Does Industrial Ecology provide any new Perspectives?

Abstract

The research question in this report was, as the title alludes: Does industrial ecology provide any new perspectives? If yes, what are the new aspects? To answer these questions, a literature study has been conducted.

The answer to the first question is yes. We claim that what is new about industrial ecology is the expansion of the system borders within which the actors operate. Bearing this in mind, it is proposed that the most important issue in industrial ecology is to unite the two main interests; ecological sustainability on the macro level and business- economy profit on the micro level.

This means that knowledge from different actors and disciplines are needed to implement necessary processes of change. This may well be old knowledge that is applied to new issues or new knowledge which is created by blending existing knowledge from various areas. This relates particularly to the understanding of how the interaction among the actors is, as we also attempt to understand the ecological system. As Kiushi (1997) claims, the result of the interaction among the actors gives the system its value, not the value of the individual actors.