11:015:414 Industrial Ecology
1/9/00
LINKS
GENERAL IE
The President's Council on Sustainable Development presents a 1997 snapshot of relevant activities in the U.S. including extended product responsibility, enhanced environmental performance in industry, greater energy efficiency, eco-industrial parks, the role of NGOs and higher ed, the role of the federal government, and the performance of federal government institutions. Lots of mini-cases or examples.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/PSCD/Publications/Snapshot.html
The Interagency Working Group on Industrial Ecology, Material and Energy Flows: Materials and Energy Flows Report; Case Studies; Federal Data Inventory. This government report, reflecting the work of a White House-based task force, is meaty enough to serve as an "alternative text." It includes some interesting case studies and an inventory of data that might be useful to one or more of the team projects.
http://www.oit.doe.gov/mattec/img.htm
The Environment, Health and Safety section of AT&T is heavily invested in industrial ecology and accordingly it website provides a variety of resources including a useful discussion of the IE concept, and links to other sites including the European platform for green products, services and information and the (web) Journal of Industrial Ecology published by the Yale University School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
Professor Clinton Andrews teaches a graduate-level IE course at the Bloustein School. This is the course webpage. It includes the course outline and readings, a discussion of IE and policy (a special interest of Prof. Andrews), information about the IE of Trenton, NJ which is the subject of a research project, and a very extensive list of IE-relevant links to other websites.
http://www.berlin.rutgers.edu/andrews/courses/651.htm
An IE and Technological Evolution slide show from the University of Virginia:
http://vlead.mech.virginia.edu/classes/lecture/tmp4/sldoo1.htm
The American Association of Geographers provides a useful array of supporting and background materials for course on IE including a collection of definitions of IE.
http://www.aag.org/HDGC/www/industry/supporting/supmattoc.html
Indigo Development, a commercial consulting company "selling" Competitive Industries in Sustainable Communities through Industrial Ecology. Their webpage ties IE into systems science.
http://www.indigodev.com/overview/Systems.html
National Pollution Prevention Center for Higher Education based at the University provides an array of materials including another "alternative text" and a bunch of case studies including a detailed account of MacDonald's decision to abandon "foam."
http://www.umich.edu/~nppcpub/resources/compendia
ENVIROLINK is a non-profit online community uniting organizations and volunteers with a information services including links to other organizations such as Green Marketplace, and the Sustainable Business Network (see below).
The Global Environment & Technology Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting the development and use of innovative technology to achieve sustainable development by bringing together industry, government and communities together. Website includes information of green technology, energy efficient buildings, remote sensing applications, technology transfer for waste reduction, ISO 14000, and other topics.
MIT's Technology, Business & Environment Program website includes the Gallery of Environmentally Preferable Goods and Services, a data base.
MIT's Alliance for Global Sustainability is a consortium of MIT, the University of Tokyo and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology aimed at addressing problems affecting the "global commons." It includes a link to MIT's Global System for Sustainable Development which is described as "a quality controlled and highly cross-referenced index to some of the best resources and materials on sustainability to be found on the internet organized in an intuitive conceptual framework."
http://curricula.mit.edu/CEI/Research/AGS
POLLUTION PREVENTION/WASTE REDUCTION/ENERGY EFFICIENCY
see National Pollution Prevention Center for Higher Education, above
Natural Resources Defense Council presents a detailed report on its collaborative project with the Dow Chemical Company and local community activists to reduce pollution at Dow's Midland Michigan Chemical Plant.
http://www.nrdc.org/nrdcpro/msri/msriinx.html
Dow Chemical and its Environment, Health and Safety section report on the company wide initiative called 'Responsible Care' that seems to have resulted from the NRDC collaboration. It consists of a list of business principles and practices.
http://www.dow.com/environment/care_infor.html
Sustainable Business Network's mission -- related to Envirolink (above) -- is to promote socially and environmentally business practices. The site offers may resources and links on topics related to IE including pollution prevention and energy efficiency and offers a number of interesting case studies including that of Lasco Bathware, a plumbing fixture manufacturer that uses a lot of VOCs including styrene resins. The case describes its grant of a P4 whole facility permit by State of Washington regulators in exchange for adopting a range of pollution prevention practices and community relations approaches. Check it out.
INFORM, is a not-for-profit research and education organization that examines business practices as well as the activities of ordinary citizen that harm the environment and suggests ways to improve those practices. Garbage is a particular focus of attention.
National Environmental Information Resources Center (NEIRC) provides access to a broad range of environmental information including pollution prevention and environmental conscious manufacturing.
http://gwis.circ.gwu.edu/~greenu/index2.html
National Pollution Prevention Roundtable/ Pollution Prevention Yellow Pages is a directory of state and local pollution prevention programs.
http://es.inel.gov/program/regional/rndtable/index.html
U.S. EPA Energy Star Program provides links to all energy star programs: Green Lights, Appliances, Office, Residential & Commercial Buildings.
http://www.epa.gov/energystar.html
U.S. EPA Pollution Prevention Program works with trade groups to develop web sites for small businesses that include regulations, lists of vendors, primers of p/p techniques, and bulletin boards so that companies can talk to each other.
Printing companies: http://www.pneac.org
Agriculture: http://www.epa.gov/envirosense/oeca/ag/aghmpg.html
THE SUSTAINABLE UNIVERSITY
The New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (of which RU is a member) is a state-wide partnership aimed at 'greening' educational institutions. Among the useful things to be found on this site is a Campus Sustainability Selected Indicators Snapshot, essentially a 2-page survey form for assessing a college campus (it is a lot less simple then it at first appears!) that has wider applicability.
http://www.ramapo.edu/njheps.index.html
Electronic Green Journal (University of Idaho-based) issue of December, 1998 on sustainability in higher ed. focuses on faculty and curriculum.
http://egj.lib.uidaho.edu/egjo9/chase1.html
ISO 14000
The International Standards Organization (ISO) is a private sector, international standards body based in Geneva Switzerland that is devoted to the international harmonization and development of manufacturing, product, and communications standards. In recent years it has been quite active in the environmental field leading to the development of environmental management standards in such areas as environmental management systems, eco-labeling, environmental auditing, life cycle assessment, environmental performance evaluation, pollution prevention, and the environmental aspects of product standards. ISO's work in the environmental field is embodied in an evolving series of standards on those topics known as ISO 14000. The standards are being looked at widely by industry and regulatory agencies such as the EPA. For more information, visit the following site for more than 20 links to ISO 14000-relevant websites.