Green virtual enterprise breeding environments: A sustainable industrial development model for a circular economy

Abstract

A Green Virtual Enterprise Breeding Environment (GVBE) is a long-term strategic alliance of green enterprises and their related support institutions aimed at offering the necessary conditions to efficiently promote the sharing and recycling of resources such as: information, materials, water, energy and/or infrastructure with the intention of achieving sustainable development in a collaborative way. A GVBE can be a three-level holistic sustainable industrial development model for achieving a Circular Economy at a micro-level with its green enterprises development, at meso-level with green virtual enterprises creation and at a macro-level with the GVBE it-self as an intelligent network for competencies and resources management from different green enterprises aiming to combine their green capabilities to develop triple top-line strategies to create sustainable value. This paper provides basic concepts and general guidelines to create sustainable industrial development models for Circular Economy based-on Collaborative Networked Organisations. © 2012 International Federation for Information Processing.