A Systemic Conceptual Model to Support Decision-Making in the Sustainability Assessment of Industrial Ecosystems

One of the main challenges for companies is to operate in a sustainable way, that is, by protecting the ecosystems where they are located. As a result of such a challenge, different tools and models have been developed to assess their environmental impact and to help decision makers to define strategies to become more sustainable. However, most of these tools have concentrated on the internal parameters of the companies and have failed to assess the actual impact caused on the ecosystem. Therefore, this article proposes a conceptual model to analyze the environmental risks from companies and evaluate their impact on their ecosystems. Results obtained are: 1) a methodology to assess environmental risks and their impact on the environment and 2) a causal loop diagram that identifies the relationships between the industries and its environment, showing that the company’s production rate is the key variable, since it determines the amount of both resources consumed and pollutants emitted, so its balance must be achieved in order to preserve the environment, which, otherwise, will collapse.