Overview

"Business-as-usual in terms of industrial and technological development - even if based on a growing fear of pollution and shortages of natural resources - will never deliver sustainable development. However, the growing interest in recent years in the new science of industrial ecology (IE), and the idea that industrial systems should mimic the quasi-cyclical functions of natural ecosystems in an ""industrial food chain"", holds promise in addressing not only short-term environmental problems but also the long-term holistic evolution of industrial systems. This possibility requires a number of key conditions to be met, not least the restructuring of our manufacturing and consumer society to reduce the effects of material and energy flows at the very point in history when globalization is rapidly increasing them. This book sets out to address the theoretical considerations that should be made implicit in future research as well as practical implementation options for industry. The systematic recovery of industrial wastes, the minimization of losses caused by dispersion, the dematerialization of the economy, the requirement to decrease our reliance on fuels derived from hydrocarbons and the need for management systems that help foster inter-industry collaboration and networks are among the topics covered. The book is split into four sections. First, the various definitions of IE are outlined. Here, important distinctions are made between industrial metabolism and IE. Second, a number of different industrial sectors, including glass, petroleum and electric power, are assessed with regard to the operationalization of industrial ecology. Eco-industrial Parks and Networks are also analysed. Third, the options for overcoming obstacles that stand in the way of the closing of cycles such as the separation and screening of materials are considered and, finally, a number of implications for the future are assessed. The contributions to ""Perspectives on Industrial Ecology"" come from the leading thinkers working in this field at the crossroads between a number of different disciplines: engineering, ecology, bio-economics, geography, the social sciences and law."

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9781874719465

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"""This book contains a wealth of intriguing ideas and practical examples of the emerging transdisciplinary science of industrial ecology. This collection of papers comprehensively covers the implications of the seemingly simple concept of redesigning human activities along natural ecological dynamics. Contained in the book are fascinating ideas, examples, facts that offer many new insights into old problems for SEA scholars. Industrial ecology has not been the subject of much rigorous analysis by SEA, hopefully after digesting this material this will be put right"", Social and Environmental Accounting"

This book contains a wealth of intriguing ideas and practical examples of the emerging transdisciplinary science of industrial ecology. This collection of papers comprehensively covers the implications of the seemingly simple concept of redesigning human activities along natural ecological dynamics. Contained in the book are fascinating ideas, examples, facts that offer many new insights into old problems for SEA scholars. Industrial ecology has not been the subject of much rigorous analysis by SEA, hopefully after digesting this material this will be put right , Social and Environmental Accounting

Author Information

Dominique Bourg is a Professor at the Troyes University of Technology, France, where he is head of the Centre of Research and Interdisciplinary Studies on Sustainable Development (Centre du Recherches et d'Etudes Interdisciplinaires sur le Developpement Durable [CREIDD]). He also teaches at the National Foundation of Political Sciences, Paris. His fields of research are linked to environmental ethics, technology and risk assessment, as well as public debate. Among his recent publications are: L'Homme-artifice: Le sens de la technique (Gallimard, 1996); and Le Nouvel age de l'ecologie (Descartes et Cie, forthcoming). Suren Erkman has an academic background in philosophy and biology. After working for a number of years as a science and business journalist for various media, he created in 1994 a company headquartered in Geneva, the Institute for Communication and Analysis of Science and Technology (ICAST). He is also a lecturer in industrial ecology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and at the Universite de Technologie de Troyes as well as an editor of The Journal of Industrial Ecology.

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