The basic materials industry contributes significantly to global energy demand. The efficient utilization of energy in these industries is essential to sustainable development. In numerous emerging countries, such industrial activity is concentrated in industrial zones. Typically, significant energy savings can be achieved through the exploitation of symbiotic relationships between companies within such zones. Building upon previous work in waste heat recovery and reuse without consideration of cogeneration, this work establishes a systematic approach to target heat and power cogeneration potentials within industrial zones and to design the corresponding optimal waste heat recovery and reuse networks. The initial focus of the approach is on retrofit solutions that reuse heat and extract power through existing utility systems. The application of the approach is illustrated with a case study. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.