The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems (1994) / Chapter Skim
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Industrial Ecology and Design for Environment: Role of Universities
Industrial Ecology and Design for Environment: Role of Universities
Pages 228-240
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From page 228... ...
in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, most press notices painted a gloomy picture of the outcome, especially the lack of implementable agreements. Unquestionably, however, UNCED represents a watershed in the continuing move to establish sustainability as the basic underlying theme for environmental policy and management strategies.
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From page 229... ...
Relatively systematic, holistic frameworks for analysis and choice, such as product life cycle analysis, are finding their way into practical applications, but as research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology indicates, quite slowly and with uncertain results (Sullivan, 1992~. Other authors in this volume address a new, broader idea called industrial ecology or industrial metabolism, which includes such concepts as dematerialization, design for environment, clean technology, environmentally clean or environmentally conscious manufacturing, and life cycle analysis.
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From page 230... ...
This is not to say that the university is an ideal nursery, as its own institutional perspective is clouded by strong disciplinary barriers and jealousies and by its own political dynamics. Nevertheless, a practical industrial ecological way of thinking about policy, design, and the world is most likely to arise out of an academic setting, but only if universities are willing to enter into the broad discourse among all the players and to reconstruct the disciplines in a way that mimics the seamless web of the very world that we are attempting to understand.
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From page 231... ...
There is no claim that this is the "right" way to capture the notion of industrial ecology in a practical framework, but it can serve as a model with which to develop a research agenda. Making sustainable technological choices must combine the best knowledge we can get about the technical and environmental consequences of the option being considered, and our understanding of the workings of social institutions and value systems.
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From page 232... ...
Accounts L 1 1 Strategy Mapping Implementation Design Implementation Monitoring System Component Design Collection Archive Model Building/Proofing 1/0, Metabolism, Process Ecological/Human Risk Economic/Political Normative Metrics GDP Sustainability Strategy Identification Mapping Transformation Consensus Processes Facilitation-Public Valuing Policy Analysis Policy Tools Research Historic Studies of Technology Institutional Studies Organizational Behavior Clean Technology R&D DFE/LCAIDesign Practices Organizational Design Policymaking Infrastructure Building Education System Design Data Acquisition Display Design Research Activity FIGURE 2 Industrial ecology conceptual model.
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From page 233... ...
These are followed, first, by a mapping that transforms the complex information set into a relatively parsimonious set of strategic or policy options and second, by the development of particular implementing mechanisms. Implementation, even if it proceeds according to the agreed upon strategies and mechanisms, is certainly going to Introduce unanticipated consequences.
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From page 234... ...
Forms of life cycle analyses that can identify and link environmental consequences of technological choice are needed. Alternative economic accounting methods that include environmental cost surrogates reflecting long-term effects and changes in inventories and quality are now being developed.
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From page 235... ...
Implementation Design For each major strategic option, such as phase out, restriction, mitigation, or substitution of clean technologies, a set of implementing mechanisms must be selected and designed. Mechanisms would include conventional policy instruments such as regulation, taxes, and market mechanisms.
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From page 236... ...
The availability of large relational data bases should avoid the task of creating data systems de novo. Analytic Transformation The work begun by several researchers on industrial metabolism models requires considerable further development.
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From page 237... ...
CLIMBING DOWN FROM THE TOWER The policy and management context of industrial ecology, as presented in this paper, suggests that the university must adopt a more active stance than its traditional detached, scholarly perspective. Even the preparation of a carefully developed set of research papers presenting new analytic frameworks and implementation policies and strategies is not likely to have a significant immediate effect.
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From page 238... ...
The technological consequences of societal activities should become a more explicit part of the education of professionals heading for planning, policy, managerial, and design careers. Education of professionals already in practice is also important, as this group is most directly involved in the decisions that influence technological choice.
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From page 239... ...
in his recent book on organizational learning, The Fifth Discipline, has observed that failures to perceive the systems context lead to a problem-solving mode that first must find someone or some organization to blame. This interesting observation may help explain the extreme degree of adversariness that surrounds environmental decision making in the United States.
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From page 240... ...
1992. Enviromental Life Cycle Frameworks: Industry Management of Product Innovation and Environmental Impact.
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