Sustainable Production and Consumption in the Mediterranean Area: designing a toolkit for sustainable management of the Industrial areas

The core of the Sustainable Consumption and Production Policy (SCP/SIP) Action Plan is a dynamic framework aiming to improve the environmental performance of products throughout their life-cycle, to stimulate the demand for better products and to help consumers make better choices. Particularly challenging are the fields related to environment and sustainability of Industrial Areas. The complexity of the management duties suggests the development of a set of tools that can help managers in performing their tasks. The aim of this paper is to present the set of tools to be integrated for a Sustainable Management of Industrial Areas as well as the hypotheses for their systematization and integration. These tools are grouped in a toolkit to provide a unique point of access to information. The toolkit should support the IA to evolve towards a reference model characterized by a unitary management, a shared industrial development policy of the area, common infrastructures and innovative services to increase the efficiency of the use of natural resources. The paper is a result of the EU Project ECO-SCP-MED financed by the MED Programme.