units/year) 17 322 18%
Cartridge printer (units/year) 23 1361
Glass (t/year) 4 61 63%
Drums (units/year) 6 4697
Fluorescent (units/year) 12 2579
Wooden pallets (units/year) 7 7241

Fig. 6. Energy sources for the system.

companies have a TWI lower than 1000 and one company con-
sumes more than 170,000 t. In fact, the TWI of six companies
supposes 70% of the TWI. Thus, implementing improvement
strategies in these companies is essential in order to decrease
the system’s TWI. It is also important for TWI to distinguish be-
tween imported and domestic water. Strategies focused on min-
imization and reutilization (for example, cascade water use) will
suppose a diminution of the TWI of systems or subsystems;
whereas in the case of a substitution of water imported by a sys-
tem’s own resources (i.e. use of rain water), TWI will remain
constant, but the domestic/imported water relation will increase.
By analyzing output water flows (TWWG) and comparing it
with input flows (TWI) it can be observed that 58% of the com-
panies have a TWWG similar to TWI. However, in the remain-
ing companies TWI is 32% higher than the outputs, and this
difference is directly related to dissipative uses of water, such
as irrigation and evaporation processes. Apparently, the compa-
nies with a high TWWG are the ones that have the highest TWI.
Thus, for industrial areas situated in regions, such as Mediterra-
nean basin, with problems of water scarcity, the quantification
and optimization in water use is crucial, as they are important
focus of water consumption at regional level.
Finally, the results of energy indicators are presented. As
can be observed in Fig. 6, most of the energy consumed in
the system is electricity, despite the fact that gas and oil
represent significant amounts. There is no system in the area
with own energy generation and therefore there is no distinc-
tion between domestic and imported energy. Total energy in-
put (TEI) and energy intensity (E-In) for the 40 companies
are represented in Figs. 7 and 8, respectively. In this case, there
is also a group of five companies responsible for the consump-
tion of more than 50% of the system’s TEI, which require
a special analysis to implement measures that would minimize
their energy dependence. The E-In (Fig. 8) has been repre-
sented to show the energetic requirements per unit of product,
and there is a high variance, as well as no relation among dif-
ferent sectors. The final objective is not only the minimization
of energy use, but also the progressive substitution of imported
electricity by electricity generated domestically (renewable
sources or cogeneration) in order to close system’s energy
loop, and decrease the looses in energy transport.
3.3. The relevance of indirect flows associated with
manufactured products
Due to the lack of data on indirect flows associated with im-
ports, TMR could not be estimated, and eco-intensity (Eco-In)
was calculated using DMI. Fig. 9 shows the value of CIF for
the system’s companies. Despite the dominance of enterprises
with low CIF, IF suppose a significant amount of materials that

Left Axis
Right Axis 2000 100000
Left Axis
10000 180000 1800 90000
Right Axis
9000 160000 1600 80000
8000 140000 1400 70000
TWI (Tonnes/year)

7000
120000 1200 60000
TEI (GJ)

6000
100000 1000 50000
5000
80000 800 40000
4000
60000 600 30000
3000
40000 400 20000
2000
1000 20000 200 10000

0 0 0 0
0 10 20 30 40 0 10 20 30 40
Company Company

Fig. 5. Total water input (TWI) of the 40 companies of the industrial area. Fig. 7. Total energy input (TEI) for the 40 companies of the system.
1714 C. Sendra et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 15 (2007) 1706e1715

Left Axis These critical points have high priority, since a small improve-
Right Axis ment can result in great benefits for the whole area.
20 70 By combining these indicators with other environmental
18 65 tools, they can be used together to plan the strategy to convert
16 60 an industrial park or area into an EIP. After applying the strat-
14 55 egies, the indicators could be able to reflect the changes in the
system and evaluate its effectiveness. Applying the same indi-
E-In (GJ/t)

12 50
10 45
8 40
6 35
4 30
2 25
0 20
0 10 20 30 40
Company
Fig. 8. Energy intensity (E-In) for the 40 companies of the industrial area.
should not be underestimated (in 25% of the cases CIF is
higher than 0.5). Thus, it is essential to estimate indirect flows
in order to analyze the ‘‘real’’ materials requirement of an in-
dustrial system and to assess its sustainability. These amounts
of materials should be internalized in order to analyze the ef-
ficiency and the materialization.
4. Conclusions
The case study focused on a heterogeneous industrial area,
where individual strategies for selected companies should be
combined with collective objectives in order to begin the con-
version of this industrial area into an EIP. The indicators
showed that one company generates 22% of the system’s
DMI and seven companies generate 85% of its TWG. Thus,
the proposed indicators, by using simple data available for all
companies, are useful in detecting the system’s critical points:
resource consumption (DMI, TMR, TWI, TEI), the usage of
system’s own resources (domestic versus imported), waste gen-
eration (TWG or M-Inef) and efficiency (Eco-Ef or Eco-In).
35%
30%
Companies' Percentage
cators at both levels, company and whole industrial area, is im-
portant in order to measure the effects of changes in both.
Thus, indicators measure the effect of improvements of indi-
vidual companies on the overall area and the objectives fixed
for the whole area can be easily translated into objectives for
individual companies.
The results of the case study show the importance of com-
plementing material indicators with water and energy. In fact,
the TMI of Santa Perpètua’s industrial area is 1.5 higher than
its DMI, and supposes high economic and environmental
costs. The case study also shows the relevance of indirect
flows, since in 25% of the companies they are higher than
50% of the production (export flow). Thus, IF suppose consid-
erable amounts of materials used indirectly by the system,
which should be accounted if an analysis of the sustainability
of the area is desired.
The study also shows signs of relations between Eco-Ef and
the different industrial sectors and the value-adding to final
products, which should be further, analyzed in others systems
before being generalized.
A high value of an indicator does not represent a critical en-
vironmental situation, since the relation between flows and en-
vironmental impacts is not direct. Many flows have multiple
and complex effects on the environment, so it is difficult to
identify and quantify the impacts of each flow. However, it
is obvious that the higher the flow, the higher the impact.
Therefore a reduction in resource use is needed to make eco-
nomic development couple with Earth carrying capacity. Still
one of the advantages is the higher simplicity of data required
in applying the methodology proposed, acquainted by all the
companies, which facilitates its participation in the project.
Despite the fact that many companies should be dropped,
the experience proves that the participation would be lower
with more data requirements. This participation is crucial for
the success of an EIP and, most importantly, the higher the
number of participants, the greater the possibilities of inter-

25%
connections among businesses.
To conclude, it should be remarked that this analysis goes
20% beyond an individual analysis of each company and focuses
on the whole industrial area. The case study, unlike many other
15% cases, has no central company in this industrial area. What this
paper shows are the results for a heterogeneous industrial area,
10%
formed by many SMEs from different industrial sectors, sim-
5%
ilar to many other areas around the world.

0%
<0.01 0.01-0.1 0.1-0.5 0.5-1 1-2 2-5 >5 References
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Cristina Sendra received a B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering (2001) and
an M.Sc. degree in Environmental Science (2004) in Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona (UAB), Spain. In 2001, Sendra spent five months at the Environ-
mental Engineering Department of Politecnico of Milano, Italy. Currently
she is teaching in the Chemical Engineering Department of the UAB. Her re-
search topics are industrial ecology, environmental indicators and material
flow analysis.
Xavier Gabarrell Durany has a B.A. in Chemical Engineering, M.A. in Bio-
technology, and a Ph.D. in Biotechnology (UAB, Spain). Currently he is
a member of the Chemical Engineering Department of the Universitat Autòn-
oma de Barcelona and Director of the Institute of Environmental Science and
Technology (ICTA) of the same university. He teaches courses on a variety of
environmental topics in the Chemical Engineering degree and in the Environ-
mental Science degree as well as in the doctoral programmes of Biotechnology
and Environmental Sciences. His research work on the Chemical Engineering
Department and the ICTA at the UAB has been focusing on the field of Envi-
ronmental Engineering and Biochemical Environmental Engineering during
the last 15 years. He is expert in industrial ecology, environmental audits,
waste management, and industrial wastewater treatment by fungi. His research
has been funded by the European Union; the Spanish CICYT, the Catalan
DURSI and different companies. He is the head of the research group Soste-
niPra (Sustainability and Environmental Prevention) and a member of Interna-
tional Society of Industrial Ecology (ISIE).
M. Teresa Vicent Huguet has a B.A. in Chemistry from Universitat de Valen-
cia, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Biotechnology from Universitat Autònoma
de Barcelona (1984). Currently she is a member of the Chemical Engineering
Department of the UAB. She teaches courses on a variety of environmental
topics in the degrees of Chemical Engineering, Environmental Science, and
Biotechnology, as well as in the doctoral programmes of Biotechnology and
Environmental Sciences. Her research focussed on the field of Environmental
Engineering and Biochemical Environmental Engineering during the last
years. Her research interests are Industrial Wastewater Treatment, Anaerobic
Digestion and Industrial Ecology. She is the head of the research group in Bio-
degradation of industrial pollutants and wastes valorisation.