Industrial Ecology - Eco-Industial Parks

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Eco-Industrial Parks

An Eco-Industrial Park, or EIP, is a community of manufacturing and service companies who improve their economic and environmental performance by collaborating in the management of environment and resource aspects including materials, energy, water, information and habitat.

The most well known example of industrial ecology is found in Kalundborg, Denmark. Kalundborg is an industrial port city of 20,000, approximately 110 km west of Copenhagen and home to several large industries:

• Asnaes Power Station – Denmark’s largest coal-fired power station
• Statoil – Denmark’s largest refinery
• Gyproc – a large plasterboard factory
• Novo Nordisk – an international biotechnology company manufacturing pharmaceuticals and industrial enzymes
• City of Kalundborg – an industrial city of 20,000 people.

Over two decades, these partners developed a series of material and waste exchanges that simply evolved and were not originally planned. A collection of one-on-one deals were struck among the various companies which made economic sense for each of the pairs of participants, and as it turned out, good sense for the environment. This diagram shows the material and energy flows established among the industries involved.

Material and energy flows at Kalundborg, Denmark Taken from:The University of York Science Education Group

Learn more about the Kalundborg experience at www.symbiosis.dk

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) listed at least seven case studies of eco-industrial developments around the world, including a Canadian example at the Burnside Industrial Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Learn more at the UNEP’s website at www.uneptie.org/pc/ind-estates/casestudies/casestudies-index.htm

Alberta industry is incorporating industrial ecology into their economic and environmental planning. Alberta’s Industrial Heartland Association is an example where four municipalities surrounding Edmonton (Strathcona County, the City of Fort Saskatchewan, Sturgeon County and Lamont County) undertook the challenge to ensure future growth in the area occurred in a coordinated and responsible manner. Learn more at Alberta’s Industrial Heartland Association website www.industrialheartland.com Click on “Eco-Ind” at the top of the page.

There are plans for a new eco-industrial park in the town of Hinton, Alberta.

Learn more by visiting their website

Brazeau County must install a new wastewater treatment system in the Hamlet of Cynthia. The feasibility study is complete, and takes an eco-industrial networking approach to a solution. Read more about the project.

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