Towards a sustainable industrial ecology: Implementation of a novel approach in the performance evaluation of Italian regions

This paper is based on the idea that the success of an environmental policy applied to the industrial sector is driven by cooperation between all parties involved, which represent both public and private actors. An innovative index to measure ecological industrial policy—Industrial Environmental Sustainability Index (IESI)—was designed using the Principal Component Analysis model, implemented through variables identifying both the applied strategy of the involved actors, on a sample of 20 Italian regions. The index allows vertical comparison among the regions in order to evaluate the achievements of national sustainable industrial policy. Its two sub-indexes also enable horizontal comparisons within the regions to encompass the role played by public and private actors. This provides a decision making support tool for policy makers seeking to fulfil their sustainability responsibility effectively, according to the EU directives.