The Ecology Of Industry

'The editors of this handbook have brought together 58 of the world's greatest environmental systems experts. These professionals have, in 46 specific topic headings, divided into six major sections, provided very insightful information and guidance as to what industrial ecology entails, how it can be implemented, and its benefits . . . a very valuable tool . . . This book provides essential information to mid- and top-level management that can enable industry to make more prudent business decisions regarding the manufacturing of its products.' - Robert John Klancko, Environmental Practice Industrial ecology is coming of age and this superb book brings together leading scholars to present a state-of-the-art overviews of the subject.

Discusses a different approach to addressing environmental problems, aimed at a broad interdisciplinary audience.

How can we design more sustainable industrial and urban systems that reduce environmental impacts while supporting a high quality of life for everyone? What progress has been made towards reducing resource use and waste, and what are the prospects for more resilient, material-efficient economies? What are the environmental and social impacts of global supply chains and how can they be measured and improved? Such questions are at the heart of the emerging discipline of industrial ecology, covered in Taking Stock of Industrial Ecology. Leading authors, researchers and practitioners review how far industrial ecology has developed and current issues and concerns, with illustrations of what the industrial ecology paradigm has achieved in public policy, corporate strategy and industrial practice. It provides an introduction for students coming to industrial ecology and for professionals who wish to understand what industrial ecology can offer, a reference for researchers and practitioners and a source of case studies for teachers.

For upper level courses in Industrial Ecology. This text addresses the increasing need for knowledge about the interactions between industry and environment with the ultimate goal of sustainability. With in-depth analysis of past, present, and future issues in industrial ecology, this book seeks to meet the needs of the product-design engineers who hold much of the future of industry-environment interactions in their hands, as well as the emerging discipline of "sustainability scientists".

Industrial Ecology (IE) is an emerging multidisciplinary field. University departments and higher education programs are being formed on the subject following the lead of Yale University, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Leiden University, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Carnegie Mellon University, University of California at Berkeley, Institute for Superior Technology in Lisbon, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, and The University of Tokyo. IE deals with stocks and flows in interconnected networks of industry and the environment, which relies on a basic framework for analysis. Among others, Input-Output Analysis (IOA) is recognized as a key conceptual and analytical framework for IE. A major challenge is that the field of IOA manifests a long history since the 1930s with two Nobel Prize Laureates in the field and requires considerable analytical rigor. This led many instructors and researchers to call for a high-quality publication on the subject which embraces both state-of-the-art theory and principles as well as practical applications.

With its high-level focus on industrial ecology-related policies such as circular economy and industrial symbiosis, this book provides a timely analysis of the industrial ecology experience worldwide. Editors Pauline Deutz, Donald I. Lyons, and Jun Bi combine their diverse experiences in both research and teaching to examine the topic as a business, community, and academic endeavor in different settings worldwide. International Perspectives on Industrial Ecology provides a cutting-edge, in-depth exploration of the commonalities and differences of industrial ecology experiences, comparing geographical contexts from each of the world’s continents. Expert contributors utilize case studies and contextualized reviews of current projects to formulate invaluable insights in the field. Much attention is given to industrial symbiosis, waste management, circular economy, sustainable development, and environmental management as each pertains to the field. This book’s international perspective makes it ideal background reading for academics working in industrial ecology, as well as a valuable reference for postgraduates doing research or taking courses in the field. Public or private sector bodies trying to facilitate industrial symbiosis, economic development agencies considering industrial symbiosis projects, and environmental managers and regulators trying to improve environmental performance in their particular country will also find it engaging and relevant.

From its inception, the field of industrial ecology has taken a distinctly technological approach to understanding and improving ecological consequences of industrial activities. Increasingly however, scholars and practitioners are developing perspectives on the social embeddedness of industrial ecology: the ways in which material and energy flows in regions and product chains are shaped by the social context in which they occur. This book presents empirical work addressing how cognitive, cultural, political and structural mechanisms condition the emergence and operation of industrial ecology. Further exploring such mechanisms holds promise for understanding both the barriers to, and opportunities for, altering the ecological impacts of industrial practice. Through contemplative chapters and intermezzos , authors with different disciplinary backgrounds reflect on the contribution of work from various social sciences to industrial ecology. Unique to the volume, the authors of the commentaries bring in their personal and professional experiences, reflecting on how they have engaged in or have seen the value in cross-disciplinary work. They also include discussion explicitly on the dialogue and its value to the evolution of the field. In these ways, the book develops the dialogue between social science contributors and researchers from other disciplines within the field of industrial ecology. Scholars and students involved in the study of industrial ecology and related fields as well as practising managers and those involved in facilitating industrial ecology projects around the world will find this engaging and comprehensive volume indispensable.

Studies that integrate scientific, technological, and economic dimensions of industrial ecology and material flows. The use of economic modeling techniques in industrial ecology research provides distinct advantages over the customary approach, which focuses on the physical description of material flows. The thirteen chapters of Economics of Industrial Ecology integrate the natural science and technological dimensions of industrial ecology with a rigorous economic approach and by doing so contribute to the advancement of this emerging field. Using a variety of modeling techniques (including econometric, partial and general equilibrium, and input-output models) and applying them to a wide range of materials, economic sectors, and countries, these studies analyze the driving forces behind material flows and structural changes in order to offer guidance for economically and socially feasible policy solutions. After a survey of concepts and relevant research that provides a useful background for the chapters that follow, the book presents historical analyses of structural change from statistical and decomposition approaches; a range of models that predict structural change on the national and regional scale under different policy scenarios; two models that can be used to analyze waste management and recycling operations; and, adopting the perspective of local scale, an analysis of the dynamics of eco-industrial parks in Denmark and the Netherlands. The book concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of an economic approach to industrial ecology.