Industrial Ecology Network the Goal of Australian Ecology Conference
NSW businesses participating in the Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) Sustainability Advantage program have forged a partnership with the Waste Management Association of Australia (WMAA) to host the inaugural Australasian Industrial Ecology Conference at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum on 30 and 31 July 2009. An important Conference goal is the establishment of a NSW and national Industrial Ecology Network. It is estimated that business and industry dispose over 15 million tonnes of industrial waste resources every year. The size of this prize is worth hundreds of $millions as a potential alternative fuel or raw material feedstock, and could give NSW businesses a competitive edge against increasing interstate and overseas competition.
The Industrial Ecology Network aims to promote industry awareness and technology diffusion whilst encouraging public-private sector funding partnerships and alliances that will underpin sustainable business to business exchange of waste (solid and liquid) and energy as alternative feedstock material and fuel.
The Conference runs over two days and features both international and Australian practitioners showcasing some of the world’s best in terms of sustainable, practical, and successful reuse of industry by-product waste from a suite of diverse sectors including mining and minerals, cement production, power generation, roads and infrastructure, building and construction, smelters and food manufacturing wastes inter alia.
Importantly, the conference also seeks to compare the vision of various state government jurisdictions and their approach to:
* Zero waste initiatives;
* Approval processes for land application of wastes such as food, timber, industrial sands etc to avoid them reporting to landfill;
* Approval processes for fuel substitution of wastes such as food, timber, mixed plastics, combustible industrial wastes etc to avoid them reporting to landfill; and
* Aspirations for the waste and waste avoidance regime established within the jurisdictions.
To find out more about the inaugural Australasian Industrial Ecology Conference, such as program and registration details, please visit http://www.austindustrialecology.com.au/
Add comment July 21, 2009
[Viet Nam]Tay Ninh plans to create ‘eco-cities’
Tay Ninh plans to create ‘eco-cities’
(17-06-2009)
TAY NINH — The southern province of Tay Ninh plans to reorganise its major towns into eco-cities, according to provincial leaders.
During a recent seminar, Nguyen Van Nen, head of the province’s People’s Committee, said foreign experts would provide advice on how to proceed to build environmentally friendly cities.
Monty Tejam, Foundation of the Future’s chief architect, told conference attendees that he was honoured to participate in the design of one of the first eco-cities in Viet Nam and was planning another in Long An Province.
The province houses the first eco-industrial park in Viet Nam, which was renamed the Bourbon-An Hoa-Transasia Industrial Garden. Nen said authorities were finding it challenging to develop the economy while protecting the environment.
The province, however, is blessed with a high density of trees and low population, and shares 240km of border with Cambodia.
Sustainable growth
Seminar attendees said that Viet Nam would not be able to avoid the risk of ecological disorder if the country’s infrastructure and economic growth were not developed in a sustainable manner.
Kitajima Atsumu, mayor of Kitakyushu in Japan, told provincial authorities to protect the area’s Dau Tieng Lake so that more eco-towns could be created. During the 1960s, lakes and rivers in Kitakyushu were polluted with industrial waste after years of intense development. It took more than 20 years to improve the situation, said Atsumu.
Nguyen Thi Hanh, deputy head of the Urban Development Department under the Ministry of Construction, said the country’s urbanisation rate in 1998 was 19 per cent but in 2008 it increased to 30 per cent, leading to environmental problems.
Population density in major cities is at a high level, with 10,000 people per sq.km.
Hanh said recent serious floods in Ha Noi showed that authorities must pay more attention to sustainable development and the effects of climate change. — VNS
resource:http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=04ECO170609
Add comment June 22, 2009
2008 Taiwan Workshop on ESTP.
Add comment December 9, 2008
2008 Taiwan Workshop on Eco-Industrial Development & ESTP
After a long try of environmental science and technology parks(ESTP) for four years, although EPA-Taiwan used to launch one international conference and some domestic so called training courses. The workshop held on the end of March 2008 was no wonder the only interactive training program till now. I was invited to organize this emergent mission with two-week preparation time as the new president was just been elected through the democratic procedure. Considering the subsidies and incentives of ESTP will be ended by the year of 2011. How can each demo ESTP site be operated towards sustainable development? What’s next for each administrative office to find a way of being harmony with surrounding environment?
I am worry about the negative effects under conservative bureaucratic system keep on going without any structural change of thinking. Hope the topics of this workshop can be absorbed into every attendee’s mind after all. We do not need the uniformed central standard of EIP /ESTP performance. A proper benchmark might be nice for each site. However, each park/ site has to review local cultural, social, and industrial characteristics instead of just copy the EPA’s typical format.
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2008 Taiwan Workshop on Eco-Industrial Development & ESTP
Hosted by EPA, Executed by ITRI
DATE: March 31 – Aril 1, 2008
PLACE：Damsui China-Trust Hotel , Taipei
Trainer/Lecturer: Andreas W. Koenig (Germany)
Trainer/Lecturer: Peter C. Lowitt (USA)
Co-Trainer/Lecturer: Bruce K. Chung (Taiwan)
Workshop Day 1
09:00 – 10:30 Registration
10:30 Welcome Remarks by EPA
10:45 Workshop Overview and Orientation
11:00 Introduction of Participants
11:30 Taiwan ESTP Briefing
12:00 Lunch Break
13:30 Introduction to Eco-Industrial Development Concept (Andreas Koenig)
14:15 Exercise: Comparison of Industrial Park Concepts (Peter Lowitt)
14:45 Exercise: Challenges to Taiwan’s Industry and ESTP (Andreas Koenig)
15:15 Coffee & Tea Break
15:30 EIP as a System I (Andreas Koenig)
16:00 Case Study: Sustainable Development at Devens (Peter Lowitt)
16:30 EIP as a System II (Andreas Koenig)
17:00 ESTP Management: Creating Synergies
17:30 Introduction to Group Exercise: ‘Re-Imagining ESTPs’
18:00 Dinner
20:00 Group Work: Re-Imagining ESTPs
Workshop Day 2
09:00 Presentation of Group Exercise (4 ESTP)
10:00 Case Study: Hoechst Infraserv, Frankfurt (Andreas Koenig)
10:30 Coffee & Tea Break
10:45 Green Buildings and EID in Taiwan (Bruce K. Chung)
11:30 Networking with Industries and Communities (Andreas Koenig)
12:00 Lunch Break
13:00 Case Study: Devens Eco-Star Program (Peter Lowitt)
14:00 Tools For Eco-Industrial Development (Andreas Koenig)
14:30 ESTP in Taiwan: Development Issues
15:00 Workshop Review and Evaluation (Andreas, Peter & Bruce)
15:30 Closing and Farewell
2 comments April 9, 2008
Call for Abstracts for ISC 2008: New Deadline
Althogh I cannot attend this conference, however, you might be inerested to join ISC2008.
[original message]
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We would like to once again draw your attention to the International Sustainability Conference 2008, jointly organised by the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, School of Business and the University of Basel, Program Sustainability Research.
The conference will be held on Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd August 2008 at the University of Basel, Switzerland. The central theme of the conference is “Creating Values for Sustainable Development”.
Currently, the following two keynote speakers confirmed their participation:
Professor Saskia Sassen, Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology Columbia University, USA
Professor Klaus M. Leisinger, Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary General for the UN Global Compact and President and CEO of the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development
The organisation committee encourages scientists, managers as well as decision makers from various disciplines to attend the ISC 2008 and present the outcomes of their research and/or case studies in line with the session themes. For further details see conference website: www.isc2008.ch.
Due to numerous requests from authors, the submission deadline has been extended to March 9th, 2008. Abstracts can therefore still be submitted, using the online submission form: http://www.isc2008.ch/callforabstracts.htm. Authors will be informed about the acceptance of their abstracts by April 30th, 2008.
We are looking forward to your contributions for the Second International Sustainability Conference 2008!
Best regards
Prof. Dr. Claus-Heinrich Daub
Prof. Dr. Paul Burger
Conference chairmen
If you would prefer not to receive future e-mails regarding ISC 2008, please send a short email to isc@unibas.ch and we will remove you from our mailing list. Thank you.
Add comment February 15, 2008
[News_Denmark] Novo Nordisk’s IT support: Made in China
丹麥最重要製藥廠, 全球第二大胰島素製造廠, 卡倫堡產業共生最重要錨定廠商之一, 竟也開始在中國天津設置生產者服務業了！
Wow, Novo Nordisk, the most important Danish pharmacy plant, the 2nd largest Insulin producer in the world, one of the key anchor tanants of industrial symbiois in Kalundborg, started to establish its service in Tianjin, China. Hard to imagine, but easy to understand as well. —Bruce Chung
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IT support: Made in China
12.09.2007
The country?s largest drug maker finds doing work in China not only cuts costs but boosts productivity for its IT division
Novo Nordisk’s IT division has set up operations in China to take advantage of the time difference as well as low labour costs, financial daily Børsen reported last Wednesday.
In addition to providing support for Novo Nordisk, NNIT will be able to offer services such as server maintenance and development work to international customers by the end of September.
While finding qualified IT specialists in Denmark can be difficult, NNIT’s base in Tianjin, east of Beijing, will enable it to draw upon the 75,000 specialists produced every year by local universities.
The company will also be able to establish IT operations around the clock. If employees in Denmark are unable to solve a problem by the end of the working day, they can simply ask the Tianjin division to take over.
In addition to Novo Nordisk, Siemens has set up operations in Tianjin, demonstrating that companies have begun to add knowledge-intensive areas to their activities in Asia as well as straightforward labour-intensive production.
NNIT currently employees 36 people, but expects to employ at least 100 by 2010.
Add comment January 31, 2008
The Limit and Merit of Taking Sustainable Buildings as a Catalyst for Eco-Industrial Development in Taiwan
The Limit and Merit of Taking Sustainable Buildings as a Catalyst for Eco-Industrial Development in Taiwan
(Presented for International conference on SB07-Taipei, Nov.10 2007)
Bruce Kuo-Hui Chung (brucechung@eco-industrial.net http://www.eco-industrial.org/)
ABSTRACT: When it comes to discuss urban regeneration, it’s tough to coordinate with industrial lands. The concept of eco-industrial development (EID), which learned from biological symbiosis, has been applied to the regeneration of industrial estates worldwide. However, we can hardly find the best practice, except for the prototype of industrial symbiosis-Kalundborg. Comparing to global cases, Taiwan government initiated a plan, “environmental science technology park (ESTP)”, which takes the idea of EID, green building, and industrial estate into a new model, along with a parallel plan, “circular sustainable urban and rural development plan”. After all, green building policy plays an essential role to the formation of EID. There are limits still to promote EID via green buildings, for symbiosis is the core issue.
KEYWORDS: industrial symbiosis, eco-industrial development, urban regeneration, green building
1. INTRODUCTION
Urban regeneration supposed to be a crucial issue to integrate with human habitat, natural resource, and industrial development. Taiwan is experiencing not only the time to review residential and commercial land use, but also to rethink how to deal with brownfields and industrial estates from basic unit. The government is promoting urban regeneration, however, it’s tough to coordinate with industrial lands still.
Within the past ten years, industrial ecologists’ idea on EID presented an innovative approach to solve problems of industrial wastes and energy shortage in terms of industrial symbiosis. It basically learned from biological symbiosis, which was applied to the regeneration of industrial estates globally. Getting the hint from food web, industrial ecologists argued proper planning criteria may fit the ideal ecological metaphor. However, we can hardly find the best practice from manmade industrial ecosystem, except for the prototype of industrial symbiosis-Kalundborg in Denmark.
Comparing to global cases, Taiwan’s initiation combined ideas of EID, green building(GB), and industrial estate into a plan, “environmental science and technology parks(ESTP)”, along with a parallel plan,“circular sustainable urban and rural development plan”. All administration offices at four demo ESTP sites have the highest level of GB certificates. Following discussions will illustrate why Taiwan took this approach and how GB can do for EID. After all, GB evaluation system is not enough to cover EID’s concern. Symbiosis is the core issue.
2. THE ROLE OF INDUSTRIAL ESTATES IN URBAN REGENERATION
Up to now, there are 362 cases of urban regeneration applied by private sectors. On the other hand, The CPAMI asked local governments to select 50 districts with potential for development and higher ownership as the first priority of urban regeneration. Residential and commercial lands play the major candidates for urban regeneration by public sectors. The second is based on the need to redevelop transportation area. Industrial based land use is the most difficult type for initiation of urban regeneration by governments[see Table 1]. Urban regeneration based on industrial land use on is tough to coordinate.
Table 1. Taiwan’s Urban Regeneration Initiatives by Public Sectors
(N/A)
Resource: Urban regeneration e-platform, Construction and Planning Agency, Ministry of the Interior (CPAMI), http://recity.cpami.gov.tw
2.1 Critical Anchor for Sustainable Economy and Ecology
In addition to the invention of Export Processing Zone(EPZ) and Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park(HSIP), Taiwan established industrial estates as a growth pole to stimulate local economy. No one can deny existing industrial geography brings a quantitative growth. But it ignores how industrial estates can be as an aggressive role in the realm of sustainable development.
At least, we need to know Taiwan’s industrial land supply system for further discussions. First, it divided into urban and non-urban land. The urban land provides industrial lands for urban development under zoning control; The D-class building land can be designated to industrial use among non-urban lands. The Second system is the major resource for Taiwan’s industrial development, which came from the establishment of industrial parks designated by Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) with incentives of “Statute for Encouragement of Private Investment”(abolished) and “Statute for Upgrading Industries”.
Table 2. Legal Industrial Land Supply System in Taiwan
(N/A)
Resource: 2006 Annual report on The Management of industrial Parks in Taiwan, IDB
p.s NSC(National Science Council); MOEA(Ministry of Economic Affairs); COA(Council of Agriculture); EPA(Environmental Protection Agency)
Overall, designated industrial parks’ share(44.5%) shows its largest influence among total industrial area. Next to it the urban industrial land(29.2%), and next to the scattered D-class building land(26.3%)[see Table 2]. But there are abandoned industrial lands which is sharing 2.9% of all designated industrial parks. These all could be anchor nodes for circular economy’s networking, instead of points for environmental conflicts.
2.2 Major Energy Consumer
Taiwan highly relies on imports to meet 98 percent of its energy needs. On energy consumption structure by sectors from 1986 to 2006, industrial sector dropped from 60% in 1986 to 58% in 2006; agricultural sector decreased from 3% to 1%, residential sector increased from 11% to 12%, and commercial sector increased from 3% to 6% (MOEABOE, 2007). Industrial sector remains the major actor in urban regeneration’s energy structure.
2.2 Major Waste and Recyclable Material Producer
With the urban sprawl, no more clear boundary between urban and rural areas. Continued industrial estates along Taiwan west seashores, serial of city-regions, become the disturbance in urban and rural ecosystem. It also makes industrial ecosystem more complex than ever before(Chung, 2006). Industrial estates produce the largest quantities of waste residues and hazardous material in urban and rural area. They are disturbances of urban and rural ecosystem, as well as the potential producer to create recyclable materials.
3. From Global EID initiatives to Taiwan’s ESTP
The establishment of industrial symbiosis in Kalundborg was a slow, evolutionary process started from a water management project in 1961. This network currently consisted by six key partners (anchor tenants) including Asnæs power station, Statoil refinery, Novo Nordisk biotech and pharmaceutical company, Novozymes company, Gyproc building materials company, Bioteknisk Jordrens SOILREM, and the town of Kalundborg who are all responsible for sustaining the symbiotic relationship. These partners spontaneously developed a series of bilateral exchanges that also include a number of other up stream or downstream companies(Chertow, 2007). Kalundborg has been regarded as the best practice of EID, however, there was no initial planning for the overall by-product exchange network. Since Bill Clinton’s PCSD announced EID as a national-wide action in 1995, industrial symbiosis was tremendously promoted in Europe, America, and asia countries[see figure 1].
(N/A)
Figure 1. Major Global EID Initiatives
Resource: Koenig, 2007
By contrast, Taiwan’s alternative approach to EID represents the context of negative externality of science parks’ environmental development. EPA initiated with ideas of eco-industrial park, GB, and industrial estate into a plan-“environmental science technology parks(ESTP)”, along with a parallel plan ,“circular sustainable urban and rural development plan” since 2002(Chung, 2005). But ESTP bascially is just a special industrial zone for environmental industries.
4. MERITS OF TAKING SB INTO EID IN TAIWAN
GB labeling system comprises nine indicators that fall into four categories – ecology, energy saving, waste reduction and health-namely “EEWH”, which was launched in 1999. Since 2003, nine indicators of GB evaluation system in Taiwan have been foliage, water soil content, energy savings, CO2 emissions reduction, construction waste reduction, water conservation, garbage and sewage improvements, biodiversity, and indoor environmental quality (Lin, 2003).
Now all official administration buildings in four demo ESTP sites have been asked to meet the highest criteria of GB Labeling system, GB seems to be a legitimacy of green image/the representation of spatial form. Here proposes sustainable building(SB) is based on ideas of GB with more concerns on non-material / social / institutional issues responsible for the sustainable environment. There are advantages for SB to promote EID shown as follows:
-Ownership/ Most buildings have simpler ownership structure than that of industrial estates. This makes SB easier to be the target of reform.
-Scale/ To initiate regulation and law for SB is easier than that of EID. To make the best use of SB’s criteria on the aggregation of firms is a shortcut and start point to EID.
-For lacks of effective legal tools to regulate performance of industrial estates, GB evaluation system can be a part of EID criteria.
-SB can initiates a green supply chain for EID.
-SB can be a node or hub in the eco-industrial networks.
-Strong support by the government: Comparing to global GB policies, the Taiwan government provides sticks and carrots into the building code, urban design review, and the other regulations.
-Learnt from symbiosis, SB can develop the relationship between built environment and natural ecosystem through exchange and interaction in material and non-material world.
-SB can be a key role in basic industrial ecology. For example, SB can support ground water system towards a circular and matured landscape ecology.
5. LIMIT OF TAKING SB INTO EID IN TAIWAN
Industrial ecologists assume EID evolved from three major functions that learning from ecosystem including material flow, energy flow, and information flow. These all together consist of an industrial ecosystem in human’s society. Core issues should be initiated with circular material/non-material communities. Although two indicators, biodiversity and indoor environmental quality were added into evaluation system in 2003, it is still limited in a small scale. Thus, it needs an atmosphere of symbiosis via multiple interactions within natural resource, water, energy, and feedback of information / knowledge under certain institutional environment, namely the milieu of symbiosis or sustainable development. The GB labeling system, nevertheless, lacks broader system scale to cross boundary for circulations of material, energy, and information. It narrowly focus in material aspects[see Table 3]. In sum, there are limits still to promote EID in terms of utilizing SB:
-Committee of environmental impact assessment or the other groups in Taiwan tend to believe in GB can be the best guidance to regulate inside and outside of a plant’s environmental performance. This will misleading the scale issue. For example, four major administration building of ESTP demo sites, and the Yilan-ChenNan base of HSIP.
-GB labeling system cannot fully support EID’s core issue, industrial symbiosis.
-Infrastructure/ indicator of GB such as soil water content cannot meet the more complicated structure of manudacturing environment.
-Lack of incentives to create optimized energy effiency on collectve community.
-Current GB labeling system focus on material based approach, lack of non-material approach towards EID, which is the crucial aspect for implementation.
-Challenge to compete with traditional real estate market
-Lack of social cognition that GB/SB is worthy for implementation under social institutional barriers.
-Act of Urban Renewal cannot support SB’s niches for stakeholders in urban regeneration businesses or ESTP.
Table 3. Relationship of EEWH Evaluation System and Industrial Symbiosis
(N/A)
Resource: The critera of sustainable development for Cape Charles Sustainable Technology Industrial Park , is refer to McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, L.L.P.(1997), Application for Occupancy within the Port of Cape Charles Sustainable Technologies Industrial Park; EEWH Evaluation System is refer to Lin,Sian-De (2003) An Evaluation Manual for Green Buildings in Taiwan, The Architecture and Building Research Institute (ABRI), page.9(Chinese)
6. DISCUSSION
The operation of a matured ecosysem highly relies on the feeback loop. Through mainstrem tools of material flow analysis(MFA), industrial ecologists cannot perfectly describe how Kalundborg runs its industrial ecosystem. In a word, Empirical studies on Kalundborg reflects a mysterious and tacit information flow under certain accumulation of social capital. Mutual gains from symbiosis are hard to measure and evaluate by indicators or material based evaluation. Most places just want to duplicate the by-product exchange model in Kalundborg instead of learning how to enhance the social and cultural habitat by any means. Some key issues for taking SD into EID are listed as below:
6.1 Taking Industrial Estates into the Business of Urban Regenerations
Although there are gaps to coordinate with Taiwan’s industrial lands for urban regeneration which could be concluded into three structural barriers: First, the ownership; Second, complexity of managing bodies for industrial land supply system; Third, the land price is deviated from the market, as well as the construction appraisal designated by the act of urban renewal.
-Lack of the knowing of urban renewal within public and private sectors including stakeholders like consulting firms and communities, in words, whole society need to enhance the common sense on urban renewal and SB.
6.2 Institutional independency of spatial planning
The concept of zoning came from a core ideology of exclusionary allocation of lands. Limited by the path dependence, it does hard to turn this approach into a new paradigm of material flow-based approach. Moreover, the idea of EID has certain degree of limit from ideology of biomimicry. And one of the challenges is to negotiate with capitalists, manufacturing companies, and those who you are not setting used to
6.3 Review the lesson from ecosystem
Learning from the metaphor of natural ecosystem’s effective fuctions is crucial.For we are all living in a complex system. Becoming more like redwood than a ragweed [ref. to Table 4]. A SB based EID might be possible. But there is a lack of cross-boundary thinking and action exosted in system of bureaucracy. From the treasure of Kalundborg and Danish experiences on corporate social responsibility mostly came from the tradition of being volunteers and socio-cultural context(Chung, 2005b). There is a debate on too many discussions on Kalundborg instead of the other manmade industrial system. However, we would rather correct the way to learn Kalundborg through non-material approach than copy material flow model only.
-A physical platform for sorting, collecting the by-products from different plants is needed. SB can play a role within it.
-One of EID’s need on product like green construction materials can be driven through SB’s more complete supply chains such as public green procurement and ecological engineering.
-on information flow, SB can be a hub/node for information exchange embedded in a physical body. For example, cases in Thailand and Halifax, Canada.
6.4 Integration of GB Management and Urban Planning Tool
There are two major practical management system on current urban land control. One is zoning system with strict control and clear deinition of regulations; the other is the permission system, mainly applied in large scale or those builings located in environmental sensitive area. One of the well known EID projects in Minneapolis, with honor of AIA Award by E4 Partners, is a good example to illustrate what a SB can do in the process of making EID comes true. Strategy like taking SB as a species to human living and production ecosystem is works. Therefore, to take concept of GB, EEWH, into the mechanism of urban land use control also could be works in Taiwan. For example, advanced environment friendly technique like district heating center(DHC) performance well in northern countries, How about Taiwan? GB policy can only fit small scale bases. But indicators of foliage and water soil content could be applied to urban related sub-indicators and stategies..
TABLE 4. Potential of SB and EID to learn from Ecological Succession
(N/A)
Resource: Adapted from Allenby, B.R., Cooper, W.E. (1994) Understanding Industrial Ecology from a Biological Systems Perspective, “Total Quality Environmental Management”, Spring 1994, pp. 343-354 , In Benyus, Janine M. (1997) Biomimicry, New York: Quill, pp.252-253
6.5 Milieu of Sustainable Development
In Kalundborg, each party views a contract as economically attractive, opportunities not within a company’s core business, no matter how environmentally attractive, will not be pursued, and each company evaluates their own deals independently–there is no system-wide evaluation of performance(Lowe, 1997; Chertow, 2000). “What is the genius in industrial symbiosis? Noting, just common sense!”, Jogen Christensen the former vice-president of Novo Nordisk Company expressed his final remark after retired from key anchor tenant of Kalundborg.
Terms like sustainable or environmental technology have taken over “industrial parks(estates)” into a fashion title, “environmental technology park” or “high-tech park”. Even the title of EID could become the legitimacy in the process of restructuring brownfields into greenfields. Sustainability often requires organizational change and an evolution in our thinking. Rodríguez-Carmona(2004) argued organizational learning and social capital as key factors for the impact of development projects. Now GB plays a critical role to turn traditional cognition of real estate towards sustainable development. GB in a sense provides a new fashion identity. It shows a way to reorganize local knowledge and review the nature of cultural assets in terms of increasing milieu of symbiosis.
6. CONCLUSIONS
Taiwan GB policy plays a vital role to stimulate people’s knowing to face the core of sustainability. Anyway, with a perspective of sustainable industrial parks, SB can bring a new idea to GB on more interaction between multiple species and habitats of urban industrial landscape. Though it’s not enough to meet complete functions of industrial ecosystem, and there are structural barriers of financial and land ownership on industrial estates still, we can start from basic concept like Koenig(2007) argued basic ideas still remain: (1)Use common sense and innovation; (2)Technology is never the problem;(3)look for the low-hanging fruits: synergies can be implemented by simple change of procedure & management. For SB tends to individual’s cultural taste and cognition on the environment. There is no enough merit for GB to interact with outer actors especially the mass production based industrial ecosystem. Learning from EID’s concept of symbiosis with broader view and concern, SB could be suitable for a catalyst for embedded local and regional environment. EID represents a revolutionary exam on industrial lands in urban and rural area. SB can be the keystone (species) to support this complex ecosystem. Concept of symbiosis meets the proposition and metaphor for sustainability, however, it remains a lot for us to review the nature of our living and production world.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thanks for Taiwan Environmental Information Association(http://e-info.org.tw) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported a part of my second field work to Kalundborg and Copenhagen in 2005. This gives more findings and inspiration for empirical study on industrial symbiosis.
REFERENCES
[1] Benyus, Janine M. (1997) Biomimicry, New York: Quill, pp.252-253
[2] Chertow, M. R. (2000) Industrial symbiosis: Literature and taxonomy, Annual Review of Energy & Environment, 25(1): 313-337
[3] Chertow, M. R. (2007) Case Sudy of Kalundborg, Denmark, Environmental Information Coalition and the National Council for Science and the Environment, June 14, 2007
[4] Chung, Kuo-Hui (2006) Perspective of Industrial Ecology on Material and Non-material Approaches for Sustainable City and Country Development, Proceeding of The Symposium on Structure Plan of Rural Landscape Development in Taiwan, Taipei: COA, Nov.11 , 2006 (Chinese)
[5] Chung, Kuo-Hui(Bruce) (2005a) Tawan Eco-Industrial Policy Review, The 11th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference, Helsinki, Finland, June 6-8, 2005
[6] Chung, Kuo-Hui(Bruce) (2005b) Private interview with Professor Peter Neergaard, Department of Operations Management, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, June 10 2005
[7] Koenig, Andrews (2007) Principles of Eco-Industrial Development Strategic Approaches and Best Practice for Sustainable Industrial Development, Present for ESTP Training Program, ITRI, ESTP-Taoyuan, Taiwan, April 19, 2007,
[8] Lin, Sian-De (2003) An Evaluation Manual for Green Buildings in Taiwan, The Architecture and Building Research Institute (ABRI), page.9(Chinese)
[9] Rodríguez-Carmona, Antonio (2004) Development NGOs, local learning, and social capital: the experience of CARE Bolivia in Villa Serrano, Development in Practice, 14(3): 354-365
1 comment November 10, 2007
[News_USA] Eco-industrial park is on the drawing board
Ernie Lowe pointed a warning alarm to let American know the practice of eco-industrial parks could be the future norm of environment management. Besides, I’m quite interested in BW-greenway’s way to promote land trust. If anyone wanna share their experiences, it will be my pleasure.
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Eco-industrial park is on the drawing board
Dayton Business Journal -by Kristen Wicker DBJ Staff Reporter
Friday, July 11, 2003
http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2003/07/14/story7.html?page=1
Greater Dayton may one day be home to a greenhorn industrial park — a type of park that would be new to the Midwest and relatively new to the nation.
B-W Greenway Community Land Trust, a Fairborn-based nonprofit environmental organization, is examining the feasibility of developing an eco-industrial park somewhere near the intersection of Interstate 675 and state Route 444, on a portion of land located in the city of Fairborn, Bath Township and Clark County.
An eco-industrial park “is a way of dealing with the environment and at the same time talk business sense,” said Ernest Lowe, principal in Oakland, Calif.-based research and consulting organization Sustainable Systems Inc., which in 1992 received the first U.S. Environmental Protection Agency contract to study the concept. Eco-industrial parks are designed to improve companies’ bottom lines while also improving the environment.
“It’s definitely an industrial park,” Lowe said. “You are seeking to reduce environmental impacts, increase resource productivity, reduce pollution and work effectively with the community. One of the goals is to further the economic development of the region in a sustainable way.”
The Springfield-based Turner Foundation awarded B-W Greenway a $30,000 grant in 2001 for a feasibility study, said Rob Kearns, director of communications for the Turner Foundation.
The recently completed study established a number of options for an eco-industrial park in the area:
A “closed loop” park, in which the industries located in the park use each other’s byproducts or waste in their production processes. For example, one company might use hot water created by a neighboring company, then that same water might be reused by yet another company, perhaps as gray water to wash down vehicles or floors.
A regional warehouse and distribution center where several companies would share warehouse space and truck routes, taking advantage of the nearby highway interchange and reducing participating companies’ costs. This option also could include regional warehousing of locally grown agricultural products for use by local restaurants or national chains;
Using the park to grow crops used in environmentally friendly energy sources such as biodiesel and ethanol.
Establishing a research and development center focused on emerging environmental technologies.
The construction of a so-called “green” building that incorporates energy-efficiency technology such as solar panels and geothermal heat.
B-W Greenway President Bob Jurick said the group, which is run by volunteers, hopes to pick a small site within a year, then fine-tune the best option for that property.
However, much needs to be done before the idea of an eco-industrial park can move from the conceptual stage to the drawing board — land owners and the public and private sectors must buy into the idea, for starters.
Lowe said the eco-industrial park initiatives that never make it off the ground almost always fail because they don’t have strong enough business support.
“Real estate development has lots of nuts and bolts, and you need someone who knows the nuts from the bolts,” he said.
A number of businesses and individuals own property in the 1,000-acre study area: Cemex, Dirt Best and Martin Marietta Aggregates are among them.
Most of the land is in the city of Fairborn, which has identified the area as a prime spot for industrial development because of its interstate and rail access. Yet exactly the direction development takes will depend on what these property owners decide, said Bill Murphy, director of community development for Fairborn who attended a workshop B-W Greenway held about a month ago.
“It’s really premature to talk about any specifics,” Murphy said. “What this exercise has done is provided discussion for development opportunities that may not have been considered previously. … The options presented at the eco-industrial workshop encouraged us to think outside of the box.”
Indeed, Jane Dockery, associate director of the Center for Urban and Public Affairs at Wright State University and consultant for B-W Greenway, said in 15 years of working on economic development issues, “this is one of the first projects I’ve encountered where the intent was to study … the balance between economic development and environmentalism.”
Still, Dockery said she’s learned the concept is do-able.
“It’s not that far out there,” she said. “It makes a lot of sense, as long as we begin with what are the benefits to the company, that it is about increasing profits and reducing expenses … and not about restrictive convenants.”
Jurick said the group one day might apply for funding through the state of Ohio’s Third Frontier initiative, focused on developing a high-tech based economy in the state, and the Clean Ohio program, which in part funds the cleanup and redevelopment of polluted sites such as some of those within the study area.
Federal funding also might be available for the initiative, thanks to legislation focused on revitalizing brownfields, Dockery said.
“This is moving from this grassroots place … all the way up to the federal government,” she added.
Lowe said he thinks eco-industrial parks “will become the norm. I have worked a great deal overseas, and there’s very strong interest in Asia, especially China,” he said, adding the Chinese government now is requiring a lot of development to follow the eco-industrial park model. “China could eat our lunch if we’re not careful.”
E-mail kwicker@bizjournals.com. Call 222-6900, ext. 120.
Add comment July 11, 2003
[thesis]A Study on the Eco-Industrial Park Concept Application in HSIP
Title: A Study on the Eco-Industrial Park Concept Application in HSIP －In the case of IC Industries
(Thesis of Master degree, Department of Urban Planning, National Cheng Kung University, TAIWAN) Author: Bruce Kuo-Hui Chung (Jan. 2002)
ABSTRACT
Industrial parks have played a paradoxical role in Taiwan ‘s economic development and environmental pollution. The science parks have resumed as the most important components to solve economic problems within industrial park families. People even treated science parks as the symbol of low pollution in early days. Is it possible to solve these problems and paradoxes by science parks? In recent years, some advanced industrial countries have developed a concept, the eco-industrial park (EIP), to solve these problems. It’s a concept which tries to reduce the environmental impacts and to form eco-industrial systems with optimum material, energy and information flows to get a better collective benefit, by collaborating between companies, developers, managers and related stakeholders.
In terms of the EIP concept, environmental planning paradigm of the new generation, this research exams the problems of HSIP’s industrial environment. It is meaningful and can be references to the sustainable industrial resource planning, management and the future execution and research of the EIP in Taiwan.
The major approaches to this thesis started from the review of existing articles and case studies, followed by discussions of potential areas and basic models. From production and employment figures of recent years, companies of integrated circuit industries were selected as “anchor tenants” from six major industries in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (HSIP). These here were followed by interviews to HSIP IC plants and related experts to construct corresponding spatial analysis, in order to develop the patterns of material flow, energy flow, and information flow (3F) analysis.
The research suggests that in HSIP the leading production plants are also the anchor tenants which control the 3-F symbiosis patterns. Small scale plants are highly dependent on the anchor tenants. The geographical distribution of material flows is regional, limited by the location and capacity of existing treatment facilities; the energy flow is simple bounded with electric regulations; there is an informal environmental information network. The information flow is the most potential characteristics among 3-Flows. In sum, HSIP can be categorized as information symbiotic eco-industrial park.
Keywords: Industrial Ecology(IE)；Eco-Industrial Park(EIP)；Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park(HSIP)；Integrated Circuit(IC) Industries；Anchor Tenants；3-Flows(3F) Analysis
2 comments January 1, 2002
[News_USA]Fed grant helps launch CU-USC eco-industrial development center
After Ed. Cohen-Rosenthal’s past away, US government must find a new team to lead national eco-industrial development toward a better direction. USC used to be a partner with WEI(Cornell), which Ed. in charged of. Look forward to seeing USC’s work. —–Bruce K. Chung
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Fed grant helps launch CU-USC eco-industrial development center
By Roger Segelken
Cornell and the University of Southern California will use a seed grant of $175,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce to launch the new National Center for Eco-Industrial Development.
Aiming to facilitate job growth and sustainable industrial expansion in economically distressed communities, the new center will promote industrial ecology, establish eco-industrial parks and expand the use of environmentally benign manufacturing processes and techniques that will maximize communities’ development potential while preserving the environment.
“Just a few years ago, the promise of sustainable growth without trashing the environment was a fringe idea,” said Ed Cohen-Rosenthal, director of the Work and Environment Initiative in Cornell’s Center for the Environment and co-director of the National Center for Eco-Industrial Development. “Now, eco-industry is moving into the mainstream of economic development, bringing with it a focus on new partnerships in business and new, rewarding jobs in healthful workplaces.”
Leonard Mitchell, co-director of the new national center and director of the USC Center for Economic Development, added, “The center will be particularly active in promoting large-scale eco-industrial development projects in conjunction with business entities in the United States and globally who demonstrate an interest in and a commitment to pursuing business strategic advantage through policies embracing business ecology, benign manufacturing and eco-industrial practices, driving sustainable business expansion and job creation.”
The grant was awarded jointly by the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and it is designed to allow the new center’s researchers to develop a national training program; initiate a consortium of university researchers working on eco-industrial development; provide technical assistance and prepare web-based resource manuals.
Announcing the grant, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Arthur C. Campbell said: “Eco-industrial development can be used to turn brownfield sites and other underutilized areas into economic boons for surrounding communities. The National Center for Eco-industrial Development will help both urban and rural areas attract new industry and jobs while protecting the environment.”
Cornell’s Work and Environment Initiative has been providing assistance to proposed eco-industrial parks since 1993, Cohen-Rosenthal noted. He pointed to several eco-industrial projects, which are detailed on the initiative’s web site www.cfe.cornell.edu/wei/EIDP/eid.html as examples of different approaches:
In Cape Charles, Va., eco-industrial development is already beginning to demonstrate its promise. The area’s high unemployment and a faltering economy spurred local government officials and citizens to come together to create an eco-industrial development plan that commits to profitability while retaining the social and environmental integrity of the area. The result is the Port of Cape Charles Sustainable Technologies Industrial Park, an eco-industrial park fully leased in its first phase of building. The park currently consists of a multi-tenant building designed with the flexibility to accommodate a range of light manufacturing firms. The public-private management partnership provides a set of codes, covenants and restrictions to encourage and reward both environmentally sound practices and involvement with the local communities.
At the Cabazon Resource Recovery Park, a project of the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians in Mecca, Calif., discarded tires from the Firestone recall and other sources are processed into high-quality crumb rubber to make highways, playgrounds and equestrian arenas safer. The park, located in a designated rural empowerment zone, is designed for a synergistic mix of enterprises to increase efficiency and improve economics and environmental benefits for each business. Plans call for enterprises such as metals reclamation, gasification, used-oil refinery, reclaimed glass and paper de-inking.
“The Phillips Eco-Enterprise Center of Minneapolis’ Green Institute is using the geothermal capabilities of their site as an alternative source of energy, and they’re finding new ways to re-use building materials,” Cohen-Rosenthal reports. “This is all happening in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city. This is what sustainable development is all about.”
November 16, 2000
Add comment December 16, 2000
