Ecologically sustainable industrial parks: An oxymoron?

1
Ecologically sustainable industrial parks An
oxymoron?

• Raymond Cote
• Professor Emeritus
• and Senior Fellow
• Eco-Efficiency Centre
• Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
• Presented at University of Alberta
• September 2010

2
Outline of presentation

• Rationale for a new model
• Terminology
• EIP or IS models
• EIP standards
• Characteristics of EIPs
• Guidance for planners and designers
• References

3
The world we have created today as a result of
our thinking thus far, has problems which cannot
be solved by thinking the way we thought when we
created them. Albert Einstein

4
Why ecological sustainability?

• Over the past 50 years, humans have changed
  ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in
  any comparable period of time in human history
• This has resulted in a substantial and largely
  irreversible loss in the diversity of life on
  Earth
• The changes that have been made to ecosystems
  have contributed to substantial net gains in
  human well-being and economic development
• But these gains have been achieved at growing
  costs that, unless addressed, will substantially
  diminish the benefits that future generations
  obtain from ecosystems.
• UN Millenium Ecosystem
  Assessment

5
Status of Ecosystem Services
UN Millenium Ecosystem Assessment
6
Our current industrial system

• appears to have been designed to
• put billions of pounds of toxic materials into
  the air, water and soil every year,
• produce materials so dangerous that they will
  require constant vigilance from future
  generations,
• result in gigantic amounts of waste,
• put valuable materials in holes all over the
  planet, where they cannot be easily retrieved,
• require thousands of complex regulations not to
  keep people and natural systems safe, but rather
  to keep them from being poisoned too quickly,
• measure productivity by how few people are
  working,
• create prosperity by digging up or cutting down
  natural resources and then burying or burning
  them,
• erode the diversity of species and cultural
  practices.
• 
  McDonough and Braungart,2002

7
Nature as model

• Renewable energy is the main source of power for
  living systems
• In natural systems, there is no waste in the
  sense of matter that cannot be recycled or
  absorbed constructively
• Concentrated toxic materials are generated and
  used locally
• A major portion of the energy flows in a system
  are consumed in decomposition processes that make
  nutrients available
• Ecosystems are resilient and relatively stable
  because of the biodiversity of species organized
  in complex web of relationships
• Each individual of a species in an ecosystem acts
  independently, yet its activity patterns mesh
  cooperatively with those of other species

8
Industrial ecology

• The study of the physical, chemical, and
  biological interactions and interrelationships
  both within and between industrial and biological
  systems. National Pollution Prevention Center for
  Higher Education
• Industrial ecology is ecological in that it (1)
  places human activity -- industry in the very
  broadest sense -- in the larger context of the
  biophysical environment from which we obtain
  resources and into which we place our wastes, and
  (2) looks to the natural world for models of
  highly efficient use of resources, energy and
  byproducts. Journal of Industrial
  Ecology

9
Terminology

• Industrial parks a large tract of land,
  sub-divided, and developed for the use of several
  firms simultaneously, distinguished by its
  shareable infrastructure and close proximity of
  firms (Peddle 1993).
• Eco-industrial parks A short form for
  ecologically sustainable industrial park. In
  addition to satisfying the definition of an
  industrial park it is a community of businesses
  that cooperate with each other and with the local
  community to efficiently share resources
  (information, materials, water, energy,
  infrastructure and local habitat), leading to
  economic gains, gains in environmental quality,
  and equitable enhancement of human resources for
  the business and local community (PCSD, 1996)
• Industrial symbiosis Traditionally separate
  industries engaged in a collective approach
  involving physical exchanges of materials,
  energy, water and/or by-products (Chertow, 2000).
• By-product synergy A synonym for industrial
  symbiosis

10
EIP models in the literature

• Kalundborg model multiple sectors and sizes of
  industries where by-products are exchanged ( also
  sector based)
• Burnside model multiple sectors of SMEs where
  scavenger and decomposer companies cycle
  materials, products and by-products
• Resource recovery model The emphasis of the
  park is on recovery and recycling of wastes

11
The Kalundborg model
12
The Burnside model
13
The Resource Recovery model
14
Assessment

• None of these are EIPs, in my view, as they focus
  largely on industrial symbiosis.
• They incorporate few other ecological functions
  in their design and operations.

15
(No Transcript)
16
EIP standards

• Port of Cape Charles, Virginia
• Koenigs criteria for Thai EIPs (proposed)
• Devens EcoStar criteria
• Chinese EIP standard
• Orees PALME label and guide
• LEED standard for neighborhood developments

17
Innovista EIP, Hinton, Alberta

• Principles
• Ecology as central organizing theme
• Community linkages
• Distributed, renewable energy systems
• Waste as resource
• Strategic collaboration among businesses
• Efficient and effective infrastructure
• Efficient buildings
• Integrated ecological design principles
• Siting and building orientation
• Landscaping using indigenous plants
• Energy systems based on renewable sources
• Water, stormwater and wastewater systems designed
  for recovery and reuse
• Building design and materials
• Recycling of materials

18
Other Canadian initiatives

• Fort McMurray TaigaNova EI park, Alberta
  (developing)
• Kaizer Meadows eco-business park,N.S.
  (developing)
• Debert eco-industrial park, N.S. (transforming)
• Ross EIP Regina, Sask. (transforming)
• Pearson eco-business zone, Ont. (transforming)
• Ontario East Wood Centre and EIP, Ont.
  (developing)

19
Characteristics of an EIP

• Cote and Cohen-Rosenthal (1997) suggested some
  characteristics for an industrial park operating
  as an ecosystem I
• planning with the ecological capacity of the area
  in mind, paying particular attention to the
  assimilative capacity of the air, water (surface
  and ground), and connectivity
• energy production based increasingly on renewable
  resources, and at least increase the efficiency
  of current energy production and use through
  cogeneration and district heating
• buildings designed and built to optimize
  conservation of heat and water while enabling
  disassembly for reuse, and recycling at the
  end-of-life
• landscaping using indigenous resources and
  designed to support building heating and cooling
• industries and businesses selected based in part
  on their compatibility for symbiosis
• management encouraging a web of businesses
  involving not only producers and consumers, but
  also scavengers and decomposers to support
  cycling of materials
• redundancy in materials sources built into the
  structure of the system
• water recovered, cleaned and reused
• a common information management system which
  would facilitate networking.

20
Designing eco-industrial parks key strategies

• An appreciation of and restoration of the areas
  ecological functions ecology
• A survey of the nature of companies diversity
• A survey of flows of materials and energy and
  generation of by-products industrial metabolism
• Techniques for improving industrial, commercial
  and institutional uses of energy and materials
  resource efficiency
• Techniques for reducing waste disposalrecovery,
  remanufacturing and recycling
• Tools for assessing and using alternative
  processes, products life cycle analysis and
  design for environment

21
Planning and design

• The characteristics of an EIP have not yet been
  agreed upon by all agencies, researchers and
  developers.
• In my view, they require an ecological or
  systemic approach -this means designing an
  industrial park which does not compromise or
  result in the loss of ecological services but
  rather incorporates them into planning and
  design.
• This is particularly important for regulating and
  supporting services but could also involve
  provisioning services.

22
Infrastructure examples

• Where natural wetlands are not available, build
  engineered aquatic ecosystems which use sunlight,
  bacteria, plants, and other aquatic life to break
  down toxics, concentrate metals and treat organic
  material
• Use ground source heat pumps, solar walls for
  space heating and install small wind turbines
  for lighting.
• Collect rainwater and
• snowmelt for fire fighting, irrigating
  plants, flushing toilets and wherepossible,
  process water
• Develop composting for
• landscaping resources and
• nutrient cycling

23
Conclusions

• Identify local champions and get commitment for
  the long term
• Stakeholders need to be engaged early
  throughout the process
• Use expertise from various disciplines,
  especially ecologists and ecological designers
• Applying ecological thinking to infrastructure eg
  water supply, wastewater treatment, energy
  generation, transportation, solid waste
  recycling

24
References

• Bossilkov, A. and R VanBerkel. 2004. Industrial
  ecology in practice in Kwinana Waste reduction
  and resource efficiency through industry
  collaboration. Waste and Recycle Conf. Australia.
• Brand, E. and T. deBriijn. 1998. Industrial
  ecology at the regional level The building of
  sustainable industrial estates. 7th Int Conf of
  the Greening of Industry Network. Rome.
• Centre of Excellence in Cleaner Production. 2007.
  Regional Resource Synergies for Sustainable
  Development in Heavy Industrial Areas An
  Overview of Opportunities and Experiences. Curtin
  Univ. of Technology. Perth. 139p.
• Cote, R and J. Hall. 1994. Industrial parks as
  ecosystems. J. Cleaner Production.
• Cote, R.P. and T. Smolenaars. 1997. Supporting
  pillars for industrial ecosystems. J. Cleaner
  Production. 5 (1/2) 67-74
• Cote, R.P. and E. Cohen-Rosenthal. 1998.
  Designing eco-industrial parks A synthesis of
  some experiences. J. Cleaner Production.6 (3/4)
  181-188

25
References

• Gibbs, D, P. Deutz and A. Proctor. 2005.
  Industrial ecology and eco-industrial
  development A potential paradigm for local and
  regional development. Regional Studies 39 (2)
  171-183.
• Haskins, C. 2006. Multi-disciplinary
  investigation of eco-industrial parks. Systems
  Engineering. 9(4) 313-330
• Heeres, R.R., W.J. Vermeulen and F.B. deWalle.
  2004. Eco-industrial park initiatives in the USA
  and the Netherlands First lessons. J. Cleaner
  Production 12(8-10)985-996
• Gibbs.D and P. Deutz. 2007. Reflections on
  implementing industrial ecology through
  eco-industrial park development. J. Cleaner
  Production 15 (2007) 1683-1695
• Heeres, R.R., W.J. Vermeulen and F.B. deWalle.
  2004. Eco-industrial park initiatives in the USA
  and the Netherlands First lessons. J. Cleaner
  Production 12(8-10)985-996
• Jacobsen,N.B. 2001. Understanding the evolution
  of industrial symbiotic networks The case of
  Kalundborg. ISIE Conf. Leiden
• Lowe, E.A. 1997. Creating by-product resource
  exchanges Strategies foe eco-industrial parks.
  J. Cleaner Production.5 (1/2)57-65

26
References

• McManus P. and D.Gibbs. 2008. Industrial
  ecosystems? The use of tropes in the literature
  of industrial ecology and eco-industrial parks.
  Prog. in Human Geography. 32(4)525-540
• Nemerow, N. L. 1995. Zero Pollution for Industry
  Waste Minimization through Industrial Complexes.
  New YorK John Wiley and Sons.
• Roberts,B.H. 2004. The application of industrial
  ecology principles and planning guidelines for
  the development of eco-industrial parks An
  Australian case study. J. Cleaner Production 12
  (8-10)997-1010
• UNEP, 197. Environmental Management of Industrial
  Estates. Tech. Rpt 39. Paris TIE-UNEP.
• Zhu.Q. and R.P.Cote. 2004. Integrating green
  supply chain management into an embryonic
  eco-industrial development A case study of the
  Guitang Group. J Cleaner Production. 12 (8/10)
  1025-1036.

27
Appendix 1Guidance for developing EIPs

• There is no shortage of guidance documents for
  the development and operation of eco-industrial
  parks. Some are
• Designing and Operating Industrial Parks as
  Ecosystems, Cote et al Canada. 1994.
• Discovering Industrial Ecology An Executive
  Briefing and Sourcebook, Lowe et al. United
  States. 1997
• Eco-industrial Park Handbook.for Asian Developing
  Nations. Lowe et al.. Asian Development Bank and
  Indigo Development. 2001.
• Environmental Management for Industrial Estates.
  Information and training resources UNEP. 2001
• Planning for sustainable industry development.
  Roberts,B. Australian Planning Institute. 2001
• Eco-industrial Strategies Unleashing Synergy
  between Economic Development and the Environment.
  Cohen-Rosenthal et al. United States. 2003
• Mettre en oeuvre une démarche décologie
  industrielle sur un parc dactivités.. Oree,
  France. 2008.