Defining green economy aspects for eco-friendly industrial approaches; their linkages across the sustainable innovation paradigm

Abstract

Green economy is a sustainable concept that has set the pace for industrial innovations across the globe. This is reflected in manufacturing, processing, and production industrial processes. There is a paradigm shift in the definition and understanding of green economy (GE) linkages to industrial symbiosis (IS), industrial ecology (IE) and clean development mechanism (CDM). We hypothesize in this study by responding to the question, "How is green economy defined in the model of eco-friendly industrial processes and their links to circularity? “We use systematic review design with the reporting system reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) and the Publish or Perish review tool for qualitative analytical synthesis. A total of (N = 1264) review articles were screened, and from the total, only (n = 56) articles were qualitatively synthesized. Based on previous research, we believe there are significant linkages and paradigms along the industrial symbiosis and circularity aspects. We conclude by recommending that research should explicitly inculcate incompatibilities of the green economy nexus on industrialization, the development of industrial policies that foster circularity and the combination of multiple solutions that inculcate sustainable innovations in industrial circularity.