Linking Industry And Ecology ─ A Question of Design

It might, at first glance, seem to many that industry and ecology make strange bedfellows. For proponents of sustainable development, however, such a union is crucial. How else are we to make the industries that are so central to modern societies consistent with our visions of a sustainable future?

Linking Industry and Ecology explores the origins, promise, and relevance of the emerging field of industrial ecology. It situates industrial ecology within the broader range of environmental management strategies and concepts, from the practices of pollution prevention through life cycle management, to the more fundamental shift toward dematerialization and ecological design. The book makes a compelling argument for the need to think ecologically to develop innovative and competitive industrial policy.

The contributors to this volume draw on their experience in a variety of disciplines to chart a clear path for industrial ecology. Their work not only affirms what has been learned to date in this nascent field but also provides new insight for a discourse traditionally dominated by natural scientists and engineers, by demonstrating that technologies are socially and politically embedded.

This book will be of interest to educators and students in environmental studies, business management, environmental and industrial engineering, and environmental planning. While many of the examples are drawn from Canada, it will also appeal to readers interested in fostering ecologically sustainable industrial and community development in other industrializing and industrialized nations.

Ray Cote is Professor of Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University. James Tansey is James Martin Lecturer in Science and Technology Studies at Said Business School, University of Oxford. Ann Dale is Professor in the Science, Technology, and Environment Division at Royal Roads University. She is a Trudeau Fellow and holds a Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Community Development.