Emerald City: The sustainable eco-polis of the future

Emerald city is a collection of the world’s most innovative buildings, utilities and initiatives into one imaginary eco-topia. CNNGO.com published this article were they looked for the best of what already exists or is in development, and integrated them in one city. This project, apart from giving a nice view to a possible sustainable future, serves also as a good list of "state of the art" in sustainability. It includes at least 22 categories of innovations and initiatives, among which: industrial ecology, smart grid, renewable energy, recycling, urban farming, and much more.

Read more: Welcome to Emerald City, sustainable eco-polis of the future! | CNNGo.com

IS/EID/EIN Track at the Sustainable Development Conference, Hong Kong 2010‏‏‏‏‏

Call for Papers: Sustainable Communities with - not despite - Industry: Industrial Symbiosis & Eco-industrial Development / Networking

The 16th Annual
International Sustainable Development Research Conference
Hong Kong, 30 May – 1 June, 2010
www.kadinst.hku.hk/sdconf10/indexin.html

“A New Agenda for Global Governance”

Track: Sustainable communities with - not despite - industry: industrial symbiosis & eco-industrial development / networking

Chaired by:
Abhishek Agarwal, Aberdeen Business School, The Robert Gordon University, UK: a.agarwal@rgu.ac.uk
Ms Tracy Casavant, President, Eco-Industrial Solutions, Canada: tracy@ecoindustrial.ca
Professor Yong Un Ban, Chungbuk National University, Korea: byubyu@cbu.ac.kr
Professor Geng Yong, Chair Professor on Circular Economy and Industrial Ecology, Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China: gengyong@iae.ac.cn

Overview

The last two decades have seen an ever increasing interest in Industrial Symbiosis (IS) / Eco-industrial Development (EID) / Eco-industrial Networking (EIN) by policy makers, industry leaders and academics alike. This has led to the implementation of IS programmes and development of eco-industrial parks / networks in many countries.

In attempting to encourage the adoption of industrial ecology (IE) principles such planned initiatives by Government have been supported by the use of a range of ‘new’ environmental policy instruments, with many reported corporate and environmental success stories to date. In addition to government policy and programmes, multi-stakeholder efforts have played a key role in the development of IS/EID/EIN initiatives. This provides a rich area of research, especially in examining the performance of such policy instruments, cross-sectoral partnerships and governance around IS/EID/EIN initiatives, and associated corporate strategies and programmes utilised by the international business community in contributing to broader Sustainable Development aspirations.

This Track seeks to attract high quality papers which aim to be both critical and reflective of recent IS/EID/EIN projects and policy initiatives around the globe. This is important for those of us who are keen to see IE/IS as a meaningful concept in the pursuit of sustainability rather than merely a public relations exercise for Government, Facilitators and Corporate Actors. Both theoretical and empirical papers are welcome, either in full or developmental form, in the following areas:
• Government Policy and Programmes to promote IS/EID/EIN:
- The Performance of New Environmental Policy Instruments e.g. Regulation, Market-based Instruments, and Voluntary Codes of Conduct
- Government involvement in promoting IS/EID/EIN initiatives
- Government-supported education and outreach
- Development of Performance Evaluation Indicators for Eco-industrial Parks/Networks
• Regional multi-stakeholder efforts to promote industrial sustainability
- Cross-sectoral partnerships and governance for IS/EID/EIN
- Regional government and other stakeholders’ role in the development of IS/EID/EIN initiatives
- Role of facilitators in IS/EID/EIN initiatives and success of the facilitation process
- Planning and development of eco-industrial parks / networks; land use planning
- Transformation of existing industrial parks into eco-industrial parks
- Transferability of IS/EID/EIN successful practices from one context (place) to another
• Cases from industry sectors / corporate actors
- IS/EID/EIN success/failure (case studies)
- The impact of IS/EID/EIN initiatives on Corporate / Environmental Performance and regional sustainability
- Reducing ecological / carbon / water footprint using IS/EID/EIN
• Tools and Techniques of IE/IS e.g. internet based resource / by-products matching system
• Evaluation tools and techniques for IS/EID/EIN projects, including environmental impact assessment and life cycle assessment

When submitting your abstract, please categorise it as TRACK “Sustainable communities with - not despite - industry: industrial symbiosis & eco-industrial development / networking” and THEME "Industrial symbiosis, eco-industrial parks and eco-industrial networking and regional sustainability"

Detailed information and link about how to submit an abstract is available at:
http://www.kadinst.hku.hk/sdconf10/abstract_submission.html

In addition to submitting abstract online, please send a copy of abstract by email to a.agarwal@rgu.ac.uk

Deadline for submitting abstracts: December 31, 2009

For further information please contact:
Abhishek Agarwal, Email: a.agarwal@rgu.ac.uk

Publication

Papers (accommodating the discussion at the conference) will be considered for publication in a special issue of a reputed journal.

Interview: Google on Industrial Ecology

Ever wondered what Google "thinks" about Industrial Ecology? Wonder no more. A smart little program called "Google Chat Bot" enables us to discuss with Google!

The program works in the following way: by entering three or four words, the system will search for this sentence at Google, find the next word and print that. Then it will remove the first word of the search string, add the found word and repeat.

By entering the words "Industrial Ecology" followed by a verb, Google continues the sentence letting us know what is the most popular understanding of IE in the web. In the following text, the verb used at each query is written in bold, and the sentence that Google Chat Bot generated is highlighted in red. The sentences are combined in a paragraph for easier reading. Keep in mind that Google is deep in wise and that many times in its answers it uses metaphors or riddles...

Google informs us that Industrial Ecology is inspired by biology but also draws on principles from different individual disciplines. Industrial ecology takes a systems view and enables industrial ecologists to tackle sustainability problems. In order to do that, industrial ecology uses the biological ecosystem as a model and a systems engineering approach for managing complexity.

Industrial Ecology was established on September ("Strategies for Manufacture" was published on September 1989) and has grown quickly in recent years. Google recognises IE's global importance by pointing out that it starts in the very centre of the world, while highlighting its additional role as a learning process.

Industrial Ecology is good for both the natural and the social environment since it gives us a way to save more animals while it lets consumers off the hook. It also benefits the economy since it can pay double dividends for business and it also looks for innovative solutions, thus boosting innovation

Google, referring to the history of Industrial Ecology stated that it had its roots in a religious response to environmental issues (the Gaia hypothesis triggered the emergence of some hippie religious movements). But it also highlighted the difficulties that IE faces in establishing its practices and ideas around the world by saying that IE takes place in a landscape called "a battlefield".

The discussion ended with Google revealing to us that IE is based on the true story of the three little pigs!!!

• For more discussions with Google visit the Google Chat Bot