The heart of Baltimore's heavy industrial zone seems
an unlikely place to create an environmental paradigm. Oil storage
tanks, chemical plants, asphalt manufacturing facilities, tracking
depots, and a scrap yard dominate the landscape. Devoid of trees,
grasslands, or wildlife, the area is a monument to the triumph
over nature of asphalt, concrete, and steel.
Yet, Michael Palumbo, project manager with Cornell University's
Work and Environment Institute, working under the Baltimore
Economic Development corporation, hopes to turn this gray and
gritty area into a model of industrial and ecological efficiency,
where companies collaborate to cut consumption of raw materials
and energy, exchange and recycle rather than dispose of wastes,
and improve their bottom line in the process. "One of our goals
is to create a closed-loop system," explains Palumbo, "where
the discharge pipes are pointed back into somebody else's manufacturing
process."
Palumbo is not alone. In the United States and abroad, a small
but growing number of people are trying to develop "industrial
ecosystems" that mimic the efficiency and resourcefulness of
natural systems by using and reusing everything. Trees die,
topple over, and eventually become part of the soil again. In
contrast, most industrial systems operate in a linear fashion:
produce, consume, dispose.
Calling themselves industrial ecologists, today's new breed
of economic developers seek to link business success with environmental
protection. Their goal is to create communities of independent
but interconnected manufacturers who voluntarily form links
in a kind of industrial symbiosis, matching inputs and outputs
to the environment's carrying capacity. For this to happen,
according to Ernest Lowe, principal with Indigo Development
in Oakland, California, which provides information and management
advise on industrial ecology, "We must view our industrial worlds
as part of the ecosystem, rather than separate from it."
In such an industrial community, known as an eco-industrial
park, companies would benefit from lower costs of resources,
transportation, and disposal. Moreover, companies could share
in environmental management, waste recycling, marketing, and
product development.
The Paradigm: Kalundborg, Denmark
Probably the best example of an eco-industrial park lies along
the coast of Denmark, in an industrial region called Kalundborg.
There, a complex web of waste and energy exchanges has developed
among the city, a power plant, a refinery, a fish farm, a pharmaceutical
plant, a chemical manufacturer, and a wallboard maker. The exchange
works something like this: the power company pipes residual
steam to the refinery and, in exchange, receives refinery gas
(which used to be flared as waste). The power plant burns the
refinery gas to generate electricity and steam. It also sends
excess steam to a fish farm, the city, and a biotechnology plant
that makes pharmaceuticals. Sludge from the fish farm and pharmaceutical
processes becomes fertilizer for nearby farms. Surplus yeast
from the biotechnology plant's production of insulin is shipped
to farmers for pig food. Further, a cement company uses fly
ash from the power plant, while gypsum produced by the power
plant's desulfurization process goes to a company that produces
gypsum wallboard. Finally, sulfur generated by the refinery's
desulfurization process is used by a sulfuric acid manufacturer.
The network of exchanges at Kalundborg developed over a decade
or so as companies voluntarily sought to reduce waste treatment
and disposal costs. Later, however, companies recognized the
efficiencies of organized, planned material and energy exchanges.
And Kalundborg happened on its own. It was not planned or financed
by the government, and no consultants were hired to design it.
Could a similar system be designed from scratch or retrofitted
onto an existing U. S. industrial area? Some observers, such
as Paul Hawken, cofounder of Smith and Hawken and author of
The Ecology of Commerce, speculate, "Imagine what a team
of designers could come up with if they were to start from scratch,
locating and specifying industries and factories that had potentially
synergistic and symbiotic relationships."
In the United States, examples abound of companies that exchange
byproducts, although the networks of exchange are not as elaborate
as in Kalundborg. For example, Chaparral Steel, one of the world's
largest producers of steel from electric-arc furnaces, has embarked
on an advanced recycling and retooling effort to turn all of
its outputs into useful products. The Texas-based company, which
generates huge amounts of waste, is seeking to eliminate hazardous
wastes, create new products, conserve energy and resources,
and protect the environment. Working with an adjacent cement
plant, Chaparral modified its manufacturing processes to reduce
the iron content of its iron slag, a waste product that the
company practically gave away for 55 cents a ton. Now Chaparral
sells the low-iron slag to the cement company for $22 per ton,
generating addition revenues of $6 million.
President's Council
To promote eco-industrial parks within the context of sustainable
development, President Bill Clinton issued an executive order
in June 1993 establishing the President's Council on Sustainable
Development. Drawing from leaders in government, industry, and
public interest groups, the 25-member council was charged with
developing a national strategy to foster economic vitality within
the framework of sustainable development, which has been defined
generally as economic growth that will benefit present and future
generations without adversely affecting the earth's resources
or biological systems. The council plans to issue a final report
early this year.
An eco-efficiency task force, one of many task forces established
under the council, designated four metropolitan areas that could
serve as national models of eco-industrial parks: Brownsville,
Texas, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Baltimore, Maryland; and Cape
Charles, Virginia. These selections were based on the likelihood
of public support for sustainable development and the potential
for successfully establishing an eco-industrial park.
Although the designation by the council did not necessarily
trigger the award of federal grants, all four areas credit the
council with raising community awareness of sustainable development
and providing favorable public relations. "We got a black eye
from environmentalists during the NAFTA negotiations," recalls
Marie McDermott with the Brownsville Economic Development Council.
"The designation helped our community focus on the positive."
Recently, the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded a $168,000
grant to Brownsville to develop an eco- industrial park. Working
in cooperation with the Texas Natural Resources Conservation
Commission, the Brownsville Port Authority, the Texas Engineering
Extension Service and the Environmental Extension Service, and
the Environmental Defense Fund, the city will develop a strategy
for establishing an eco-industrial park in Brownsville. The
strategy will build on research sponsored by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and conducted by the Research Triangle
Institute (RTI) and Indigo Development in which the two companies
examined waste streams in Brownsville and developed a model
eco-industrial park to simulate the potential interactions among
companies in the region. Brownsville is considering a "virtual"
eco-industrial park in which industries in the area, but not
necessarily in the same physical setting, will be linked through
waste exchanges.
Chattanooga has selected four sites for the creation of eco-industrial
parks. According to Robert Taylor, architect with the nonprofit
River Valley Partners in Chattanooga, "Our game plan is to offer
an array of sites for companies to choose from, depending on
their ability to implement sustainable development practices."
Two sites are situated downtown, one is located at an old army
facility undergoing closure, and the other is a greenfield site
about six miles from downtown.
With assistance from sustainable development, experts Peter
Calthorpe and William McDonough, Chattanooga conducted a three-day
design charrette -- a brainstorming and planning session --
to develop concept plans for its four sites. Common themes emerging
from the charrette were the desire for good jobs; additional
greenways, parks, and open spaces; and reduced dependence on
the automobile. And rather than turn its back on Chattanooga's
legacy of heavy manufacturing, which has created its share of
derelict sites, Chattanooga residents want to incorporate existing
buildings and infrastructure at the two downtown sites into
the eco-industrial parks.
At a minimum, Chattanooga's charrette helped raise community
awareness of the potential for sustainable development. "A light
has gone on in the community," observes Taylor. "But we still
have to convince people that sustainable development makes sense
economically." The charrette also helped develop political and
community support for the city's efforts to establish eco-industrial
parks. According to Taylor, all of Chattanooga's planning efforts
have been locally rather than federally funded. "We've enjoyed
a lot of the PR (from the council designation) but have received
none of the money."
In Baltimore, Cornell University's Work and Environment Initiative
and the Baltimore Economic Development Corporation are working
in partnership to establish an eco-industrial park in an older,
underused, heavy industrial area of southwest Baltimore. Known
as Fairfield, the area was designated as a empowerment zone.
The partnership has prepared a strategic plan for the site that
calls for building on existing industries and attracting complementary
manufacturers. "We're trying to recruit businesses that interconnect,"
notes Palumbo.
Finally, Cape Charles, located along Virginia's Eastern Shore
in Northampton County, is the first of the four designated areas
to have selected a site for its eco-industrial park. In fact,
it has already landed a new tenant, Solar Building Systems (SBS).
Based in Switzerland, the company produces photovoltaic panels
that convert sunlight to electricity.
Last August, after examining sites in California, Florida,
and Delaware, Solar Building Systems announced that it would
invest $1.5 million in a light manufacturing facility in Northampton
County's Sustainable Technologies Industrial Park -- the company's
first plant in North America. Settling on Cape Charles because
of the sustainable technologies park, SBS has set up temporary
operations in an old school nearby until infrastructure improvements
in the park are completed. When fully operational, the company
expects to hire about 30 workers.
The 55-acre sustainable technologies park includes a cement
plant, port, and railroad yard. Eventually, the park will be
expanded to 570 acres and include a coastal dune habitat preserve
and wetlands constructed for wastewater treatment, according
to Tim Hayes, the county's director of sustainable development
(Northampton could be the only U.S. county with an office for
sustainable development). The county hopes to attract industries
that have little or no emissions. "We want to be a showcase
for sustainable development," offers Hayes. Recently, the county
received a $200,000 grant from the EPA to conduct a site assessment
and redevelopment plan.
Making It Happen
In the past, economic development agencies usually courted
industries without regard to environmental impacts. But that
is changing. A growing number of development agencies are searching
for companies that complement existing industries in ways that
result in less waste and fewer adverse environmental impacts.
Moreover, companies such as Chaparral Steel are transforming
their manufacturing processes to treat every output as a useful
product, though not out of any overriding concern for the environment,
but rather because it makes overall economic sense. It is likely
that other companies soon will follow.
One of the central principles of industrial ecology is that
any waste is a lost opportunity and incurs what economists call
an opportunity cost. Smoke spewing from smokestacks, effluents
discharging into nearby water bodies, or hazardous wastes discarded
in landfills signal resources used inefficiently or ineffectively.
"Not too long ago, oil companies used to flare natural gas,"
observes Joseph Youngblood of the Texas Natural Resources Conservation
Commission in Austin. "Soon companies will realize the value
of all the stuff they throw away." Moreover, companies incur
costs in handling, storing, transporting, and disposing of the
wastes.
Eco-industrial parks have been touted as a mechanism to reduce
waste, improve efficiency, reduce environmental impacts, and
improve a company's bottom line. Yet, Northampton County notwithstanding,
not a single eco- industrial park has been established in the
United States, although several companies have set up informal
waste exchanges here and there. According to Lowe, "Just about
any petrochemical complex exchanges byproducts, particularly
those facilities along the Houston Shipping Channel." Nonetheless,
Kalundborg stands as the one shining example of an eco-industrial
park.
Why is it so difficult to create Kalundborg-like parks in the
United States? For one thing, business managers traditionally
have functioned as though resources and repositories were infinite,
which they are not.
Second, the prevailing myth among manufacturers is that any
effort to protect the environment must come at the expense of
the economy and vise versa. It is a battle of the economy versus
the environment, of spotted owls versus jobs. "Any time you
say the word 'environment' to industry officials, they cringe,"
remarks McDermott. "They think of increased costs or fines."
Third, companies fear disclosing trade secrets or losing their
autonomy if they cooperate and collaborate with other companies.
Manufacturers do not want to lock into one buyer or seller.
Thus, networks must be voluntary, with redundancies (multiple
suppliers) built into the system.
Finally, several legal obstacles stand in the way of eco-industrial
parks. For example, if one company sends its wastes to another
for recycling and reprocessing and that company mishandles the
wastes, both firms could be liable for any damages. "The biggest
hurdle is bridging the mental gap between people," notes Sheila
Martin, an economist with RTI. "There's got to be some level
of trust between companies; legal contracts can only do so much."
At Kalundborg, all the plant managers know each other which
helps build trust.
Despite the obstacles, many industrial ecologists remain optimistic.
Given the economic advantages of increased energy and resource
efficiency and savings in waste disposal, eco-industrial parks
are likely to become more than just a passing fancy. The key
to establishing workable eco-industrial parks is to identify
industries that complement one another whereby one company's
byproducts become another's raw material. Thus, while the three
most important determinants of success in real estate are location,
location, location, for eco-industrial parks they are fit, fit,
fit.
David Salvesen is an environmental writer and consultant in
Kennington,
Maryland.
