Eco-Industrial Development: An Overview

Eco-Industrial Development (EID) is an implementation strategy that unifies several environmental management strategies and tools. Based on the concept of industrial ecology, EID considers each stakeholder that directly or indirectly affects the environment, economic and social performance of an industrial community or network in a contiguous area.

The EID framework enables a company to benefit from the systematic approach towards environmental management. EID looks at all aspects within and outside an industrial estate, such as health and safety, environmental compliance, labor issues, design and architecture, infrastructure, community relations, and locator associations.

The beauty of EID is that an industrial estate can implement this framework based on it’s own needs. Its implementation can be phased to suit the existing environmental management plan of an industrial estate and its locators.

The final goal of EID is to transform traditional industrial estates into Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs). EIPs incorporate ecological principles and are more economically and environmentally efficient reducing the cost of expensive waste disposal, treatment, and fines brought about by the lack of environmental management techniques. It also builds community among companies enabling them to share ideas and resources for their benefit and that of the industrial estate.

There are several ways to turn industrial estates into EIPs, these are classified into four main areas:

1. Management through standards:

• Provision of environmental services for industries
• Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)
• Install technology assessment systems
• Use of environment management systems and ISO 14000 accreditation
• Conduct of energy audits & standards
• Implementation of supply-chain management
• Set discharge & emission limits, as well as safety standards
• Standard emergency preparedness scheme
• Voluntary reporting through the Global Reporting Initiative

2. Management through infrastructure:

• Efficient energy supply
• Common effluent plants
• Waste collection and disposal
• Hazardous waste treatment centre
• Common chemical storage
• Waste exchange, recycling centre, effluent and water recovery
• Estate-based emergency services
• Public transport
• Landscaping and conservation area
• Recreation and social services

3. Management through design:

• Minimizing the ecological footprint through efficient building design
• Green buildings, green architecture
• Landscaping and conservation area
• Greening the supply-chain
• Integration into eco-cities
• Efficient systems approach
  

4. Management through co-operation:

• Waste exchange
• Product-cycle symbiosis
• Transport and logistics
• Linked emergency services
• Collective landscaping programme
• Local cleaner production centre
• Information exchange through an EID Information Center
• Locator and managers’ association
• Networking through forums, seminars and trainings