2.1. Introduction

Industrial ecosystems, which emulate nature by using the waste of one company as raw materials for another, represent an appealing theoretical concept but remain mostly at the proposal stage. It is critical to emphasize that process changes to close material loops should not be confused with "end-of-pipe" waste treatments.

 

Industrial ecology has existed in an intuitive form for a long time. However, over the past 30 years, attempts in this area have largely remained on the fringes.

 

2.2. The Recent History of Industrial Ecology

The concept of industrial ecology has emerged intuitively for decades. In the past 30 years, most attempts in this area have remained marginal. The term first appeared in the early 1990s among industrial engineers associated with the National Academy of Engineering in the United States.

 

Many authors do not clearly distinguish between industrial metabolism and industrial ecology. However, this distinction is meaningful both methodologically and historically. The "industrial metabolism" analogy was common in the 1980s, especially in Robert Ayres' pioneering work in the U.S. and later at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis with William Stigliani and colleagues, and subsequently at INSEAD. Around the same time, Peter Baccini pursued the metabolic analogy independently. Historically, organic metaphors have long played a role in evolutionary economics.

 

2.3. Industrial Ecology: State of the Art

The concept of industrial ecology predates the term itself, which sporadically appeared in the 1970s literature. The term referred either to regional economic environments of industries or as a "green" slogan by industrial lobbies reacting to the establishment of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). However, the idea of industrial ecosystems appeared implicitly in the writings of systems ecologists like Odum and Hall.

 

For decades, systems ecologists studying biogeochemical cycles viewed industrial systems as subsystems of the biosphere. However, this perspective was not widely pursued except in agroecosystems. Modern industrial ecology acknowledges diverse industrial ecosystems, varying in their interactions with the biosphere—from near-natural agroecosystems to artificial environments like spacecraft.

 

The earliest mention of "industrial ecosystems" in the current sense in English literature appears in a 1977 article by geochemist Preston Cloud, dedicated to bioeconomist Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen. Georgescu-Roegen highlighted the thermodynamic perspective on material flows in human economies and technological dynamics.

Despite limited success, notable efforts to establish this field began in the 1980s, such as Charles Hall's teachings on industrial ecosystems at New York State University and Jacques Vigneron's work in Paris, which received minimal attention.

 

2.4. Industrial Ecosystems

By the mid-1970s, industrial ecology was in its infancy, inspired by the intellectual environment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Robert Frosch, an early contributor, revived the concept, alongside similar developments in other circles like the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Seminars like UNECE’s 1976 event on "Waste-Free Technology and Production" prefigured modern clean production and industrial ecology literature.

 

Concepts like "ecologically balanced industrial complexes" from the early 1970s are precursors to eco-industrial parks and zero-emission clusters. However, similar ideas, especially in countries like the former USSR and East Germany, remain under-documented. In Moscow, for instance, an "industrial ecology department" has been active at the Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technology for nearly two decades. East Germany also pursued resource optimization within its planned economy framework.

 

While industrial attempts to reduce waste and close material loops date back to the Industrial Revolution, industrial ecology encompasses more than waste reduction. It involves integrated resource management framed within scientific ecological principles.