Perspectives on Industrial Ecology

Dominique Bourg, Suren Erkman

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351282062
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business generale
• Index: Business

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 globalisation 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 minimisation of losses caused by dispersion, the dematerialisation 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 operationalisation 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.

Part 1
Concepts and Ideas

1
Industrial Ecology and Material Flow Analysis

Basic concepts, policy relevance and some case studies^*

Stefan Bringezu
Wuppertal Institute, Germany

The core of industrial ecology as an emerging scientific field is the study of the industrial metabolism. The aim is to understand the functioning of the physical basis of our societies, the interlinkages of processes and product chain webs within the ‘anthroposphere’ and the exchange of materials and energy with the environment. However, the interest goes further to the question of how to develop the industrial system in a way that essential requirements of sustainability can be met (for a historical review, see Erkman 1997). The basic concept is that the industrial system and its societal interactions are embedded into the biosphere–geosphere system and are thus dependent on factors critical for the coexistence of both systems (Ayres and Simonis 1994; Baccini and Brunner 1991). The paradigmic vision of a sustainable industrial system is characterised by minimised physical exchanges with the environment, with the internal material loops being driven by renewable energy flows (Richards et al. 1994). However, in the current situation the industrial metabolism is still depleting its resources and overloading the environment with wastes and emissions in many respects.

Analysis of a variety of material and substance flows has provided interesting insights into the industrial system and has led to the discussion of examples and strategic levers for improvement (Ayres and Ayres 1996). Recycling of materials, optimisation of cascaded use and increases in energy efficiency and in solar inputs may all contribute to sustaining the industrial metabolism (Graedel and Allenby 1995).

The findings of industrial ecology research are increasingly being used in practice. However, the influence on public policy is still rather limited and a broad-scale application of its principles is not yet in sight. The reasons are plentiful. One reason seems to be a missing link between research and the proposal of concrete political targets. In addition, monitoring instruments for the industrial metabolism that can be applied not only for single technologies but also for whole countries are lacking. Moreover, the linkage of material flows and economic factors has not yet received sufficient attention in research and policy.

As a result of scientific findings, traditional environmental protection started in the 1970s to control specific pollutant flows. The release of eco-toxic substances such as heavy metals and chlorinated chemicals was limited to critical levels. In the 1980s end-of-pipe measures were increasingly being substituted for integrated pollution control (i.e. by steering processes within the industrial metabolism). However, none of these measures seemed to have a significant effect in terms of the resulting quantity and quality of the material and energy throughput. Thus the industrialised economies were not able to serve as a model for worldwide and future development. Instead, the greening of industry (e.g. through the use of catalytic converters on motor vehicles, the use of waste incinerators and the adoption of recycling systems) to a significant extent solved the immediate concerns by shifting the problems to, for example, other media or other countries. Moreover, an increased demand for products (e.g. cars) counteracted the results of the use of cleaner technologies in the industries concerned.

In the 1990s, another, more pragmatic, approach to influencing societal metabolism was started from science-based non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Europe, beginning with a study on Action Plan Sustainable Netherlands (Buitenkamp et al. 1992). The disparity between industrialised and developing countries was seen to contradict the equity principle that had been declared a constituent element of sustainable development in Agenda 21 at the 1992 Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro. As a pragmatic policy goal a reduction of between 80% and 90% of primary resources and emissions to air was recommended for the Netherlands in order to allow the necessary environmental space for each person (Weterings and Opschoor 1992).¹

Schmidt-Bleek (1992) proposed a factor of 10 (Factor 10) as a general goal for the increase of resource productivity of industrialised countries within the following 50 years in order to cut in half the global resource requirements. Later, von Weizsäcker et al. (1995) suggested the more moderate Factor 4. The proposals were based on a systems perspective according to which the volume of outputs of the anthroposphere must not be reduced whereas the ‘input locks’ are left open. It also reflected the fact that the enormous material flows do not enter the economy but are moved in mining and agriculture to obtain the use of raw materials. These ‘ ecological rucksacks’ (Schmidt-Bleek 1994b) or hidden flows of primary production burden the environment locally by devastation of natural habitats, groundwater contamination, landscape changes and so on.

The Factor 4 and Factor 10 concepts have attracted international attention and created remarkable resonance with politicians as well as industrial decision-makers. The main reason has been the reconciliation of economic and ecological requirements. The task is to provide better services and continuous welfare with less resource consumption. Experience and examples are increasing indicating that this is indeed possible (see also the contribution of Stahel in this volume). However, the effect on the overall performance of industrial systems has still to be proven.

Thus an assessment of the industrial metabolism in terms of sustainability requires an analysis of critical substance flows and total material throughput (Bringezu 2000). Here, I will shortly discuss the complementary function of both types of analysis. Before the background of the actual debate on policy goals, I will examine the total resource requirements and major emissions of selected industrialised countries in relation to their economic performance.

1.1 Analyses of industrial metabolism

Understanding the structure, quantity and quality of the industrial metabolism depends on analyses of material flows from resource extraction to final waste disposal. Such analyses can be directed at:

• ∎ Products and services on a life-cycle basis. Here the methods of life-cycle assessment (LCA) provide comprehensive insights, and methods that determine certain key parameters such as cumulative energy requirements (CERs) or material input per service unit (MIPS) can be used to quantify cumulative resource requirements.
• ∎ Firms. The physical balance of inputs and outputs is increasingly being used as part of an environmental performance report and provides substantial information for environmental management.
• ∎ Sectors and branches. Bottom-up or, to a larger extent, top-down approaches are used to analyse the flows of materials through industrial sector.
• ∎ Communities, regions and national economies. The metabolism of these entities is becoming more and more important as a basis for policy decisions; monitoring instruments are being developed with respect to the sustainable supply and use of resources, on the one hand, and emissions to the environment, on the other hand.

Since the mid-1990s, analyses of material flows through regional economies, up to the level of economic regions such as the European Union and down to the firm level have been addressed under the title of ‘material flow analysis’ (MFA).

MFA has become a fast-growing field of research with increasing policy relevance. However, there are various methodological approaches that are based on different concepts and target questions, although each study may claim to contribute to sustaining the industrial metabolism p(Table 1.1). However, the strategies used to pursue that aim are basically quite different. On the one hand, the ‘detoxification’ of material flows and the reduction of environmental pollution are traditionally assumed to be important goals. On the other hand, the ‘dematerialisation’ and the restructuring of the industrial or societal metabolism—especially in terms of resource productivity—is increasingly being

Table 1.1 Basic types of material flow analysis for achieving the conceptual target of environmental sustainability

	Basic strategy
	Detoxification and pollution reduction	Dematerialisation and eco-restructuring
Accounting type	I	II
Objects of primary interest	Specific environmental problems related to certain impacts per unit of flow of substances (e.g. Cd, Cl, Pb, Zn, Hg, N, C, CO2, CFCs) and materials (e.g. wooden products, energy carriers, moved masses, biomass, plastics) within certain compartments, sectors and regions	Problems of environmental unsustainability related to the volume and structure of the throughput of sectors (e.g. production sectors, the chemical industry, the construction industry) and regions (e.g. total or main throughput, mass flow balance, global material input) associated with substances or materials

C, carbon; Cd, cadmium;; CFCs = chlorofluorocarbons; Cl, chlorine; CO₂, carbon dioxide; Hg, mercury; N, nitrogen; Pb, lead; Zn, Zinc

Source: Bringezu and Kleijn 1997

advocated as a prerequisite for environmental sustainability. Consequently, either the impact potential per unit of material flow or the volume and structure of material flows attract special attention. In the end, both strategies will be necessary to foster sustainable development and they should be addressed as being complementary rather than as being exclusive.

Based on these different views, however, the starting point for MFA may be different. Although a continuum of different approaches exists in practice, two basic types of accounting may be distinguished according to the objects of primary interest.

Type I accounting starts with specific problems related to selected substances or materials. The flow of eco-toxic substances such as heavy metals is studied because these substances are associated with environmental problems (e.g. through accumulation). The flow of nutrients such as nitrogen is accounted for because it may be critical in eutrophication. The flow of carbon is studied because it is associated with, for example, global warming. The flows of chlorinated substances are quantified because they are rendered to be critical for various pollution problems. Selected flows of materials may also be of interest. Energy carriers, moved masses, plastics, wooden products, biomass and metals may be associated with certain environmental pressures and/or may be studied in order to optimise economic use or to improve recycling and cascading strategies. Studies relating specified emissions to the production of base materials or to the various sectors of industry lead to the next type of analysis.

Type II accounting starts with the question of whether the volume and structure of the throughput of selected sectors or regions is sustainable. For instance, industrial sectors such as the chemical or construction industries are studied with respect to their throughput of substances or materials. Cities, regions or national economies are studied with regard to selected material flows, the total material throughput or the global material requirements. One major aim of such studies is the derivation of indicators of environmental pressure. This refers not only to total mass throughput but also, for instance, to the relation between renewable and non-renewable inputs or the amount of materials shifted from the Earth’s crust to the atmosphere, in order to indicate structural properties of the regional metabolism.

1.2 Policy relevance

Following the realisation of the existence of environmental problems and the history of environmental protection since the 1990s, Type I analyses were applied first to control the flow of hazardous substances such as heavy metals. Substance flow analysis has been used to determine the main entrance routes to the environment, the processes associated with these emissions, the stocks and flows within the industrial system and the resulting concentrations in the environment (Udo de Haes et al. 1997).

The conclusions of governmental policy based on substance-flow analyses of heavy metals and chlorinated compounds have been described by Bovenkerk (1998) and Hansen (1998) for pollution control in the Netherlands and in Denmark, respectively. The results contributed to policy in different ways:

• ∎ An integrated view of the many types of data relevant for specific substance flows supported strategic and priority-oriented design of control measures.
• ∎ The analyses assisted in finding a consensus on the data, which is an important prerequisite for policy measures.
• ∎ MFA led to new insights and to changes in environmental policy (e.g. the abandonment of the aim of closed chlorine cycling in favour of controlling the most hazardous emissions).
• ∎ The analyses discovered new problems (e.g. the mercury stocks in chlorine plants).
• ∎ They also contributed to the discovery of n...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• PART 1: Concepts and ideas
• PART 2: Ideas in action
• PART 3: Future challenges
• Bibliography
• List of abbreviations
• Author biographies
• Index