Question

( please do not answer by handwriting, the answer should be in print type)

Explain and Discuss one process or system in the ministry of public works, where the industrial ecology mimics biological ecology.

Answer 1

Nowadays, industrial ecology is mainly asked to concretely and pragmatically help solving problems in the domain of environmental management, production rationalization and spatial planning with often associated local work challenges. Application of industrial ecology concept ranges from a facility to a global scale. Industrial ecology as a scientific field has the ambition of understanding how an industrial society functions in
relation to its natural surrounding. Biosphere is then recognized as the essential substrate of most human activities. The methodology derives from the studies of ecosystems and strongly relies on the systemic approach. Dealing with human society industrial ecology needs also to integrate human sciences to reach comprehension,
pertinence and tools to drive industrial ecosystems towards sustainable balance within the existing biosphere limits. Though some works exist industrial ecology is not yet spread within all the appropriate fields. This is what we would like to contribute to change in showing the potential mutual benefits between industrial ecology and territorial intelligence.So far the main pillars of industrial ecology have been the principles of Ecology of ecosystems, the knowledge of biosphere provided by the science of Nature and the technology skills of Engineering to transform waste into reusable by-products or to optimize for environment chains of production and chains of supply (of energy and physical resources). When having an industrial symbiosis idea, the actors also need to check its robustness towards existing regulation, logistics, economic viability, population acceptance. This is usually done on case by case basis. Industrial ecology impacts Economy with its challenge of activity relocalization, of new cooperation model between firms and change in the value of waste. Economy can also bring nutrients to industrial ecology with its understanding of scaling factors or competing style for instance. Management theories handling aspects of coordination, networking and supply chain is surely valuable too.

Metabolism is a term inherited from the study of living organisms. It is an accounting of what they ingest and reject in order to grow, exist and reproduce. The concept of metabolism can be applied to any system that exhibits some of these functionalities. Metabolism reports materials in mass unity (e.g. ton) and energy in joule. The mass conservation principle is respected such that input, output and internal stocks are balanced. Territorial metabolism is nothing much than this principle applied to a territory. The expressions industrial metabolism, economic activities metabolism and regional metabolism are also encountered depending on the focus of the study. Even though such systems do not reproduce similarly to natural organism, the use of metabolism has proven to make sense. Indeed, territorial metabolism is a useful tool for public decision maker. It is essential to understand the physical flows that constitute the basis of the economy of their territory. It can reveal potential for new economic activities or confirm or suggest strategic directions. It is remarkable that territorial metabolism, once decisions are taken, is also a tool allowing public institutions to monitor and track progress all along the implementation of their decisions. The ultimate goal is to enhance the quality of the local economy in terms of viability, strength and competiveness whilst improving its environmental performance. For instance, territorial metabolism successfully served the Genevan State in the context of its Law on public action for sustainable development, voted in 2001. Industrial ecology was stated in one of the article of this text, as a mean to accompany the Agenda 21 of the canton of Geneva. A preliminary phase was to make a diagnosis of the resources consumed by the canton. They include not only industrial or commerce activities but also daily life of inhabitants. The seven most significant resources going through the canton were selected.

The metabolism revealed that water (62 millions of tons) was largely the biggest resource consumed in the canton. Building construction materials (1.3 millions of tons) and food goods (300 000 tons) followed. All of them were first consumed by inhabitants. The resource flows were also transformed into their ton-equivalent CO2 to explore contribution to greenhouse effect. Energy, first consumed by inhabitants, was the main contributor 2.8 millions of tons-equivalent CO2 of which a third was due to energy production and the rest resulted from its use. Second was food with about 600 000 tons-equivalent CO2 whose contribution laid in its production. Finally the respective importance of the economic sectors was observed and showed that household
was the greatest resources consumer in the canton, followed by tertiary sector.