Abstract

Advanced technologies such as gasifier/gas turbine systems for electric power generation and fuel cells for transportation make it possible for biomass to provide a substantial share of world energy in the decades ahead, at competitive costs. While biomass energy industries are being launched today using biomass residues of agricultural and forest product industries, the largest potential supplies of biomass will come from plantations dedicated to biomass energy crops. In industrialized countries these plantations will be established primarily on surplus agricultural lands, providing a new source of livelihood for farmers and making it possible eventually to phase out agricultural subsidies. The most promising sites for biomass plantations in developing countries are degraded lands that can be revegetated. For developing countries, biomass energy offers an opportunity to promote rural development. Biomass energy grown sustainably and used to displace fossil fuels can lead to major reductions in carbon dioxide emissions at zero incremental cost, as well as greatly reduced local air pollution through the use of advanced energy conversion and end-use technologies. The growing of biomass energy crops can be either detrimental or beneficial to the environment, depending on how it is done.

Biomass energy systems offer much more flexibility to design plantations that are compatible with environmental goals than is possible with the growing of biomass for food and industrial fiber markets. There is time to develop and put into place environmental guidelines to ensure that the growing of biomass is carried out in environmentally desirable ways, before a biomass energy industry becomes well established.

Abstract

A wide disparity exists in the consumption of the world's product between the North and the South. Countries in the South cannot expect to follow the same development path as have those in the industrialized countries of the North. Alternative paths must be identified and followed.

Introduction

Global industrialization over the past 200 years since the Industrial Revolution has followed a relatively similar pattern in country after country. The so-called developing countries of the South are continuing to follow the path of the industrialized or developed countries of the North. Even the very terms “developing” and “developed” connote two stages of industrial development, with the transition from developing to developed occurring when a country has achieved a certain level of industrialization.

There is, however, a real question as to whether the earth and its resources can sustain the transition of all the world's developing countries into developed or industrialized countries, particularly considering energy and other nonrenewable resource use and also waste production. This chapter outlines the consequences of present levels of industrial waste and energy consumption, as projected into the future. It suggests that present levels and patterns of consumption and industrialization in the developed countries are inappropriate and indeed impossible for the developing countries to follow. Hence it will be necessary to look at new and alternative technologies, industries, and development paths in order for the poor countries of the South to offer a better quality of life to their present and future generations.

The world's population, at present just over 5 billion people, could double within the next 40 years, and could stabilize at roughly 14 billion people (base case) or much higher if fertility rates decline more slowly (Figure 1). The fastest population growth is in urban areas, particularly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Abstract

Some consumer products are now being designed specifically to reduce life-cycle environmental impacts. Progress is being made in closing the materials flow loops in industrial economies; examples include firms' consumer product initiatives for single-use cameras, beverage containers, and motor vehicles. Innovative research arrangements, such as cooperative industrial partnerships, are important in helping competing firms to enhance environmentally conscious manufacturing.

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate the increased understanding and application of industrial ecology principles to the design, development, and manufacturing of component parts, product systems, and industrial megasystems. Some specific examples have been selected to highlight the progress that is being made toward industrial ecology in the manufacturing and use of consumer products.

Implementing Industrial Ecology

To successfully develop and implement closed-loop industrial ecology systems, this approach must be incorporated into one's thinking. For example, during product and process design, validation, and improvement, engineers traditionally make disciplined decisions based on such factors as design for manufacturability and design for assembly. Now, with the support of industry's management, design for environment (including design for disassembly, design for separability, and design for recyclability) has become another important checkpoint.

Besides the engineer's responsibility for environmentally responsible products and processes, a critical contribution to the success of any consumer-oriented program is acceptance and support by the general public. It is essential for the public to understand these concepts and become involved in making the process work, particularly as political and regulatory considerations come into play.

Abstract

Research over the past 20 years has shown that the relationship between energy use and economic growth is not linear, as previously thought. These assessments are extended by analyzing the historical relationship between economic output and emissions of carbon dioxide for different countries. Carbon intensities are shown to differ widely, even among countries with similar levels of industrial activity. In industrial economies carbon intensities have, in general, continued to fall, whereas trends in some poorer, less stable economies of the south have been more chaotic.

The Need for New Measures of Development

Throughout history, human societies have organized themselves in diverse ways to meet the needs and wants of their members. Since World War II, a paradigm of development has evolved which has focused entirely on the economic component of human activities while largely ignoring many environmental and social consequences. As an exception, Western development assistance during the 1970s concentrated on assisting “the poorest of the poor” in developing countries through rural development projects which sought to address the basic human needs of the rural poor (Morss and Morss, 1986). More recently, the World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) has focused attention on “sustainable development” that emphasizes the interrelationship between the environment and economic development. It has been difficult to provide an operational measure that effectively illustrates this useful concept in practice (Lele, 1991). In this chapter we suggest an approach that links traditional economic measures with their environmental consequences, and we illustrate the methodology by examining the specific example of the relationship between economic development and fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions.

Although only about one-fifth of the world's present population is firmly imbedded in an industrial economy, development is to a large extent measured by the degree of industrialization a society has achieved.

Abstract

The industrial ecology debate is examined in terms of economic games between firms and their employees. On the one hand, investments for better industrial ecology are subject to ‘incentive-compatibility’ problems that could stymie their implementation; on the other hand, a great deal of improvement may be achievable by taking advantage of existing win–win situations (‘free lunches’), i.e., changes that improve both economic growth and the environment. Moreover, properly assessing the economics of industrial ecology requires a careful treatment of dynamic issues. For example, the total cost of pollution abatement becomes dependent on the historical sequence of regulation.

Descriptively, industrial ecology is the study of the interactions among industries and between industries and their environment; it seeks to understand what industry is doing to itself and to the environment in which it operates. Prescriptively, some authors have stated, industrial ecology seeks to ‘optimize’ the total materials cycle from virgin material, to finished material, to component, to product, to waste byproduct, and to ultimate disposal. Factors to be ‘optimized’ include resources, energy, and capital. Prescriptive industrial ecology advocates a deliberate restructuring of industrial activity to achieve this optimization. The nature of this optimization, however, is not as simple as it first might seem. Does ‘optimization’ imply minimizing resource use, minimizing environmental degradation, or ensuring that economic subsystems are environmentally sustainable? And what about a firm's profits? Are they also to be optimized or are they to be maximized? Each of these objectives leads to a different pattern of input use and production (see chapters by Graedel and Socolow in this volume).

Abstract

The implementation of industrial ecology often involves choices among differing materials or technologies, each of which embodies a set of potential impacts on raw materials supplies, energy use in manufacture and in service, and air, water, and soil quality. Reasoned choices among product and process options can only be made if impacts are prioritized, a task that has received insufficient attention to date and that must be done by cooperative efforts among a number of interested parties. Several prioritization efforts are reviewed and compared with recommendations for optimal approaches to prioritization in industrial ecology.

Introduction

All industrial activities have some effect on the external environment. Energy and raw materials are consumed, materials are transformed, byproducts are generated, and some degree of waste is produced. Many of the impacts of industrial activity on the environment can be eliminated by thoughtful product and process design and execution. At some point, however, the straightforward actions have all been taken, and choices between impacts present themselves. Product designers, for example, may want to consider whether a particular metal, a plastic, or a composite would have the lowest environmental impacts. It is here that prioritizing impacts becomes vital.

Such prioritization cannot be accomplished by industry alone. Rather, industrial efforts must ultimately be related to larger societal efforts concerning risk comparison and prioritization. The participation of the community of environmental scientists is needed to define and evaluate the different types of risks posed by different environmental hazards. Broader public participation is needed to weigh the relative importance of different types of impacts (human health, ecosystem, and economic), which occur over different time scales, and about which there are different degrees of scientific uncertainty.

Abstract

Methane is a powerful greenhouse-forcing gas, and its main anthropogenic sources arise from leaks in natural gas distribution networks, landfills, and sewage treatment facilities. A new portable device for detecting and monitoring urban methane fluxes is described. Once detected, leaks can often be cheaply prevented, thus reducing costs and reducing urban carbon emissions. The redesign of cities to optimize industrial and domestic carbon metabolisms is suggested.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions will be a primary task for the field of industrial ecology. Many nations have agreed to the principle of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide emissions related to fossil fuel combustion. The Convention on Climate Change, endorsed by 153 countries at the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in June 1992, requires industrial countries to develop national emission limits and emission inventories for greenhouse gases. Although the document signed at UNCED lacks emissions reduction targets and timetables, it embodies the goal of returning greenhouse gas emissions to ‘earlier levels’ by the turn of the century (Parson et al., 1992). Actions pledged by some industrial countries, principally in Western Europe, have called for either a freeze or a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2000 or soon thereafter. In February 1991, the U.S. government proposed that a comprehensive framework for greenhouse gases would be preferable to focusing on carbon dioxide. At present, the entire process of reaching an international consensus is bogged down in a mire of disagreements over goals, targets, timetables, and equity issues (e.g., Collins, 1991).

Abstract

Global environmental pollution is here defined to include widespread, low-level increases in environmental concentrations of toxic substances; the net effects of a patchwork of regional pollution problems; and the increase in ultraviolet radiation (UV-B) due to decreases in stratospheric ozone. Current understanding of the effects of global pollution on ecosystems is poor, especially for low-level, widespread contamination by toxic substances. A research agenda is proposed to focus on understanding the sublethal effects of toxic substances, the mechanisms of tolerance and adaptation, the relationship of elevated tissue levels of pollutants to health consequences for the organism, and the behavior and effects of toxic substances in complex media, such as in sediments and soils.

Introduction

It is well known that toxic substances have the potential to harm ecological systems. However, the role of such substances as agents of global, rather than regional, change is poorly understood. Do toxic substances (and the practices that introduce them) simply cause a patchwork of regional insults, or do they harm the biosphere in ways that have profound global implications? Are subtle global impacts more important than acute but localized ones? Are the effects of toxic substances significant in comparison to effects attributable to other agents of global change? These questions cannot be answered in depth until advances are made in the science of ecotoxicology.

This chapter examines the most critical scientific barriers to answering the questions posed above. First, characteristics of global pollution are developed. Second, scientific questions that are vital for an understanding of both global and regional pollution problems are discussed and linkages described. Finally, priorities for global ecotoxicology are proposed.

Abstract

The high energy intensity of the Russian economy has made it one of the world's largest emitters of atmospheric carbon. Macroeconomic models are used to assess the costs of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in Russia. The costs would be high, and would require major structural changes in the Russian economy.

Introduction

Growth in global fossil fuel consumption has led to the degradation of the atmosphere. Two particularly important strategies to counter these negative environmental trends may be identified: (1) a reduction of the energy intensity of the economy (the ratio of total energy consumption to gross national product, or GNP) and (2) a decrease of the share of energy consumption associated with fossil fuels, especially coal.

In the United States, Japan, and several other industrialized countries during the past two decades, energy consumption per unit of GNP has decreased on average by 1% to 2% annually. In the USSR and other countries where industrialization is in its initial phases, however, energy intensity has declined at a much slower rate. By 1990, consumption of primary energy per unit of GNP in the USSR was approximately 2.2 times higher than in the United States and 3 times higher than in Western Europe and Japan.

At least half of the reduction in energy intensity achieved in the United States and Japan can be attributed to structural changes in the economy that did not occur in the USSR (Kononov et al., 1992).

Government interventions in the marketplace are often controversial and problematic, especially for an objective as bold as ‘eco-restructuring.’ The five chapters in this part of the book address challenging public policy issues related to industrial ecology. Here we survey the range of policy options and strategies for implementation.

The major instruments by which governments can influence economic activity are tax and regulatory policies: corporate and personal income taxes, excise taxes, subsidies, rate of return regulations, labor laws, and standards for processes, products, and equipment. Governments may also use advertising, education, moral suasion, or signaling. The list of policy options is essentially the same in all countries. But there are differences related to degree and pattern of industrialization that merit some elaboration.

Advanced Industrial Economies

In the advanced industrialized world, the 1970s represented a decade of environmental regulation, spearheaded by passage of the U.S. National Environmental Policy Act in 1970. The 1980s marked a shift in emphasis from command and control regulation toward fiscal incentives and market mechanisms, designed to internalize environmental externalities, as embodied in the sulfur emissions trading provisions of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The 1990s may turn out to be a decade in which firms and communities become increasingly proactive in seeking environmental improvements, with less micromanagement by government. See the chapter by Andrews, ‘Policies to Encourage Clean Technologies,’ for a survey of current policies in key members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and that by Griefahn, ‘Initiatives in Lower Saxony to Link Ecology to Economy,’ for a closer look at such policies.

Abstract

As ‘eco-restructuring’ commences, new elements in our waste management infrastructure should be created. These include a redefinition of product types to acknowledge their life-cycle environmental impacts; reallocation of responsibilities between producers and consumers for these products; product redesign for environmental compatibility; source-separation sites or ‘waste supermarkets,’ and accessible repositories or ‘waste parking lots.’

Where We Need to Go

Industry has traditionally focused on production rather than waste management. Over time this has led to the creation of chemicals and products for which no environmentally sound method of disposal exists. Large-scale production has led in turn to significant waste disposal problems. In order to shift from a primitive, low-efficiency type I industrial ecology (see Graedel, this volume) to something more sustainable, a new infrastructure for waste management is required.

Marketplace norms today define products on a spectrum from ‘consumable’ to ‘durable,’ depending on their useful lifetimes. However, to give prominence to environmental factors, it is useful to classify products according to their life-cycle, cradle-to-grave impacts. The crucial distinction is between consumable products and service products.

Consumable products, such as washing powder or food, are purchased to be consumed, i.e., converted by chemical reaction into energy and byproducts. They are normally put out into the natural environment after only one use. Service products, by contrast, are not consumed; rather they provide some service over and over again. Automobiles, television sets, and washing machines are examples of products providing the services of transportation, entertainment, and cleaning. Thinking prescriptively, an ‘eco-restructured’ economy should differentiate its treatment of consumable products and service products.

Exploring Industrial Ecology

People are great rearrangers of the earth. Metals that have been locked away in the veins of rocks over the eons of prehistory are mined, freed from their oxide or sulfide drabness, and allowed to shine or cut or channel electrons for our pleasure, for a few decades at most, before being dispersed without plan in soils and streams. Porous sediments more than a kilometer below ground, soaked with oil or laden with natural gas, are penetrated by drill holes to release their burnable contents; people are provided mobility or comfort for a brief moment by the energy accompanying the oxidation of these fuels, and in less than a century the global atmosphere registers five molecules of carbon dioxide for every four that were there before. Chemicals that never existed in the history of our planet are synthesized for the killing of weeds or insects, or for the cooling of transformers. Radioactive isotopes that had decayed to oblivion early in our planet's history are recreated, as the fission of uranium provides another source of electricity and heat. Industrial ecology is a metaphor for looking at our civilization through such lenses.

The metaphor of industrial ecology also leads us to look at interrelationships. The interrelationships among producers and consumers determine what becomes waste and what is usable, and how the “natural” is combined with the “synthetic.” Industrial ecology explores reconfigurations of industrial activity in response to knowledge of environmental consequences.

Abstract

A key theme of industrial ecology is that environmental and economic policy linkages must be established for real progress to be made on both fronts. The government of Lower Saxony is integrating economic and environmental policy using targeted economic development funds, environmental levies, public sector procurement, corporate environmental accounting requirements, and trade fairs.

One of the primary aims of the government of Lower Saxony is the ecological reorganization of industry. We are abandoning the principle of remedial environmental protection, which has proved to be more and more expensive and inefficient. Instead of ‘end-of-the-pipe’ technologies, which only cure the symptoms, we require integrated technologies and processes which prevent environmental damage from occurring in the first place.

This means, however, that economy and ecology should no longer be viewed as conflicting issues. Only an economy which switches over to environmentally friendly products and processes secures the basis for its own existence in the long term. The current economic principle of production, consumption, disposal, and rehabilitation is a vicious circle that has to be broken. A simple ‘Carry on as usual!’ is irresponsible and finally results in ecological disaster.

Thus the responsibility for the protection of the environment must be transferred more than at present to companies and should not—as is still often taken for granted—be borne by the public.

Ecology Funds

The government of Lower Saxony has unanimously decided to provide direct financial support for worthwhile approaches to an ecological restructuring of industry. Thus, associated with a fund for promoting economic development, we have set up a special ecology fund, jointly managed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of the Environment.