The Structure, Function, and Evolution of a Regional Industrial Ecosystem

Abstract

A framework has been developed to assess the structure, function, and evolution of a regional industrial ecosystem that integrates insights from industrial ecology and economic geography dimensions with complex systems theory. The framework highlights the multilayered landscape of natural ecosystem functions, economic transactions, policy contexts, and social interactions in which interfirm collaboration evolves. Its application to a single case study on the island of Puerto Rico revealed changes in the system's institutional context, its resource flows, and the composition of its industrial community. It illustrated that external forces and interactions among actors at multiple levels can cause permanent changes-but not necessarily system collapse-as policy choices and interfirm cooperation can be used to organize resources in ways that retain system functionality.

Institutional incentives in circular economy transition: The case of material use in the Dutch textile industry

“…This is often defined as sequential interdependency or reciprocal interdependency if the involved material/resource is highly specific for the firms operating in the cycle (Grandori, 1997). Since industrial metabolisms can be made up of several firms and include a large number of processes and nutrients, actors involved in activities to close loops also deal with increased complexity in their decision making and the information they have to process and store (Korhonen, 2004;Ashton, 2008Ashton, , 2009. Another important feature of CE is that, other than focusing on consuming fewer materials, as in eco-efficiency driven approaches, it also focuses on prolonging the use of materials and on avoiding use of toxic compounds, thus considering any material used in a cycle as being a healthy nutrient for new cycles.…”

“…From an organizational standpoint, firms engaged in cyclical metabolisms are more interdependent because they also deal with increased complexity when compared to firms engaging in linear supply chain relations (Ashton, 2008(Ashton, , 2009, as is commonly observed in inter-firm networks and collaborations (Grandori, 2012). If we look in particular at the activities used to close cycles, such as cascading, we can see that interdependencies are created either because materials need to be jointly managed (pooled interdependency), or because complementary assets or competences need to be jointly applied to, for example, reuse and refurbish materials (intensive interdependency 4 ).…”

The role of geospatial industrial diversity in the facilitation of regional industrial symbiosis

“…Côté and Smolenaars 1997;Korhonen 2001;Ashton 2009). It has also similarly been surmised that an increase in potential resource pathways, which derive from an increase in system diversity, promotes opportunities for localised by-product reuse and thus increased productivity (e.g.…”

“…As such, it is readily apparent why diversity should be a concept of interest within industrial ecology research. Indeed, the subject of diversity within industrial ecosystems has already been afforded dedicated examination by several authors (e.g., Korhonen, 2005;Wells and Darby, 2006;Wright et al, 2009); whilst the concept is given more than a passing consideration within many further industrial ecology focussed articles (e.g., Korhonen, 2001;Nielsen, 2007;Mayer, 2008;Ashton, 2009;Jensen et al, 2011a). Many of these articles are largely conceptual in nature and approach the subject of diversity and its potential for promoting the development of sustainable and resourceful industrial systems from a theoretical and assumptive position.…”

Comparing the effects of mutualism and competition on industrial districts

“…[3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]). An industrial ecosystem constitutes not only a metabolic network formed by flows of energy and materials, but also formal and informal social networks with economic, contractual and social relationships through which information or money may be considered to flow (e.g.…”