94
eco- industrial parks, clusters, and/or estates. When ideas come together from many
different places, traditions, and cultures, there are larger and smaller variations in
content and emphasis even as many institutions are embracing the notion of interfi rm resource sharing. The international business community has leaned toward
other expressions such as by-product synergy, a keystone of the US Business
Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD) with focus not only on interfi rm
resource reuse but also on intra-fi rm reuse (Mangan 2015, January 19, Personal
communication). The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has greatly popularized the
notion of the “circular economy” especially in business circles.
One of the early EIP pioneers, Ray Côté of Dalhousie University, recently
expressed his concern with “the number of researchers and practitioners who continue to equate eco-industrial parks with industrial symbiosis or seem to believe that
once industrial symbiosis has occurred within an industrial park, the latter can be
called an eco-industrial park” (Côté 2015, January 16, Personal Communication).
Côté perceives the EIP beginning with the land itself and the necessary understanding of the ecological services of the area where the park is to be situated. In this way,
changes to those services can be appropriately addressed—for example, if wetlands
will be compromised, planners could incorporate constructed or engineered wetlands. Industrial symbiosis , a less bounded spatial concept than EIP, focuses on
resource reuse and how to achieve it technically, economically, and behaviorally,
more than the physicality of any particular site, which of course is also very important (Lowitt 2015, January 20, Personal communication with Director of Devens
Enterprise Center).
According to Côté, even as the park management looks for symbiotic opportunities involving water, energy, and materials, other key elements of EIPs include, for
example, standards or guidelines for green building features, water cycling, reuse,
and landscaping. Especially when there are many small- and medium-sized companies in an EIP , then “scavenger and decomposer” operations can be encouraged to
fi ll many reuse niches across fi rms through “repair, rent, restore, reclaim, remanufacture, and recycle,” which become important components “of local circular economies” (Côté 2015, January 16, Personal Communication; Geng and Côté 2002 ).
3.4 Diffusion of Industrial Symbiosis
Now in its twelfth year, the annual Industrial Symbiosis Research Symposium,
building on smaller regional fora, has linked academics and practitioners in 1–2-day
meetings to discuss and exchange ideas in numerous locations around the globe
(Table 5.1 ). In addition, based on the bibliometric analysis presented in Part III, it is
possible to track, at least from the perspective of peer-reviewed scientifi c journals,
those articles in which individual countries received some of the focus of industrial
symbiosis papers (Fig. 5.3 ). By this measure, China has now received the most
attention in industrial symbiosis academic research and continues to grow rapidly.
The strong interest in China appears to be policy driven following establishment of
the program creating the Chinese National Demonstration EIPs and circular
M. Chertow and J. Park
eco- industrial parks, clusters, and/or estates. When ideas come together from many
different places, traditions, and cultures, there are larger and smaller variations in
content and emphasis even as many institutions are embracing the notion of interfi rm resource sharing. The international business community has leaned toward
other expressions such as by-product synergy, a keystone of the US Business
Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD) with focus not only on interfi rm
resource reuse but also on intra-fi rm reuse (Mangan 2015, January 19, Personal
communication). The Ellen MacArthur Foundation has greatly popularized the
notion of the “circular economy” especially in business circles.
One of the early EIP pioneers, Ray Côté of Dalhousie University, recently
expressed his concern with “the number of researchers and practitioners who continue to equate eco-industrial parks with industrial symbiosis or seem to believe that
once industrial symbiosis has occurred within an industrial park, the latter can be
called an eco-industrial park” (Côté 2015, January 16, Personal Communication).
Côté perceives the EIP beginning with the land itself and the necessary understanding of the ecological services of the area where the park is to be situated. In this way,
changes to those services can be appropriately addressed—for example, if wetlands
will be compromised, planners could incorporate constructed or engineered wetlands. Industrial symbiosis , a less bounded spatial concept than EIP, focuses on
resource reuse and how to achieve it technically, economically, and behaviorally,
more than the physicality of any particular site, which of course is also very important (Lowitt 2015, January 20, Personal communication with Director of Devens
Enterprise Center).
According to Côté, even as the park management looks for symbiotic opportunities involving water, energy, and materials, other key elements of EIPs include, for
example, standards or guidelines for green building features, water cycling, reuse,
and landscaping. Especially when there are many small- and medium-sized companies in an EIP , then “scavenger and decomposer” operations can be encouraged to
fi ll many reuse niches across fi rms through “repair, rent, restore, reclaim, remanufacture, and recycle,” which become important components “of local circular economies” (Côté 2015, January 16, Personal Communication; Geng and Côté 2002 ).
3.4 Diffusion of Industrial Symbiosis
Now in its twelfth year, the annual Industrial Symbiosis Research Symposium,
building on smaller regional fora, has linked academics and practitioners in 1–2-day
meetings to discuss and exchange ideas in numerous locations around the globe
(Table 5.1 ). In addition, based on the bibliometric analysis presented in Part III, it is
possible to track, at least from the perspective of peer-reviewed scientifi c journals,
those articles in which individual countries received some of the focus of industrial
symbiosis papers (Fig. 5.3 ). By this measure, China has now received the most
attention in industrial symbiosis academic research and continues to grow rapidly.
The strong interest in China appears to be policy driven following establishment of
the program creating the Chinese National Demonstration EIPs and circular
M. Chertow and J. Park