Development Of Industrial Ecosystems Research Articles

Hierarchical Pareto Optimization for the Sustainable Development of Industrial Ecosystems

Establishing industrial ecosystems (IEs) is a viable approach for the sustainable development of industries. The ultimate objective of an IE is to minimize the material and energy consumption and reduce or even eliminate waste disposal through various recycle and reuse mechanisms. Yet, a rigorous scientific approach for the analysis and design of sustainable IE is lacking. The major obstacles include the challenge of evaluating each dimension of the “triple bottom line” of sustainability, handling the complex interdependency among different members, and the need of a holistic decision-making/decision-analysis method across different scales, from the individual production unit up to the ecosystem. To tackle this difficulty, the improvement of economic and environmental sustainability of IEs is defined as a multilayer multi-objective optimization problem in this paper. A novel Hierarchical Pareto Optimization Methodology is introduced to achieve the most sustainable solution. This methodology provides a sys...

The industrial region as a promising unit for eco-industrial development—reflections, practical experience and establishment of innovative instruments to support industrial ecology

Eco-industrial developments with a special focus o n material cycles are usually concentrated on the level of the industrial estate/industrial park. However, the results of completed and ongoing research projects in Germany’s Rhine–Neckar region indicate that larger regional areas may be more suitable for closing material loops and creating sustainable industrial ecosystems. Nonetheless, this larger size also presents new challenges for industrial ecosystem development, such as establishing the necessary trust and coordination among actors, homogenizing and collecting data to enable comparisons within and between firms, and minimizing the transaction costs involved in searching for appropriate partners. Practical solutions and IT-tools suggested as a means of supporting eco-industrial development that emphasizes positive synergy effects for industrial actors.

Changing economies of scale – synergies between implementation of an ecological tax reform and development of industrial ecosystems

AbstractIn this paper an investigation is presented into the long‐term effects of an ecological tax reform. Exploring time frames of different length, the paper considers the reform's effects on manufacturing systems, especially on economies of scale. Industrial ecology, a framework for restructuring into industrial ecosystems, is one attempt at transforming the socio‐economic system for sustainability. The paper points out the synergetic effects an ecological tax reform has with those restructuring efforts for sustainable industry and society. For that purpose, the economies of scale in the current linear production system and those found in the closed‐loop circular structures of industrial ecosystems are compared, and the paper is concluded by a discussion of opportunity costs of implementation of an ecological tax reform and industrial ecological restructuring. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Industrial Ecosystem Development at the Metropolitan Level

SummaryThis article presents the result of a two‐year project funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to identify potential by‐products partnerships between industries in a six‐county metropolitan area in North Carolina, U.S.A. The project gathered data from 182 industries and institutions in the region regarding (1) by‐products that might be usable by other, nearby firms, and (2) the inputs they used that might be furnished from another facility's by‐products. These data, which were also linked to geographic information system maps, were used to identify potential regional partnerships for the reuse of materials, water, and energy. Of the 182 participating facilities, probable or possible partnerships were found for 48% during the limited project period. This project demonstrated the value of a local facilitator and the value of specific techniques for identifying and promoting potential by‐products partnerships.

Mensch and Mesh

SummaryThis article discusses several relationships between technologies, industries, and socioeconomic institutions that are central to the emerging field of industrial ecology but as of yet have found little recognition. Special attention is given to the history of changes in the complexity of technologies and socioeconomic institutions, methods for dealing with this complexity conceptually and in the context of decision making, and interrelationships between technology and policy choice at various levels of system organization. On the basis of that discussion, new roles for systems thinking and modeling, systems engineering, and technology and industrial policy are identified to promote the development of industrial ecosystems that minimize their environmental impacts.

Industrial ecology and some implications for rural SMEs

In a project at Western Norway Research Institute, the concept of industrial ecology (IE) is used as a framework for environmental performance of small- and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Norway. The main goal of the project ‘Green SMEs’ is to identify existing and future environmental challenges for rural SMEs. The focus is on external demands coming from the surroundings of the individual businesses. Examples of issues being dealt with are industrial wastes becoming sources of raw materials for other industries, design and material choice for disassembly and reuse, development of industrial ecosystems, and industrial metabolism. This paper presents actual examples of industrial ecosystems and also some cases illustrating the problems small remotely located firms meet when the principles of IE are to be applied. These problems include the inability to participate in efficient industrial ecosystems (webs) with exchange of wastes to raw materials. Larger companies, often being more centrally located, have greater chances at identifying and attracting other businesses which they can co‒operate with in finding usage for their wastes. The ‘cluster’‒properties of efficient industrial ecosystems can therefore be a limiting factor in the development of such systems in rural areas. Small companies also have less opportunities to be proactive in establishing industrial ecosystems also merely due to the smaller scale of their operations. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment.