Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Industrial ecology studies construction of a 'closed-loop production system' which
is analogous to natural ecosystems. The closed-loop system assumes the re-input
of wastes and by-products into the production system. Existing industrial systems
suppose unlimited inputs and outputs of resources by considering resource flows as
linear (Korhonen et al.,
2004
). In industrial ecology, the resource networking
between plants is called 'industrial symbiosis', as in symbiosis between species in
the natural system.
The systematic approach to industrial ecology results in the treatment of
individual companies' economic interests in decreasing input resources and wastes
in addition to the social benefit of reducing the load on the environment. The
approach is thought to be the realization of the concept of sustainability in terms of
considering economic growth and environmental concern simultaneously. The EIP
project is to actualize this principle of industrial ecology.
The concept of EIPs was first made known when Indigo Development intro-
duced it to EPA officials in 1993 (Lowe
2001
). After that, the President's Council
on Sustainable Development (1997) chose the EIP project as a model project in the
Clinton Administration. The EIPs located in Fairfield, MD, Cape Charles, VA,
Chattanooga, TN, and Brownsville, TX, are the outcomes of such US government
initiatives. The US cases are examples of intentional policy efforts promoted by
the government, while the spontaneous appearance of an EIP is found in the
industrial park in Kalunborg, Denmark (Ehrenfeld and Gertler
1997
).
An EIP or estate is a community of manufacturing and service businesses
located together on a common property. Member businesses seek enhanced
environmental, economic, and social performance through collaboration in man-
aging environmental and resource issues. By working together, the community of
businesses seeks a collective benefit that is greater than the sum of individual
benefits each company would realize by only optimizing its individual perfor-
mance. Lowe (
1997
) pointed out that ''EIP conjoins the principles of mixed use
development, recycling business and by-product exchange in coordination with
green technology companies that makes eco-friendly products.''
The intention behind the EIP is the formation of a corporate network where
pertinent companies cooperate with each other and neighboring communities to
accomplish the common goals related to economic interests, the improvement of
environmental quality and the fair use of human resources (Cohen-Rosenthal
2003
).
The EIP provides a participating corporation with the various advantages of
curtailing costs of supplying input resources and treating wastes, and publicity of an
environmentally friendly corporate image. In addition, there are great social
benefits from the construction of environmentally friendly communities that
namely reduced energy and resource consumption, and sustainable treatment of
wastes, and the reduction of social costs created by conflicts between companies
and local communities. The government also enjoys a few advantages, reducing
some regulation costs thanks to corporations spontaneously joining in 'green
business' and accomplishing social integration with small expenses (von Malmborg
2004
). As mentioned, many governments of the world have enthusiastically been
promoting EIP projects for these reasons.
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