Creating industrial ecosystems: a viable management strategy?
by Robert U. Ayres
International Journal of Technology Management (IJTM), Vol. 12, No. 5/6, 1996

Abstract: Industrial ecosystems, designed ''from scratch'' to imitate nature by utilizing the waste products of each component company as raw materials – or ''food'' – are an attractive theoretical idea. As yet they are mostly at the proposal stage. It is important to stress that process changes to take advantage of ''returns-to-closure'' (of the materials cycle) &ndash are very definitely not another version of ''end-of-pipe'' treatment of wastes. Is this an idea whose time has come? This paper examines a number of such proposals and considers the prerequisites for success. It appears that there are several: first, a fairly large scale of operation is required. This means that at least one first tier 'exporter' must be present to achieve the necessary scale. Second, at least one other major firm (or industrial sector) must be present locally to utilize the major waste of the exporter, after conversion to a useful form. Third, one or more specialized ''satellite'' firms will be required to convert the wastes of the first tier 'exporter' into useful raw materials for the consumer, and to convert the latter's wastes into marketable commodities, secondary inputs to other local firms, or final wastes for disposal. A final condition, of great importance (and difficult to achieve in practice) is that a reliable mechanism be established to ensure close and long-term technical cooperation – i.e. information sharing – among the participating firms. The guarantor of this cooperation must be either the first tier 'exporter' itself, a major bank, a major marketing organization, or a public agency. The detailed mechanisms by which it can be achieved in practice remain to be worked out.

Online publication date: Fri, 22-May-2009

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Technology Management (IJTM):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com