Everything about Industrial Ecology totally explained
Industrial Ecology (IE) is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the sustainable combination of
environment,
economy and
technology. The central idea is the analogy between natural and socio-technical systems. The word 'industrial' doesn't only refer to industrial complexes but more generally to how humans use natural resources in the production of goods and services. Ecology refers to the concept that our industrial systems should incorporate principles exhibited within natural ecosystems.
Overview
Industrial ecology is the shifting of industrial process from linear (open loop) systems, in which resource and capital investments move through the system to become waste, to a closed loop system where wastes become inputs for new processes.
Much of the research focuses on the following areas:
Industrial ecology proposes not to see industrial systems (for example a factory, an
ecoregion, or national or global economy) as being separate from the
biosphere, but to consider it as a particular case of an
ecosystem - but based on
infrastructural capital rather than on
natural capital. It is the idea that as natural systems don't have waste in them, we should model our systems after natural ones if we want them to be
sustainable.
Along with more general
energy conservation and
material conservation goals, and redefining
commodity markets and
product stewardship relations strictly as a
service economy, industrial ecology is one of the four objectives of
Natural Capitalism. This strategy discourages forms of
amoral purchasing arising from ignorance of what goes on at a distance and implies a
political economy that values
natural capital highly and relies on more
instructional capital to design and maintain each unique industrial ecology.
History
Industrial ecology was popularized in 1989 in a
Scientific American article by
Robert Frosch and Nicholas E. Gallopoulos. Frosch and Gallopoulos' vision was "why wouldn't our industrial system behave like an
ecosystem, where the wastes of a species may be
resource to another species? Why wouldn't the outputs of an industry be the inputs of another, thus reducing use of raw materials, pollution, and saving on
waste treatment?" A notable example resides in a Danish industrial park in the city of
Kalundborg. Here several linkages of byproducts and waste heat can be found between numerous entities such as a large power plant, an oil refinery, a pharmaceutical plant, a plasterboard factory, an enzyme manufacturer, a waste company and the city itself.
The scientific field Industrial Ecology has grown fast in recent years. The
Journal of Industrial Ecology
(since 1997), the
International Society for Industrial Ecology (since 2001), and the journal
Progress in Industrial Ecology (since 2004) give Industrial Ecology a strong and dynamic position in the international scientific community. Industrial Ecology principles are also emerging in various policy realms such as the concept of the Circular Economy that's being promoted in China. Although the definition of the Circular Economy has yet to be formalized, generally the focus is on strategies such as creating a circular flow of materials, and cascading energy flows. An example of this would be using
waste heat from one process to run another process that requires a lower temperature. This maximizes the efficiency of
exergy use. The hope is that strategy such as this will create a more efficient economy with fewer pollutants and other unwanted by products.
Principles
One of the central principles of Industrial Ecology is the view that societal and technological systems are bounded within the
biosphere, and don't exist outside of it.
Ecology is used as a metaphor due to the observation that natural systems reuse materials and have a largely closed loop cycling of nutrients. Industrial Ecology approaches problems with the hypothesis that by using similar principles as natural systems, industrial systems can be improved to reduce their impact on the natural environment as well.
As well, IE examines societal issues and their relationship with both technical systems and the environment. Through this
holistic view, IE recognizes that solving problems must involve understanding the connections that exist between these systems, various aspects can't be viewed in isolation. Often changes in one part of the overal
system can propagate and cause changes in another part. Thus, you can only understand a problem if you look at its parts in relation to the whole. Based on this framework, IE looks at environmental issues with a
systems thinking approach.
Moreover, life cycle thinking is also a very important principle in industrial ecology. It implies that all environmental impacts cause by a product, system, or project during its life cycle are taken into account. In this context life cycle includes
Raw material extraction
Material processing
Manufacture
Use
Maintenance
Disposal
The transport necessary between these stages is also taken into account as well as, if relevant, extra stages such as reuse, remanufacture, and recycle.
Adopting a life cycle approach is essential to avoid shifting environmental impacts from one life cycle stage to another. This is commonly referred to as problem shifting. For instance, during the re-design of a product, one can choose to reduce its weight, thereby decreasing use of resources. However, it's possible that the lighter materials used in the new product will be more difficult to dispose of. The environmental impacts of the product gained during the extraction phase are shifted to the disposal phase. Overall environmental improvements are thus null.
Moreover, analysing the environmental performance of a product during its whole life cycle (referred to as life cycle analysis) also allows determining which life cycle stage has the highest environmental impact, and thus set priorities. For example, during the design of electronic products, a lot of attention is given to improving possibilities for recycling the given product. However, much of the environmental impacts of electronics are generated during the use phase, and efforts may pay off better if they were focusing on reducing operating energy use instead.
Future directions
The ecosystem metaphor popularized by Frosch and Gallopoulos
has been a valuable creative tool for helping researchers look for novel solutions to difficult problems. Recently, it has been pointed out that this metaphor is based largely on a model of classical ecology, and that advancements in understanding ecology based on complexity science have been made by researchers such as C. S. Holling and James J. Kay
.
For industrial ecology, this may mean a shift from a more mechanistic view of systems, to one where sustainability is viewed as an emergent property of a complex system.
To explore this further, several researchers are working with agent based modeling techniques
.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Industrial Ecology'.
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