xix
approaches but recognise the need to develop the framework further and to recognise and operate within absolute sustainability limits rather than working to achieve
incremental improvements. This places their approach squarely within the framework of Fig. 1 . They see the planetary boundaries approach initiated by Rockström
et al. (2009) as the basis for conceptual developments and practical actions, to be
developed by commercial organisations working with the academic industrial ecology community.
Chapter 16 by Kieren Mayers complements Hill’s Chap. ( 13 ) by looking at the
practical implications of product-based environmental legislation. Mayers discusses
how producers address regulations concerning use of hazardous substances in their
supply chains, energy effi ciency of products during use and the management of
products at end of life. In this chapter Mayers draws on his wide experience of
working at Sony Computer Entertainment and introduces the reader to the reality of
the challenges faced in the industry. He gives a frank assessment of the progress that
legislation has made towards reducing the environmental impacts of products across
their life cycles and stresses that producers are faced with administratively and
logistically complex challenges.
Chapter 17 , by Kirstie McIntyre and John A. Ortiz, returns to the theme of the
circular economy discussed by Stahel and Clift in Chap. 7 , and for which Hill set
out the policy landscape with reference to the UK in Chap. 13 . McIntyre and Ortiz
discuss how a multinational corporation, Hewlett Packard, operationalise the circular economy in their global supply chains. They highlight the importance of placing
customers centrally in the system and of viewing them as users rather than consumers. This links with the concept of the ‘sharing’ economy and the social and solidarity economy as discussed by Sahakian in Chap. 10 .
In Chap. 18 , Roland Geyer looks at the automobile through the lens of industrial
ecology. Increasingly, decision-makers are looking for a new paradigm for the service of personal mobility. The literature is voluminous on how to make cars less
unsustainable and whether the internal combustion engine should be supplanted by
other technologies, including batteries and fuel cells. Lightweighting and end-oflife recycling are further approaches to reducing the impacts of automobiles. The
basic question, which Geyer uses as his framework to assess their potential, is the
extent to which possible new technologies would reduce rather than just shift the
environmental impacts of personal transport.
Finally, in Chap. 19 , Malcolm Bailey and Andrew Gadd review the practical
application of industrial symbiosis (see Chertow, Chap. 5 ) in a major industrial
cluster, at Humberside in North East England. The scope for industrial symbiosis
applied to existing plants has been exploited, by both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’
initiatives, and the savings in generation of waste and greenhouse gases are impressive. Even larger potential savings have been identifi ed, but they would require symbiotic interrelationships to be designed in, with installations co-located in
eco-industrial parks. Bailey and Gadd raise some practical engineering problems
that need to be addressed systematically, complementing the less technological
issues raised by Chertow and Park in Chap. 5 . This returns us to one of the themes
Introduction
approaches but recognise the need to develop the framework further and to recognise and operate within absolute sustainability limits rather than working to achieve
incremental improvements. This places their approach squarely within the framework of Fig. 1 . They see the planetary boundaries approach initiated by Rockström
et al. (2009) as the basis for conceptual developments and practical actions, to be
developed by commercial organisations working with the academic industrial ecology community.
Chapter 16 by Kieren Mayers complements Hill’s Chap. ( 13 ) by looking at the
practical implications of product-based environmental legislation. Mayers discusses
how producers address regulations concerning use of hazardous substances in their
supply chains, energy effi ciency of products during use and the management of
products at end of life. In this chapter Mayers draws on his wide experience of
working at Sony Computer Entertainment and introduces the reader to the reality of
the challenges faced in the industry. He gives a frank assessment of the progress that
legislation has made towards reducing the environmental impacts of products across
their life cycles and stresses that producers are faced with administratively and
logistically complex challenges.
Chapter 17 , by Kirstie McIntyre and John A. Ortiz, returns to the theme of the
circular economy discussed by Stahel and Clift in Chap. 7 , and for which Hill set
out the policy landscape with reference to the UK in Chap. 13 . McIntyre and Ortiz
discuss how a multinational corporation, Hewlett Packard, operationalise the circular economy in their global supply chains. They highlight the importance of placing
customers centrally in the system and of viewing them as users rather than consumers. This links with the concept of the ‘sharing’ economy and the social and solidarity economy as discussed by Sahakian in Chap. 10 .
In Chap. 18 , Roland Geyer looks at the automobile through the lens of industrial
ecology. Increasingly, decision-makers are looking for a new paradigm for the service of personal mobility. The literature is voluminous on how to make cars less
unsustainable and whether the internal combustion engine should be supplanted by
other technologies, including batteries and fuel cells. Lightweighting and end-oflife recycling are further approaches to reducing the impacts of automobiles. The
basic question, which Geyer uses as his framework to assess their potential, is the
extent to which possible new technologies would reduce rather than just shift the
environmental impacts of personal transport.
Finally, in Chap. 19 , Malcolm Bailey and Andrew Gadd review the practical
application of industrial symbiosis (see Chertow, Chap. 5 ) in a major industrial
cluster, at Humberside in North East England. The scope for industrial symbiosis
applied to existing plants has been exploited, by both ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’
initiatives, and the savings in generation of waste and greenhouse gases are impressive. Even larger potential savings have been identifi ed, but they would require symbiotic interrelationships to be designed in, with installations co-located in
eco-industrial parks. Bailey and Gadd raise some practical engineering problems
that need to be addressed systematically, complementing the less technological
issues raised by Chertow and Park in Chap. 5 . This returns us to one of the themes
Introduction