276
The evidence reported in this chapter shows that the cooperation between government, academia and private sector in Portugal, based on industrial ecology principles and tools, has been able to signifi cantly improve waste management
performance in Portugal since the late 1990s, making the sector an important actor
of the green economy, by combining better environmental performance with economic growth and job creation, critical dimensions for enabling sustainable
development.
Keywords Waste • Industrial symbiosis • LCA • Hybrid input-output analysis •
Waste management policy
1 Introduction
Earlier works of industrial ecology placed strong emphasis in resource effi ciency
and waste minimization. The seminal paper by Frosch and Gallopoulos ( 1989 ) summarized the industrial ecosystem as one in which “the consumption of energy and
materials is optimized, waste generation is minimized and the effl uents of one process serve as the raw material for another process. Manufacturing processes in an
industrial ecosystem simply transform circulating stocks of materials from one
shape to another; the circulating stock decreases when some material or energy is
unavoidably lost, and it increases to meet the needs of a growing population.” The
authors argue that the traditional model of industrial activity, in which individual
manufacturing processes take in raw materials and generate products to be sold plus
waste to be disposed of, should be transformed into an industrial ecosystem model,
analogous to a biological ecosystem.
Industrial ecology is rooted in this ecological metaphor that provides a conceptual model for industrial development, based on improving the material interactions
in and between fi rms, within a certain geographical distribution or industrial cluster,
emulating ecosystems. Industrial systems would adopt principles such as cooperation, symbiosis (Ehrenfeld 2007 ), loop-closing (Graedel and Allenby 1995 ), diversity and systemic approaches (Lifset and Graedel 2002 ). Industrial ecology has long
evolved from a metaphorical approach to a broad transdisciplinary fi eld ( Ehrenfeld
and Gertler 1997 , Ehrenfeld 2004 ) that encompasses both conceptual approaches
(e.g. industrial symbiosis, loop closing, design for recycling) and tools (e.g. lifecycle assessment, materials and substance fl ow accounting, economic and physical
input-output based techniques), making it a rich discipline and ripe for interdisciplinary knowledge transfer.
This chapter explores how industrial ecology related concepts and tools were
used to support the design of waste management systems and policies in Portugal,
through a set of challenges in which the authors have been involved at Instituto
Superior Técnico (IST) of the University of Lisbon during their academic careers
and PhD studies and subsequently, for Lorena and Ribeiro, as consultants.
P. Ferrão et al.
The evidence reported in this chapter shows that the cooperation between government, academia and private sector in Portugal, based on industrial ecology principles and tools, has been able to signifi cantly improve waste management
performance in Portugal since the late 1990s, making the sector an important actor
of the green economy, by combining better environmental performance with economic growth and job creation, critical dimensions for enabling sustainable
development.
Keywords Waste • Industrial symbiosis • LCA • Hybrid input-output analysis •
Waste management policy
1 Introduction
Earlier works of industrial ecology placed strong emphasis in resource effi ciency
and waste minimization. The seminal paper by Frosch and Gallopoulos ( 1989 ) summarized the industrial ecosystem as one in which “the consumption of energy and
materials is optimized, waste generation is minimized and the effl uents of one process serve as the raw material for another process. Manufacturing processes in an
industrial ecosystem simply transform circulating stocks of materials from one
shape to another; the circulating stock decreases when some material or energy is
unavoidably lost, and it increases to meet the needs of a growing population.” The
authors argue that the traditional model of industrial activity, in which individual
manufacturing processes take in raw materials and generate products to be sold plus
waste to be disposed of, should be transformed into an industrial ecosystem model,
analogous to a biological ecosystem.
Industrial ecology is rooted in this ecological metaphor that provides a conceptual model for industrial development, based on improving the material interactions
in and between fi rms, within a certain geographical distribution or industrial cluster,
emulating ecosystems. Industrial systems would adopt principles such as cooperation, symbiosis (Ehrenfeld 2007 ), loop-closing (Graedel and Allenby 1995 ), diversity and systemic approaches (Lifset and Graedel 2002 ). Industrial ecology has long
evolved from a metaphorical approach to a broad transdisciplinary fi eld ( Ehrenfeld
and Gertler 1997 , Ehrenfeld 2004 ) that encompasses both conceptual approaches
(e.g. industrial symbiosis, loop closing, design for recycling) and tools (e.g. lifecycle assessment, materials and substance fl ow accounting, economic and physical
input-output based techniques), making it a rich discipline and ripe for interdisciplinary knowledge transfer.
This chapter explores how industrial ecology related concepts and tools were
used to support the design of waste management systems and policies in Portugal,
through a set of challenges in which the authors have been involved at Instituto
Superior Técnico (IST) of the University of Lisbon during their academic careers
and PhD studies and subsequently, for Lorena and Ribeiro, as consultants.
P. Ferrão et al.