The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems (1994) / Chapter Skim
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The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems: Overview and Perspective
The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems: Overview and Perspective
Pages 1-20
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The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems Overview and Perspective .
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The full, intricate, and complex set of interactions between industrial and natural ecosystems, however, is beyond the scope of this book, the subject of which is the value of using concepts derived from the study of natural ecological systems to understand interwoven natural and industrial systems. Thinking in this way about industrial ecosystems-provides opportunities to examine and inform the ways in which producer and consumer practices in the economy may be altered to create environmentally compatible industrial ecosystems.
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Consider, for instance, waste minimization at a scale larger than that of a single unit or facility in light of the biological analogue. A mature natural ecological community operates as a waste minimization system.
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Moreover, because the potential value of recoverable material in the waste stream increases with concentration, it is often feasible to design waste streams for reuse and recycling (Allen and Behmanesh, in this volume)
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It also exposes the impact of fiscal and regulatory policies in shaping the structure and operation of industrial ecosystems. There is clearly a need to better understand current industrial ecosystems and to tap points of leverage within them to improve the environmental performance of these systems.
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INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY AND ITS CONTEXT Understanding Industrial Ecology To chart a course toward environmentally preferable industrial systems and practices, it is necessary to consider the current state of industrial ecosystems and to set goals for the use of materials and energy to achieve the ideal state. In addition it is necessary to explore policies and incentives that will reorient production and consumption systems through natural market forces.
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.~.~.~,~ ::::::::::::::::: . ~ ~ ~ '~ ~: Industrial Ecosystem FIGURE 2 Type II industrial ecosystem.
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In addition, strategies to improve industrial ecosystems in industrialized countries are likely to differ from those in developing nations. Current industrial ecosystems can be characterized by a mix of Type I and Type II materials flows.
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that waste streams with high concentrations of lead are more likely to be recycled than dilute waste streams. One would also expect to find other raw materials of high value in waste streams.
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complete lack of substitutability and zero social costs; (3) complete lack of substitutability and catastrophic social costs; and (4)
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World-class manufacturing practices that have emerged in recent years call for a systems approach to managing the complex manufacturing enterprise.2 Because the environment is a critical operating component in manufacturing, environmental issues are beginning to be considered in the product realization processes and operations of companies together with traditional criteria such as cost, quality, and performance. Two manufacturing practices that facilitate the integration of environmental factors in industrial production are concurrent engineering and total quality management (TQM)
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· Learning from current product lines An examination of current product lines and production practices can reveal opportunities for environmental improvement. Baselining can be a useful exercise to determine how well a product meets certain environmental criteria and to evaluate the environmental effects associated with the raw materials chosen by the design team.
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A private firm's standards and specifications can have a similar effect on the design of its products and operations, as well as on the environmental performance of its suppliers. Private firms can, therefore, ensure that their products are environmentally superior by reviewing their standard components lists, which identify stock components to be used in design where possible, and ensuring that all recommended components are as environmentally acceptable as possible.
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They are being asked to promote and develop environmentally desirable materials, technologies, processes, and products with little valid guidance on what "environmentally preferable" means in practice, how these choices can be identified, or how their choices may affect other parts of industrial ecosystems, including raw material suppliers or component manufacturers, delivery, maintenance and collection systems, waste handlers, recyclers, and consumers. The comprehensive life cycle assessment is data intensive and can vary depending on the quality of data available, the biases of the assessor, and the assumptions made.
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At the same time, there is a need to improve tangential systems, such as the accounting or supplier management systems, which affect design decisions indirectly. Getting at the "Total Environmental Costs" in a Firm Existing accounting systems can prevent modern firms from internalizing environmental costs and considerations and can compound difficulties encountered in effecting environmentally preferable changes.
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The more difficult issues of a functionality economy involve figuring out how to handle the impact of extended manufacturer liability for products and how to evaluate the costs of providing the service as well as the associated value of the service provided. EDUCATION NEEDS AND RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Universities have a unique role to play in influencing the evolution of industrial ecosystems.
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In research and policy, academic research institutions can tackle many of the pressing questions about industrial ecology and ways to create sustainable industrial ecologies. Examples of research needs include work on engineering and economic systems analyses and forecasts of industrial metabolism, input-output models of the economic and environmental implications of alternative strategies, development and analysis of waste stream composition data to target waste recovery and reuse, technologies to recover material from waste streams, tools to aid environmentally based material selection in design, management strategies for life cycle product management, and management studies of corporate cultural change.
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industrial ecology provides a systems perspective based on its analogy to biological ecosystems. This analogy illustrates the points of leverage for, and barriers to, improving the environmental characteristics of industrial ecosystems at the macro-level (the global economy)
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1991. A Technical Framework for Life-Cycle Assessments.
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