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Industrial Ecology (IE) provides a framework to restore ecosystems through the design, redesign, and manage eco-efficient industrial systems that take advantage of the cyclic patterns of materials and energy flow found in natural ecosystems. Geographic or political areas, business sectors, corporations or institutions, and product systems bound such industrial systems. Unlike the traditional model of industrial activity, the flow (including cycles) and stock of materials and energy is optimized in Industrial Ecosystems such that emphasis is placed on efficiency, waste recovery and exchange, and the minimization of adverse environmental impact. General citations concerning the Industrial Engineering concept are available [1,2,3,4,5].

One of the most cited Industrial Ecology model involves the town Kalundborg, Denmark. The Industrial Ecology concept is reflected in Kalundborg by, for example, the electric plant that supplies surplus steam to a refinery and a pharmaceutical plant and uses its surplus heat to grow trout and turbot. Also, a Kalundborg wallboard producer buys surplus gas from the refinery as a replacement for coal, and removes the sulfur from the gas and sells it to a sulfuric acid plant [6].

There are a number of other examples of successful applications of Industrial Ecology concepts. In the US these include projects in Baltimore, Maryland; Brownsville, Texas; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Port Cape Charles, Virginia. The President’s Council on Sustainable Development has highlighted these projects as Industrial Ecology demonstration communities. In addition, a local project in the Duwamish corridor investigated potential materials exchanges in an Industrial Ecology project in the mid-1990’s [7]. These and other Industrial Ecology projects illustrated benefits in three categories [modified from 5]:

  1. Benefits to Industry including the opportunity to decrease production costs through increased materials and energy efficiency waste recycling, and the elimination of practices that incur regulatory penalty.

    2.

  2. Benefits to the Environment including the restoration of damaged ecosystems, the reduction of sources of pollution and waste, decreased demand for natural resources, and a demonstration of the principles of sustainable development.

  3. Benefits to Society including enhanced economic performance and development and reductions in solid and liquid waste streams leading to reductions in demands on municipal infrastructure and budgets.

Citations

  1. Fischer-Kowalski, M., W. Hüttler, "Society’s Metabolism: The Intellectual History of Materials Flow Analysis, Part II, 1970-1998," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Volume 2, Number 4, 107-136, 1999.

  2. Garner, A., Keoleian, G.A., Industrial Ecology: An Introduction, National Pollution Prevention Center for Higher Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1995.

  3. Gertler, N. Industrial Ecosystems: Developing Sustainable Industrial Structures, http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/business/gertler2.html , 1995.

  4. Graedel, T., B. Allenby, Industrial Ecology, Prentice Hall, 1995.

  5. Lowe, E.A., J.L. Warren, S.R. Moran. Discovering Industrial Ecology, Battelle Press, 1997.

  6. Ehrenfeld, J., N. Gertler, "Industrial Ecology in Practice: The Evolution of Interdependence at Kalundborg," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Volume 1, Number 1, 67-79, 1997.

  7. Duwamish Coalition, Industrial Ecology Grant Scope of Work, http://www.pan.ci.seattle.wa.us/business/dc/rpt/iecoapp.htm , 1995.

For more information, contact Associate Professor Joyce Smith Cooper at cooper@me.washington.edu