This book opens up a critical dimension to the interdisciplinary field of Industrial Ecology (IE) and one of its four areas - Industrial Symbiosis (IS). Presenting the concept of closed-loop thinking, this timely book explains how industries and societies can achieve environmental sustainability, a necessity for today’s businesses. Providing a critical review of the definitions and developments of both IE and IS, this study establishes their fundamental role in improving environmental sustainability. The author identifies valuable lessons to be learned and presents conceptual frameworks to guide future IE and IS applications. Transforming industrial systems into closed-loop industrial ecosystems dramatically reduces the negative impact of industrial activities on the environment. Therefore, this book is an important read not only for operations management scholars, but also those who are interested in ensuring an environmentally sustainable future.

Environmental Sustainability and Industries identifies and discusses critical areas related to environmentally conscious industrial development of products and services that may support more sustainable and equitable societies. This book addresses pollution prevention by referring to the use of processes, practices, and materials that reduce or eliminate the generation of pollutants at the source of production, more efficient use of raw materials, energy, water or other resources, or by conserving natural resources by maintaining clean production. It explains industrial energy efficiency as the most cost-effective use of energy in manufacturing processes, reducing its wastage as well as the total consumption of primary energy resources. Life cycle assessment is used as an analytical method to quantify environmental impacts, focusing on environmental considerations concerning process design and optimization, and including various sustainable manufacturing parameters in the context of industrial processes and proposes a classification of identified parameters to evaluate and optimize the manufacturing performances. The book also dives into industrial ecology, investigating how, where, and why environmental improvements can be made to develop a sustainable industry, meeting the needs of current generations without sacrificing the needs of the future ones. This book analyzes a company's environmental, social, and economic performance and their interrelationships, emphasizing the importance of identifying and understanding causal relationships between alternative approaches to action and their impact on financial and nonfinancial performance. It concludes with a view on the future of sustainable industrial systems stressing change as a joint effort of scientists, governments, people in business, and academicians. - Offers compiled information on the environmental sustainability for industry - Provides principles and advanced trends and approaches for environmental sustainability for the industrial sector - Discusses established and emerging technologies and processes for sustainable approaches for industry - Presents the development in the use of the assessment models as a tool to support the research and applications of different sustainable technologies and processes

Introduces evolution of circlar economy to clarify the concept from engineering perspective Gives global overview of adoption of circlar economy covering Japan, Korea, China, EU, North Americas and Australia Emphasizes on pertinent case studies Provide examples of circular economy practices in manufacturing and services and give insights to business models and financing Presents comprehensive overview of wide-ranging and highly interconnected paradigms, such as supply chains, eco-design, businesses models and reverse logistics

This comprehensively updated third edition explores the nature and role of environmental management and offers an introduction to this rapidly expanding and changing field. It focuses on challenges and opportunities, and core concepts including sustainable development. The book is divided into five parts: Part I (Introduction to Environmental Management): four introductory chapters cover the justification for environmental management, its theory, scope, goals and scientific background Part II (Practice): explores environmental management in economics, law and business and environmental management’s relation with environmentalism, international agreements and monitoring Part III (Global Challenges and Opportunities): examines resources, challenges and opportunities, both natural and human-caused or human-aggravated Part IV (Responses to Global Challenges and Opportunities): explores mitigation, vulnerability, resilience, adaptation and how technology, social change and politics affect responses to challenges Part V (The Future): the final chapter considers the way ahead for environmental management in the future. With its well-structured coverage, effective illustrations and foundation for further, more-focused interest, this book is easily accessible to all. It is an essential reference for undergraduates and postgraduates studying environmental management and sustainability, and an important resource for many students on courses including environmental science, environmental studies and human geography.

Increased ecological awareness and the growing scarcity of resources have led to the introduction of new environmental standards, triggering enterprises, regions, and even countries to adopt new business models and industrial reconversion approaches. However, despite increased interest in business models and their innovation, it still lacks the integration of circularity and sustainability and to date research on these areas is still limited. This book, therefore, provides readers with a closer picture of the issues of business models and their innovation for the circular economy in Europe, where the issues of sustainability and the shift towards the circular economy have become cornerstones of European policies and documents and where significant differences have been identified between firms and countries. This book provides a unique view of different European perspectives and enables the reader to compare the situation in countries with completely different historical and economic conditions as well as with different perceptions of the need for the actions leading to the sustainable development and to the shift towards the circular economy.

Encyclopedia of Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment, Four Volume Set comprehensively covers all renewable energy resources, including wind, solar, hydro, biomass, geothermal energy, and nuclear power, to name a few. In addition to covering the breadth of renewable energy resources at a fundamental level, this encyclopedia delves into the utilization and ideal applications of each resource and assesses them from environmental, economic, and policy standpoints. This book will serve as an ideal introduction to any renewable energy source for students, while also allowing them to learn about a topic in more depth and explore related topics, all in a single resource.Instructors, researchers, and industry professionals will also benefit from this comprehensive reference. - Covers all renewable energy technologies in one comprehensive resource - Details renewable energies' processes, from production to utilization in a single encyclopedia - Organizes topics into concise, consistently formatted chapters, perfect for readers who are new to the field - Assesses economic challenges faced to implement each type of renewable energy - Addresses the challenges of replacing fossil fuels with renewables and covers the environmental impacts of each renewable energy

This edited volume presents the proceedings of the 20th CIRP LCE Conference, which cover various areas in life cycle engineering such as life cycle design, end-of-life management, manufacturing processes, manufacturing systems, methods and tools for sustainability, social sustainability, supply chain management, remanufacturing, etc.

This is an especially timely book. Carefully organized and well motivated, its power lies in the explicit effort to ask how industrial ecology and innovation studies do, can and should intersect. Reid Lifset, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and editor, Journal of Industrial Ecology This book explores the disciplinary interfaces and practical implications of working across the two disciplines of industrial ecology (IE) and innovation studies (IS). Both disciplines have something to say about instigating environmental improvement and more sustainable futures. IE is predicated on the idea that social and economic systems mirror, or should be made to mirror, natural ecological systems. Proponents of IE devise models and techniques to trace material and energy resource flows as they move through social and economic systems. They propose policy and management improvements to increase the resource efficiency of such systems. By contrast, IS researchers work with the idea that innovation is a dynamic activity, vital to social and economic change and is shaped by a range of actors in industry, in government and in households. The authors illustrate the conceptual and practical problems and opportunities of working across this bi-disciplinary interface, with case studies presented from each and from hybrid perspectives that draw on both. These include applied examples from IE such as an evaluation of industrial symbiosis in the UK and from working projects in industrialising countries. Cases that originate with IS cover the areas of food, construction and waste incineration. New directions for conceptual development and further research are also offered. Conceptual blindspots and research gaps are identified at the interface of the two disciplines. Industrial Ecology and Spaces of Innovation will appeal to a wide and interdisciplinary audience including academics and researchers of environmental innovation, management and economics, industrial ecology and schools of environmental engineering. Business environmental practitioners, consultants and managers working with techniques such as life-cycle analysis, environmental impact assessment and collaborative industrial symbiosis initiatives will also find much to engage them within this book.

This book brings together, in a single volume, an overview of multiple applications of the concept of environmental sustainability, featuring examples of useful methodologies and tools for pursuing environmental targets, experiences and case studies spanning a variety of sectors, embracing both industry and research projects; and case studies applied to very different territorial contexts. The first section of the book covers methodologies and tools for environmental sustainability, including Industrial Ecology, Urban Metabolism, Life Cycle Assessment, analysis of industrial water footprint and such chemical technologies as Hypercritical Separation Technology (HYST). Part Two provides case studies of environmental sustainability in specific industrial sectors including electronics, pharmaceutical manufacturing, bio-energy, agriculture, food and residential construction retrofitting. Part Three explores experiences of environmental sustainability in territorial contexts on a local, regional or national scale. This section includes chapters on sustainability in the Republic of San Marino, the European “Covenant of Mayors” urban sustainability initiative and efforts to promote sustainability in Italy, Norway and Poland among others. The book concludes with a discussion of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Objective I regions of Italy. Featuring the contributions of academics, managers operating in various productive sectors and consultants, the book aims to promote the growth and spread of scientific research and technological development for environmental sustainability.