Thesis (Ph.D.)-- Lund University, International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics, 2003. / Title from title screen (viewed 26 Nov. 2003). Available also in print.

Student Number : 0313728F - MSc research report - School of Civil and Environmental Engineering - Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment / Human activity is characterised by the use of energy and materials to produce goods and services with wastes as by products. Population growth and development has increased the requirement of materials and energy which means more wastes. Industrial development has lead to a faster conversion of material and energy which means even more wastes. This has caused significant negative environmental impacts that are threatening natural resources and ecological balance from which the required materials are obtained. Developing countries are faced with the difficulty of balancing economic development and environmental protection. A development programme that is based on prioritising economic development at the expense of the environment is not sustainable. The main objective of this research is to investigate the potential of using industrial ecology principles to address the environmental problems of developing countries. This is done by using a case study of Matsapha Industrial Estate in Swaziland. The term industrial ecology is derived from an analogy to biological ecosystems, in which waste from one organism is food to another making the system sustainable because of the closed waste loop. Braden Allenby (1992) defines industrial ecology as: “Industrial Ecology may be defines as the means by which a state of sustainable development is approached and maintained. It consists of a systems view of human economic activity and its interrelationship with fundamental biological, chemical and physical systems with the goal of establishing and maintaining the human species at levels that can be sustained indefinitely, given continued economic, cultural and technological evolution”. Using a cross sectional data set, appropriate environmental performance indicators of the case study area were determined. Three broad categories of environmental performance indicators are used. These are: - Resource Use - Emissions - Management of Community Interactions The investigation of the opportunities of using industrial ecology principles in the case study area is done by setting up scenarios where the principles are applied. The results are then compared with established environmental performance indicators. The industrial ecology principles considered are: - Systems Approach - Industrial Symbiosis - Industrial metabolism - Integrated Approach - Diversity or Flexibility - Shared resources Of the six, five were applied. Industrial metabolism was not applied because of the scope of the research. The research indicates that the use industrial ecology principles do improve the environmental performance of the case study with some economic benefits. The research also revealed that industrial ecology improves the interaction between the three components of industrial ecosystems i.e. the industrial activity, the social and the ecological or environmental component thus establishing the foundation for sustainable development. It is also revealed that industrial ecology provides the means of moving towards closing the waste loop in a way that recognises the importance of balancing the economic objectives of industrial activities and the environmental objectives of the public sector as well as the social responsibility of both the industrial and public sector. The research recommends that industrial ecology principles be used to address the environmental problems of the case study area because of the many benefits that would be realised particularly the achievement of both economic and environmental objectives. The main recommendations of the research for the case study area are: - Identification of the Industrial Estate Manager. The recommended industrial estate manager in the case study area is the existing Matsapha Town Board. It is therefore not an individual but an institution. This institution would be the organising force that will facilitate and coordinate the interaction between the three components of the eco-industrial system. - Resource Recovery in the form of recycling be the eco-industrial theme because of the absence of an anchor industry. - Further research focused on industrial metabolism and use of various wastes as inputs for other industries

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Rutgers The State University of New Jersey - New Brunswick, 1992. / Director: Kathleen Keating. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Sydney, 2008. / Includes graphs and tables. Title from title screen (viewed December 17, 2008). Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technologies. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / The aim of this thesis is to support the evaluation of sustainable development strategies for industrial networks in the context of industrial ecology (IE). Industrial networks are a group of units which carry out, or contribute to, industrial activity, and are connected by material and energy flows, but also capital and information exchanges. The components of an industrial network encompass resource extraction, processing and refining, forming and assembly, use, disposal, as well as recycling and reprocessing. The motivation behind this research is the realisation that much of the current environmental system analysis focus within IE lacks a structured approach to considering: • system environment • dynamic nature of the system and its environment • economic and social impacts • the effect of uncertainty on analysis outcomes. It is argued in this thesis that current environmental analysis approaches used in IE can be improved in their capacity to capture the complexity of industrial systems, with the objective of promoting sustainable development. While IE emphasises the benefit of a systems approach to identifying environmental strategies in industry, analysis tools have to date not engaged extensively with important aspects such as the influence of system environment and dynamics on the viability of an environmental strategy, or with the economic or social impacts of industrial system development, which are equally important for sustainable development. Nor is the assessment of the effect of uncertainty on analysis outcomes an integral part of environmental analysis tools in IE. This is particularly significant when, in fact, the degree of uncertainty in assumptions and data used increases with the scope, and therefore the abstraction, of the system under consideration. IE will have to engage with the network and contextual complexities to a greater degree if it is to evolve from a concept to the application of its principles in practice. The main contribution of this thesis is therefore the development of a structured approach to analysing industrial networks for the purpose of identifying strategies to encourage sustainable development, while accounting for the complexity of the underlying system as well as the problem context. This analysis is intended to allow the identification of preferred network development pathways and to test the effectiveness of sustainable development strategies. A top-down, prescriptive approach is adopted for this purpose. This approach is chosen as the industrial network analysis is intended to identify how a network should develop, rather than focusing on how it could develop. Industrial networks are systems which are complex in both their structure and behaviour. This thesis also delivers a characterisation of these networks, which serves two purposes – quantifying key elements of structure and behaviour; and using this information to build a foundation for subsequent industrial network analysis. The value of such an approach can be seen in the following example. With a detailed understanding of individual network characteristics, both separately and collectively, it is possible to determine the source of issues, the means available to address them, any barriers that might exist, and the consequences of implementing any strategic interventions. The analysis approach proposed in this thesis is based on multi-criteria decisions analysis (MCDA), which, as a process, combines initial problem structuring and subsequent quantitative analysis stages. The tools employed within MCDA have been employed variously around considerations of sustainable development. Their value in this thesis is their integration within a rigorous analytical framework. Rigorous problem structuring is attractive as it helps elucidate the complexities of the system and its environment and is, by definition, designed to deal with multiple environmental social and economic criteria that would have to be considered to promote sustainable development. For the quantitative analysis, the industrial network analysis draws from existing analysis tools in IE, but predominately from other systems research disciplines, such as process systems engineering (PSE) and supply chain management (SCM). These fields, due to their maturity and practical focus, have invested a lot of research into system design and strategic planning, capturing system dynamics and uncertainty to ensure, within selected system constraints, that a proposed system or changes to a system are viable, and that the system is capable of achieving the stated objectives. Both PSE and SCM rely heavily on optimisation for system design and planning, and achieve good results with it as an analytical tool. The similarity between industrial networks and process systems / supply chains, suggests that an optimisation platform, specifically multi-objective dynamic optimisation, could be employed fruitfully for the analysis of industrial networks. This is the approach taken in this thesis. It is consistent with the “top down” approach advocated previously, which is deemed preferable for the identification and implementation analysis of strategic interventions. This enables the determination of a structure (design) that is “best” able to operate under future conditions (planning) with respect to the chosen sustainable development objectives. However, an analysis is only ever as good as its underlying data and assumptions. The complexity and scope of the industrial network and the challenge of articulating sustainable development target(s) give rise to significant uncertainties. For this reason a framework is developed within this thesis that integrates uncertainty analysis into the overall approach, to obtain insight into the robustness of the analysis results. Quantifying all the uncertainties in an industrial network model can be a daunting task for a modeller, and a decision-maker can be confused by modelling results. Means are therefore suggested to reduce the set of uncertainties that have to be engaged with, by identifying those which impact critically on model outcomes. However, even if uncertainty cannot be reduced, and the implementation of any strategy retains a degree of risk, the uncertainty analysis has the benefit that it forces an analyst to engage in more detail with the network in question, and to be more critical of the underlying assumptions. The analysis approach is applied to two case studies in this thesis: one deals with waste avoidance in an existing wood-products network in a large urban metropolis; the other with the potential for renewable energy generation in a developing economy. Together, these case studies provide a rich tableau within which to demonstrate the full features of the industrial network analysis. These case studies highlight how the context within which the relevant industrial network functions influences greatly the evolution of the network over time; how uncertainty is managed; and what strategies are preferred in each case in order to enhance the contribution of each network to sustainable development. This thesis makes an intellectual contribution in the following areas: • the characterisation of industrial networks to highlight sources of environmental issues, role the characteristics (could) play in the identification of (preferred) sustainable development strategies, and the need to explicitly consider these in a systems analysis. • the synthesis, adaptation and application of existing tools to fulfil the need for analysis tools in IE that can handle both contextual and system complexity, and address the above mentioned issues of lacking consideration of o system environment o dynamic nature of the system and its environment o economic and social impacts o the effect of uncertainty on analysis outcomes. • the development and demonstration of an industrial network analysis approach that o is flexible enough to model any industrial network at the inter-firm level, regardless of form and configuration of materials and products circulated, and depending on the existing network and the proposed strategies. o is able to encompass a wide range of environmental strategies, either individually or in combination depending on what best suits the situation, rather than focusing on any strategy in particular. o ensures long term viability of strategies, rather than short term solutions delivering incremental improvement. • the development of a comprehensive approach to capturing and assessing the effect of uncertainty on solution robustness for industrial network analysis, including the screening to determine the most important parameters, considering valuation and technical uncertainties, including future uncertainty. The industrial network analysis approach presented in this thesis looks more to how a network should develop (according to a set of sustainable development objectives), rather than how it may in actual fact develop. Consequently, the influence of agent interests and behaviour is not considered explicitly. This may be construed as a limitation of the industrial analysis approach. However, it is argued that the “top down” modelling approach favoured here is useful at a policy-making level. Here, for example, government instrumentalities, trade organisations and industry groupings, non-government organisations and community-based organisations are likely to be interested more in the performance of the network as a whole, rather than (necessarily) following the behaviour of individual agents within the network. Future work could well entertain the prospect of a mixed approach, in which the top-down approach of this thesis is complemented by a “bottom-up”, agent-based analysis. In this manner, it would be possible to give an indication of how attainable the identified industrial network development pathways are. Furthermore, the use of government incentives can be explored to assess if network development could approach the preferred development pathway which is identified using the methodology and results articulated in this thesis.

Doctor of Philosophy(PhD) / The aim of this thesis is to support the evaluation of sustainable development strategies for industrial networks in the context of industrial ecology (IE). Industrial networks are a group of units which carry out, or contribute to, industrial activity, and are connected by material and energy flows, but also capital and information exchanges. The components of an industrial network encompass resource extraction, processing and refining, forming and assembly, use, disposal, as well as recycling and reprocessing. The motivation behind this research is the realisation that much of the current environmental system analysis focus within IE lacks a structured approach to considering: • system environment • dynamic nature of the system and its environment • economic and social impacts • the effect of uncertainty on analysis outcomes. It is argued in this thesis that current environmental analysis approaches used in IE can be improved in their capacity to capture the complexity of industrial systems, with the objective of promoting sustainable development. While IE emphasises the benefit of a systems approach to identifying environmental strategies in industry, analysis tools have to date not engaged extensively with important aspects such as the influence of system environment and dynamics on the viability of an environmental strategy, or with the economic or social impacts of industrial system development, which are equally important for sustainable development. Nor is the assessment of the effect of uncertainty on analysis outcomes an integral part of environmental analysis tools in IE. This is particularly significant when, in fact, the degree of uncertainty in assumptions and data used increases with the scope, and therefore the abstraction, of the system under consideration. IE will have to engage with the network and contextual complexities to a greater degree if it is to evolve from a concept to the application of its principles in practice. The main contribution of this thesis is therefore the development of a structured approach to analysing industrial networks for the purpose of identifying strategies to encourage sustainable development, while accounting for the complexity of the underlying system as well as the problem context. This analysis is intended to allow the identification of preferred network development pathways and to test the effectiveness of sustainable development strategies. A top-down, prescriptive approach is adopted for this purpose. This approach is chosen as the industrial network analysis is intended to identify how a network should develop, rather than focusing on how it could develop. Industrial networks are systems which are complex in both their structure and behaviour. This thesis also delivers a characterisation of these networks, which serves two purposes – quantifying key elements of structure and behaviour; and using this information to build a foundation for subsequent industrial network analysis. The value of such an approach can be seen in the following example. With a detailed understanding of individual network characteristics, both separately and collectively, it is possible to determine the source of issues, the means available to address them, any barriers that might exist, and the consequences of implementing any strategic interventions. The analysis approach proposed in this thesis is based on multi-criteria decisions analysis (MCDA), which, as a process, combines initial problem structuring and subsequent quantitative analysis stages. The tools employed within MCDA have been employed variously around considerations of sustainable development. Their value in this thesis is their integration within a rigorous analytical framework. Rigorous problem structuring is attractive as it helps elucidate the complexities of the system and its environment and is, by definition, designed to deal with multiple environmental social and economic criteria that would have to be considered to promote sustainable development. For the quantitative analysis, the industrial network analysis draws from existing analysis tools in IE, but predominately from other systems research disciplines, such as process systems engineering (PSE) and supply chain management (SCM). These fields, due to their maturity and practical focus, have invested a lot of research into system design and strategic planning, capturing system dynamics and uncertainty to ensure, within selected system constraints, that a proposed system or changes to a system are viable, and that the system is capable of achieving the stated objectives. Both PSE and SCM rely heavily on optimisation for system design and planning, and achieve good results with it as an analytical tool. The similarity between industrial networks and process systems / supply chains, suggests that an optimisation platform, specifically multi-objective dynamic optimisation, could be employed fruitfully for the analysis of industrial networks. This is the approach taken in this thesis. It is consistent with the “top down” approach advocated previously, which is deemed preferable for the identification and implementation analysis of strategic interventions. This enables the determination of a structure (design) that is “best” able to operate under future conditions (planning) with respect to the chosen sustainable development objectives. However, an analysis is only ever as good as its underlying data and assumptions. The complexity and scope of the industrial network and the challenge of articulating sustainable development target(s) give rise to significant uncertainties. For this reason a framework is developed within this thesis that integrates uncertainty analysis into the overall approach, to obtain insight into the robustness of the analysis results. Quantifying all the uncertainties in an industrial network model can be a daunting task for a modeller, and a decision-maker can be confused by modelling results. Means are therefore suggested to reduce the set of uncertainties that have to be engaged with, by identifying those which impact critically on model outcomes. However, even if uncertainty cannot be reduced, and the implementation of any strategy retains a degree of risk, the uncertainty analysis has the benefit that it forces an analyst to engage in more detail with the network in question, and to be more critical of the underlying assumptions. The analysis approach is applied to two case studies in this thesis: one deals with waste avoidance in an existing wood-products network in a large urban metropolis; the other with the potential for renewable energy generation in a developing economy. Together, these case studies provide a rich tableau within which to demonstrate the full features of the industrial network analysis. These case studies highlight how the context within which the relevant industrial network functions influences greatly the evolution of the network over time; how uncertainty is managed; and what strategies are preferred in each case in order to enhance the contribution of each network to sustainable development. This thesis makes an intellectual contribution in the following areas: • the characterisation of industrial networks to highlight sources of environmental issues, role the characteristics (could) play in the identification of (preferred) sustainable development strategies, and the need to explicitly consider these in a systems analysis. • the synthesis, adaptation and application of existing tools to fulfil the need for analysis tools in IE that can handle both contextual and system complexity, and address the above mentioned issues of lacking consideration of o system environment o dynamic nature of the system and its environment o economic and social impacts o the effect of uncertainty on analysis outcomes. • the development and demonstration of an industrial network analysis approach that o is flexible enough to model any industrial network at the inter-firm level, regardless of form and configuration of materials and products circulated, and depending on the existing network and the proposed strategies. o is able to encompass a wide range of environmental strategies, either individually or in combination depending on what best suits the situation, rather than focusing on any strategy in particular. o ensures long term viability of strategies, rather than short term solutions delivering incremental improvement. • the development of a comprehensive approach to capturing and assessing the effect of uncertainty on solution robustness for industrial network analysis, including the screening to determine the most important parameters, considering valuation and technical uncertainties, including future uncertainty. The industrial network analysis approach presented in this thesis looks more to how a network should develop (according to a set of sustainable development objectives), rather than how it may in actual fact develop. Consequently, the influence of agent interests and behaviour is not considered explicitly. This may be construed as a limitation of the industrial analysis approach. However, it is argued that the “top down” modelling approach favoured here is useful at a policy-making level. Here, for example, government instrumentalities, trade organisations and industry groupings, non-government organisations and community-based organisations are likely to be interested more in the performance of the network as a whole, rather than (necessarily) following the behaviour of individual agents within the network. Future work could well entertain the prospect of a mixed approach, in which the top-down approach of this thesis is complemented by a “bottom-up”, agent-based analysis. In this manner, it would be possible to give an indication of how attainable the identified industrial network development pathways are. Furthermore, the use of government incentives can be explored to assess if network development could approach the preferred development pathway which is identified using the methodology and results articulated in this thesis.

Thesis (doctoral)--Joensuun yliopisto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Developing an approach that delivers improved environmental performance for metal cycles is the aim of this thesis. Integral to the sustainable use of metals is the need to reduce environmental impacts associated with the mining, refining and recycling activities that supply metal to the economy. Currently, the links between the location and duration of these activities, their resultant impacts and the responsible parties are poorly characterised. Consequently, the changes to technology infrastructure and material flow patterns that are required to achieve sustainable metal cycles remain unclear to both industry and government actors. To address this problem, a holistic two-part methodology is developed. Firstly, a reference schema is developed to address the complexity of structuring analyses of the material chain at different geographical and time scales. The schema identifies actors and system variables at each scale of analysis and guides the level of information detail and performance indicators to be used in material chain characterisation. Material chain characterisation involves modelling material and energy flows for current activities as a series of connected nodes and linking these flows to resultant environmental impacts. The approach identifies the material chain activity responsible for each environmental impact and makes trade-offs between impacts explicit. Sensitivity analysis of the models identifies the key variables that enhance performance. The influence of actors over these variables is assessed to target areas for improvement. This first part of the methodology is illustrated using case studies that assess the current performance of copper material chain configurations at different geographical scales within the reference schema. The analysis of global material and energy flows indicates that the majority of environmental burden in the copper material chain is attributable to primary refining of metal from ore. Modelling of the dominant primary refining technologies using region-specific information for ore grade, technology mix and energy mix reveals that the total environmental impact differs by factors of 2–10 between world regions. The study of refined copper imports to Europe from various regions outside of Europe reveals that lower global warming impacts are achieved at the expense of increased local impacts from the producing regions. Overall, only limited improvements are possible without investing in new technology infrastructure. Evaluation of an innovative copper refining technology finds that collaboration with clean energy suppliers reduces global warming impacts more than changing process design parameters. To better assess the local impacts that are directly controllable by the technology operator, a new indicator incorporating the stability of solid waste is developed. In the second part of the methodology, the link established between actors, their control over key system variables and resultant impacts is used to design preferred future configurations for the material chain. Dynamic models are developed to evaluate transition paths towards preferred futures for individual and collaborative action by industry in the context of externally changing variables (for example, increasing demand for copper and declining available ore grades). Both new copper technology infrastructure and new material flow patterns are assessed in transitions toward preferred futures for a case study of the United States. The improvements resulting from the introduction of new primary refining technology by individual actors are negated by increasing impacts from declining copper ore grades over time. Achieving a combined reduction in local and global environmental impacts requires collaboration between industry actors to immediately increase the recycling of secondary scrap. Significantly, this methodology links actor decisions with their impacts across scales to prompt accountability for current performance and guide useful collaborations between actors. The methodology then delivers a comprehensive assessment of the scale and timing of required interventions to achieve more sustainable metal cycles.

This thesis develops suitable approaches to conduct environment-related research in organisations, as well as systematic means for understanding the emergent phenomenon of ecological modernisation in industrialised societies. The study is organised in two distinct parts: While Part I deals with environment-related theories and practices in (and around) modern organisations, Part II situates such theories and practices in an analysis of the context of the European automobile industry. The research problem is defined through several stages. The research questions driving Part I are premised on the exploratory nature of the study, developed in an unfolding interplay between the review of the literature, the collection of secondary and (exploratory) primary data, and the analysis and interpretation of the data. As the initial question is answered by reviewing the literature and interpreting the primary and secondary data, another question arises from the process, which then requires further research. Part II of the study departs from a proposition based on ecological modernisation theory, that pro-active environmental practices in corporations are part of a broader emergent sociological phenomenon, typical of modern industrialised societies. It analyses a specific socio-technical context that, hypothetically, is undergoing such process - that of the European automobile industry. Hence, the development of Part II aims at answering the following principal research question: Why is the European automobile industry undergoing ecological modernisation? Analytically, the concept of automobile field is proposed to establish a link between the product (automobile) and the context embedding its systems of production and consumption (field). The exploratory character of the study implied that the most adequate research procedures were of a qualitative nature. A combination of grounded theory and reflexive methodology is used to orientate the overall research process, which introduces a novel approach for the triangulation of qualitative data. Together, the chapters forming Part II of the thesis answer the principal research question. The fundamental technologies of the current technological regime of the automobile, as well as the economic and environmental implications of this regime are analysed. Then, an analysis of selected pilot programs to develop and commercialise electric vehicles, as well as schemes for the management of end-of-life vehicles in the Western European context is developed. Through the interplay between data collection and analysis, the thesis designs an analytical framework, built upon contingent factors, as well as circuits of political ecology, that foster or inhibit ecological modernisation in the automobile field. The study showed that the auto industry has developed incremental technological innovations and practices that resemble the pre-requisites for ecological modernisation. Radical innovations, however, are more likely to be initiated by outsiders. The concepts inherited from the past and reproduced in the present practice of car design explains such a situation as one that imposes a specific set of technologies on car manufacturing that require high levels of investment in systems of production. Such design paradigm not only imposes high break-even points for most car models; they also result in vehicles with extremely low environmental performance and entail serious limitations for increasing recycling rates of non-metallic parts. The characteristics of ecological modernisation in the European automobile industry are used to evaluate whether this phenomenon is conducive to sustainable industrial development. As an implication of this analysis, the concluding chapter presents suggestions for the enhancement of ecological modernisation theory. Fallibility is proposed as both a source of reflection about the appropriation of knowledge and a principle that can be used for the definition of eco-modernising strategies and actions. The acceptance of fallibility as an immanent characteristic of human action is critical for the approximation of the countervailing theories of ecological modernisation and risk society. Finally, if ecological modernisation is expected to facilitate sustainable industrial development, radical technological innovations may be necessary. Such radicalism in technology may need, however, an incremental institutional reform of modern societies. Together, radical technological innovations and incremental institutional reform constitute the concept of radical reformism, which is suggested for enhancement of the ecological modernisation theory, as well as for the development of its normative programmes.