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Eco-Industrial Parks | Industrial Ecology | Sustainable Agriculture | Sustainable Communities

News of the application of Industrial Ecology and Indigo's projects

Clarkia unguiculata graciela, a California native flower

Clarkia

Industrial ecology and its application as eco-industrial development has continued to evolve in the last year, with new national initiatives, new development concepts, and many new projects. Indigo Development has worked primarily in Asia and North America to support these developments.

Hurricane Katrina is raising major issues about the adequacy of regional planning and preparation for the impacts of climate change.

Indigo is developing a business concept of integrative regional action planning, working in team with the Mantaray Group, including several other small consulting groups and a major planning, design, and environmental group.

Korea has launched a national EIP initiative and published Indigo's Eco-Industrial Handbook in Korean.

China is continuing an ambitious "Circular Economy" initiative to multiply efficiency of resource utilization by a factor of ten. Indigo has collaborated in two case studies of eco-industrial parks in Shanghai that seek to fulfill Circular Economy goals.

Indigo is participating in planning of agro-eco-industrial parks to support the transition to sustainable farming in the US, and in China and other developing countries.

In Ontario, Canada we produced a report on the transition to sustainable agriculture in the province as the systems context for achieving environmentally sound management of manure and the .

Climate Change and Hurricane Katrina: A google search found about 1,560,000 links for Katrina and "climate change". An MIT climate resercher, Kerry Emanuel, offers evidence that warmer water has increased the intensity of hurricanes in the last decade, with the mega-disaster on the Gulf coast a direct result.

Fortunately the Federal Government, under President Clinton, opened a program to develop national and regional plans under the general title, Preparing for Climate Change. Although the current administration has provided only weak support for this effort, several of the the current regional reports are available on university web sites. We list links to these reports and the Federal site.

Integrative Regional Action Planning: A response at the level of the crisis
A major business opportunity for integrative regional action planning is emerging from the complex of issues spearheaded by high energy consumption, rising prices, and the likely peaking of oil production in the next five to ten years. The value offered to clients is to create synergy through working multiple issues as a system, rather than in isolation. Sustainable economic development amd creation of enterprises and jobs is tje consistent base integrating work on the transition to sustainable farming, resource efficiency and conservation, natural resource planning, and preparation for climate change. Indigo Development is collaborating with Murray Sustainable Development Group, Weber Sustainability Consulting, the Catalyst Institute, and Mantaray Management LLC in developing this application of industrial ecology. Integrative Regional Action Planning

Several exciting new developments unfolded in 2004-5 and remain a focus in 2006. We are filling in detail on each of these stories.

Korean eco-industrial park initiative: The Korean National Cleaner Production Center has opened an initiative to make all of the country’s industrial parks eco-industrial parks. Ernie Lowe and Andreas Koenig are consulting with the KNCPC, leading a capacity development program, and participating in internalnational conferences on this Korean eco-industrial park initiative. The Center translated our Eco-Industrial Handbook into Korean and is planning to make it available on the KNCPC web site www.kncpc.re.kr. See our summary of the Korean initiative.

China's Circular Economy: Chinese top leaders are supporting a Circular Economy initiative that features eco-industrial parks (EIP) and networks (EIN) as key strategies. Some publications set a goal of increasing efficiency of resource use ten fold. Many provinces, cities, and development zones are developing Circular Economy plans to begin implementation of this bold concept.

Unfortunately, there are many barriers to implementation.

China is dominanting major global markets for commodities such as steel, alumina, copper, and petroleum. In the short run these supplies appear to the large real estate development and manufacturing companies to be readily available.
The national government seens reluctant to declare and promote the ten-fold goal for the Circular Economy discussed in internal documents.
The definition of EIP used in China often does not extend beyond "an eco-chain where one company uses the waste of another." Such exchanges are only one of many strategies through which eco-industrial parks can further the Circular Economy's goals of optimizing resource use and lowering waste and pollution.

Indigo consulted with the policy office of China's State Environmental Protection Administration to promote a more systemic understanding of the role of EIPs in the Circular Economy initiative.

Indigo has also written a summary of an EIP strategy to support the Circular Economy.
In addition we have prepared a paper clarifying the definition of eco-industrial park in terms of the goals of the Circular Economy and outlining a recruitment strategy that helps realize these goals. We have posted an English translation of China's Guidelines for EIPs, developed by the State Environmental Protection Administration.

Finally, Indigo collaborated with Tongji University's Institute for Sustainable development in conducting two case studies of Shanghai industrial parks seeking to become eco-industrial parks.
Case studies http://www.indigodev.com/Shanghai_studies.html

Sustainable agriculture: Indigo has deepened its exploration of industrial ecology's relevance to the evolution of sustainable agriculture through two projects:

An agro-eco-industrial park: Indigo has linked with the Environmental Education Media Project and the International Center for Sustainable Development to seek sites for an agro-eco-industrial park in China.

Sustainable manure management: Research Ernie Lowe and Ivan Weber did for the CRESTech Center in Ontario, Canada on farm practices, technologies, and business models for limiting environmental impacts of farm manure. The transition to sustainable farming is the vital context for dealing with this specific issue. See this report.