Eco-industrial parks are emerging as the primary arena for
testing and implementing industrial ecology. Similar in some
respects to standard industrial parks, eco-industrial parks
are designed to allow firms to share infrastructure as a strategy
for enhancing production and minimizing costs.
The distinguishing feature of eco-industrial parks is their
use of ecological design to foster collaboration among firms
in managing environmental and energy issues. In an eco-industrial
park setting, company production patterns, as well as overall
park maintenance, work together to follow the principles of
natural systems through cycling of resources, working within
the constraints of local and global ecosystems, and optimizing
Eco-industrial parks offer firms the opportunity to cooperatively
enhance both economic and environmental performance through
increased efficiency, waste minimization, innovation and technology
development, access to new markets, strategic planning, and
attraction of financing and investment.
On-line Articles and Publications
Parks: A Case Study and Analyses of Economic, Environmental,
Technical, and Regulatory Issues (Executive Summary
in .pdf )
for the Development of Eco-Industrial Parks (Executive
Summary in .pdf)
Ecosystem Development Project Report
Reviews work done over the period June 1997 through May 1999
by the Triangle J Council of Governments in North Carolina.
The report is divided into four sections. The first section
summarizes the method used to obtain data, identify partnerships,
and begin discussions between potential partners. The second
section summarizes the data obtained. The third section describes
the potential partnerships identified by the project. The fourth
section addresses lessons learned and suggestions for others
interested in undertaking industrial ecosystem development in
to Financial Resources for EIP Development
Ecology in Motion (3): Eco-Industrial Parks
Industrial Parks Sustainable
Parks: One Strategy for Sustainable Growth
Provides an overview of Eco-industrial Parks (EIPs).
Parks Offer Sustainable Base Redevelopment
Outlines the opportunities presented by EIP models for military
Eco-Industrial Parks: A Case Study and Analysis of Economic,
Environmental, Technical, and Regulatory Issues, Research
Triangle Institute, 1996.
A report exploring the economic and environmental feasibility
of eco-industrial parks by constructing a simulation of a prototype
in Brownsville, Texas. Available from: Research Triangle Institute,
attn: RTI project # 6050, P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle
Park, NC 27709; phone (919) 541-5800; Fax (919) 541-6683
Eco-Industrial Parks: A Handbook for Local Development Teams,
RPP International, 1998.
"Considers many strategies for community sustainable development
as a context for industrial park development or renewal. It
ranges from the soft infrastructure of policy, finance economic
development, and education to the specific technical, recruitment,
and management considerations in industrial park design."
Fieldbook for the Development of Eco-Industrial Parks,
Research Triangle Institute, 1996.
A report providing guidelines for meeting the significant challenges
to eco-industrial park development. Available from: Research
Triangle Institute, attn: RTI project # 6050, P.O. Box 12194,
Research Triangle Park, NC, 27709; (919) 541-5800; Fax (919)
Kalundborg, Denmark -- the World's First Eco-Industrial
An ancient harbor town with farms and fjords, Kalundborg, Denmark,
proved to be fertile ground for the prototype eco-industrial
park. A partnership evolving over the last 20 years between
the Asnaes Power Company, a Novo Nordisk pharmaceutical plant,
a Gyproc wallboard producer, and a Statoil refinery is the best
example to date of industrial ecology in action.
Steam, gas, cooling water, and gypsum are circulated among
the partners at Kalundborg. Excess heat is utilized for fish
farming, heating of nearby homes, and greenhouse agriculture.
Other by-products not usable within the park such as sulfur,
fly ash, and sludge are sold to companies in the vicinity.
The development of the Kalundborg model was not driven by compliance
to environmental regulations alone. The partners created the
inter-firm arrangements for a variety of reasons: cheaper materials
and energy, minimization of disposal costs, income generated
from production residue, and greater environmental responsibility.
This combination of motives clearly demonstrates an innovative
and promising relationship between economic incentives and reduced
environmental impact through industrial ecology.
The following on-line report was completed as a 1996 master's
thesis by Nicholas Gertler at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Gertler's thesis provides an extensive case study of the Kalundborg
Eco-Industrial Park and synthesizes research findings into a
holistic model for industrial ecosystem development.
Ecosystems: Developing Sustainable Industrial Structures"
Eco-Industrial Park Projects in U.S. Communities
Parks Offer Sustainable Base Redevelopment
Outlines the opportunities presented by EIP models for military
of Eco-Industrial Projects
Provides links to over 25 EIP projects in the US and abroad.
Southside Central Business District Eco-Industrial Site
-- Chattanooga, Tennessee
In 1985, Chattanooga initiated an exemplary economic, environmental,
and social revitalization strategy called Vision 2000. Within
this context, Chattanooga began exploring the potential of eco-industrial
Chattanooga presently is developing four eco-industrial parks.
One of the four, the South
Central Business District site, was selected for participation
in President's Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) Eco-Industrial
Park project. The South Central Business District site is approximately
350 acres with abandoned and operating foundries, dilapidated
and active commercial buildings, worker housing, and vacant
Property owners, residents, and nationally-known experts cooperated
to create a master plan for the South Central eco-industrial
park. Major components of the plan include expansion of the
Trade Center, a community stadium, a zero-emissions industrial
facility, greenways, and incubator facilities.
Chattanooga's SMART Park project is in the feasibility
stage. SMART ParkTM stands for a Sustainable Manufacturing,
Agricultural, and Recycling Technology Park. The model includes
existing industries, brownfield settings and greenfield sites.
River Valley Partners
835 Georgia Avenue, Suite 800
Chattanooga, TN 37402
Phone: (423) 265-3700
Studies of 16 Eco-Industrial Parks in the U.S.
Case studies provided by Eco-Industrial Park representatives
attending an Eco-Industrial Park Workshop at Cape Charles, Va.,
October 17-18, 1996, sponsored by the President's Council on
Sustainable Development and the Port of Cape Charles Sustainable
Technologies Industrial Park (an EIP).
Port of Cape Charles
Sustainable Technologies Industrial Park--Port of Cape
Cape Charles is located on the southern tip of a peninsula
between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, an area known
as Virginia's Eastern Shore. Natural and cultural assets such
as beaches, islands, marshes, woodlands, skilled citizens, historic
villages and farms, and wildlife are abundant in the region.
While Cape Charles thrived economically in the past, poverty
and unemployment have become common. As part of a broad economic
revitalization effort, the Northhampton County Board of Supervisors
and the Cape Charles Town Council signed in 1994 a joint memorandum
to create the Port of Cape Charles Sustainable Technologies
The following on-line reports provide detailed information
on the Port of Cape Charles Sustainable Technologies Industrial
Park development and progress to date:
Facts including Mission, Corporate Commitment, Master Plan,
Cape Charles Principles
Drawing of Sustainable Technologies Industrial Park
Tim Hayes, Project Director
Port of Cape Charles Sustainable Technologies Industrial Park
16404 Courthouse Rd.
P.O. Box 538
Eastville, VA 23347
Phone: (757) 331-8130
Fax: (757) 678-0483
Fairfield Eco-Industrial Park -- Baltimore, Maryland
The Fairfield area within Baltimore's Empowerment Zone is known
for its poor environmental quality, particularly air quality.
Residents suffer the highest cancer rates in Maryland -- a state
with one of the highest cancer rates in the nation.
As a strategy for economic development and environmental improvement,
Baltimore included the concept of an Eco-industrial park in
its application for Empowerment Zone status. Development of
the 20+ acre site is underway with project and city leaders
working to attract new businesses to the area. For additional
Larisa Salamacha South Team Leader
Fairfield Ecological Industrial Park Site Manager
36 S. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21230
Phone: (410) 837-9305
Fax: (410) 837-6363
Brownsville Eco-Industrial Park -- Brownsville, Texas
Eco-Industrial Park Project is working to develop a
physical site for companies to share facilities and infrastructure
as well as a virtual component allowing industries in the Brownsville
area to participate without relocating. Project sponsors include
the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council, Brownsville
Economic Development Council, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The Research Triangle Institute (RTI) assisted the Brownsville
Economic Development Council in assessing the feasibility and
potential economic and environmental benefits of an Eco-Industrial
Park in Brownsville. An executive summary of the findings are
available on-line in .pdf format at the RTI
website. For additional information, contact:
Rick Luna, Communications Director
Brownsville Economic Development Council
1205 North Expressway
Brownsville, TX 78520
Phone: (210) 541-1183
Cabazon Resource Recovery Park -- Indio, California
The Cabazon Band of Mission Indians is a small, well organized,
Federally recognized, and politically active indian tribe located
in Mecca, California, approximately 80 miles west of Los Angeles.
As a part of a goal to improve the quality of life for its
members and the surrounding community, the tribe is developing
a 550 acre Resource Recovery Park. The development plans to
attract an array of energy production, remediation, recycling,
and light manufacturing facilities that work together using
industrial ecology principles.
Existing facilities include a 48-megawatt cogeneration plant
and a soils recycling facility. Under construction is an indoor
pasteurization process to change biosolids from municipal wastewater
treatment facilities into custom fertilizer products. Contact:
Michael Derry, Development Manager
Cabazon Resource Recovery Park
82-425 Indio Springs Drive
Indio, CA 92203-3499
Phone: (619) 342-2593, ext. 3015
Fax: (619) 342-2593
International Eco-Industrial Park Projects
Centre in Burnside
The School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie
University in Nova Scotia, Canada explored ways for applying
principles of industrial ecology to the Burnside Industrial
Park in a project called "The Burnside Industrial Park
as an Ecosystem."
The park is located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, and contains
over 1,200 businesses with a working population of over 18,000
The Eco-Efficiency Centre works to improve the efficiency of
individuals companies on the one hand, while encouraging an
ecosystemic perspective in the Park as a whole, by supporting
cooperation between businesses where appropriate.
School for Resource and Environmental Studies
Faculty of Management
1312 Robie St.
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3E2
Phone: (902) 494-3632
Last updated: January 18, 2005
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