RIT Symposium Conclusions
May 28, 2008 by Brian Butler | Filed under: 1-The EM as an Industrial Ecologist, Overview
Environmental managers are evolving to become sustainability managers.
Their analytic perspective needs to move from a risk/hazard mentality to resilience/sustainability mentality.
Current Strategies for Resilience
Business
• Contingency Planning
• Supply Chain Diversity
• Supply Chain Ownership
Environmental
• Source Reduction
• Personal Protection
• Remediation
What is needed is capability to change, adapt, and be flexible to market place, regulatory, and environmental conditions.
We need to move from our current linear system of resource use and production to a network that mimics a natural ecosystem.
“Industrial symbiosis” is a network in which regional companies can use each other’s material and energy wastes and share resources to achieve higher efficiencies in resource use.
An “eco-industrial park” is a similar but perhaps broader network concept focusing more on benefiting the communities.
Both build resiliency because the components each become part of the interdependent network and recognize the robustness of maintaining the relationships.
Environmental managers can benefit from the strategy in a variety of ways and it also provides opportunities to simultaneously benefit the business end of the operation.
You can view the symposium powerpoint HERE.
