The Industrial Symbiosis Potential in Swedish Farms : Exploring Integrated Biosystems as Sector-Specific Industrial Symbiosis-Oriented Sustainable Business Models in Agriculture

Swedish agriculture is responsible for approximately 14% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from biogenic sources like manure and soils. These emissions are hard to reduce and costly to offset. Many farms face economic strain, while current mitigation strategies often overlook the sector’s decentralized and heterogeneous structure. Despite its strategic role in climate policy, there is a lack of applied frameworks for circular transformation at the farm level.This study explores the potential of Industrial Symbiosis (IS) to support Sustainable Business Models (SBMs) in Swedish agriculture. IS remains underused in farm settings, particularly in decentralized systems characterized by organic waste flows, spatial dispersion, and operational diversity. To address this gap, the study applies a modified Industrial Symbiosis Potential Tool(ISPT), combined with SBM analysis, to six farms in the Linköping region.Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with eight farmers selected via purposive sampling, and triangulated with five expert interviews involving consultants, researchers, and a representative from the Swedish Farmers’ Federation (LRF). Thematicanalysis was conducted based on the ISPT’s three modules—Company Identification, CurrentState Assessment, and Implementation Potential—allowing for a structured interpretation ofIS as both a technical intervention and a strategic business transformation pathway.Findings show that Integrated Biosystems (IBS)—biological systems based on surplus reuse and shared infrastructure—can function as IS-oriented SBMs. Depending on cluster composition, IBS can support by-product exchanges, utility sharing, or shared services. Thesearrangements enable farms to co-create and capture environmental and economic value butrequire facilitation—particularly as interdependence increases and SBM components becomecollectively managed.The study identifies key enablers such as spatial proximity, trust-based collaboration, and participation in sustainability programs, as well as critical barriers including regulatory ambiguity, insufficient data tracking, high capital costs, and a lack of intermediaries. Whileembedded circular practices are common, the transition to formal IS-oriented SBMs requiressystemic support across policy, infrastructure, and farm management.By embedding business model logic within the ISPT framework, this research offers a novel analytical approach for evaluating IS feasibility in agriculture. It contributes both to theory—by clarifying how IS and SBM concepts intersect in biogenic systems—and to practice, by identifying actionable pathways for circular transformation in the Swedish farming sector.