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Robert Owen - New Lanark - 1840s - Re: Implementing Industrial Ecology

  • 1.  Robert Owen - New Lanark - 1840s - Re: Implementing Industrial Ecology

    Posted 12-08-2005 18:25
    Dear Reid Kurt, Joe and Anthony

    Are you familiar with Robert Owen's New Lanark, the industrial revolution era social welfare / ecological industrial park? Owen was a capitalist fabric mill operator, but convinced that social responsibility and econolgical stewardship would be profitable. In his case he was right, but those who tried to replicate his approach invariably failed. Many have refered to his approach as an ideal approach, but he was primarily a capitalist.

    I toured the extensive museum on the New Lanark, south of Lanark (the birthplace of Braveheart - Wallace McLeod), near Glasgow, Scotland. There are displays of the power generation machinery, the mills, the community space, schools, medical facilities, dormatories, and ecological commitments made by Owen. This was two centuries ago!

    I have several references to Robert Owenism and the Owenites who followed him in my bibliograph: http://intergon.net/phd/phdbib.doc

    Even Taylor (aka Mr scientific management) was influenced by social and ecologial responsiblity; it was his followers who created Taylorism. Also from that era was the interesting influence of Prince Albert on Queen Victoria and the alternating influence of Tory and Wigg prime ministers Disraeli and Gladstone. See discussion of this, Owenism and more grounding of Industrial Ecology in chapt 2:
    http://intergon.net/phd/phdch2.doc

    Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - 0411267256
    Research Fellow - lionel.boxer@rmit.edu.au
    Centre for Management Quality Research
    Read The Sustainable Way - see http://intergon.net/tsw
    Improvement Implementation: http://intergon.net

    >>> reid.lifset@YALE.EDU 09/12/2005 9:41 am >>>
    Dear Kurt, Joe and Anthony,

    The question of whether Kalundborg can be
    replicated and if so how is one of the defining
    issues in the study of industrial symbiosis --
    which is what the Kalundborg phenomenon is now
    called within industrial ecology. There are
    several papers in the pipeline for the Journal of
    Industrial Ecology that grapple with this,
    destined, if all goes well, for an issue scheduled in the coming year.

    My colleague, Marian Chertow at Yale <
    http://www.yale.edu/environment/bios/chertow.html>,
    has been focusing on this question. See, for example,

    Chertow, M. R. 1998. The eco-industrial park
    model reconsidered. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2(3): 8-10.

    but I know she has other analyses of this question in progress.

    ~ Reid Lifset


    At 01:56 PM 12/7/2005, Kurt Fischer wrote:

    Joe,

    I don't know of particular evaluations and success rates of these
    eco-industrial parks. Another researcher who may have a handle is Ray Côté
    at Dalhousie. I will send you and Anthony his abstract from our October
    conference in Canada.

    The comment I heard in a conference presentation was an opinion that
    Kalundborg was an accident or a natural evolution that may not offer lessons
    for replication. The Londonderry NH eco-industrial park, as I recall,
    suffered when one key facility moved away.

    Kurt

    -----Original Message-----

    Kurt,

    In terms of the caveat you mention about transferability and
    implementation of Eco-Industrial development, I do remember some
    discussion on this issue. Part of the debate is whether planning,
    design and replication can actually occur, or whether it is just a bit
    of luck that they occur and let them evolve into themselves.

    How many attempts, 'successes', and failures have there been? I am not
    sure of the statistics on this matter. I remember there was a federally
    (U.S.) funded program in the mid-1990's for developing a series of
    demonstration sites. I wonder what the success rate of these sites
    were?

    A partial listing can be found at:
    http://www.smartgrowth.org/library/eco_ind_case_intro.html

    I have not seen much discussion about them in recent years.
    Maybe Reid Lifset has more information about this issue?

    -Joe S.

    ==============================================
    Joseph Sarkis
    Professor of Operations and Environmental Management
    Graduate School of Management
    Clark University
    950 Main Street
    Worcester, MA 01610-1477

    Phone: 508-793-7659
    Fax: 508-793-8822
    URL: www.clarku.edu/~jsarkis
    jsarkis@clarku.edu
    ==============================================

    Dear Anthony,

    I recommend contacting Peter Lowitt at
    http://www.devensec.com/sustain.html,
    right here close to home. Consider incorporating a field trip into your
    course. It's a fascinating story, building a planned community on a
    de-commissioned Army base. Maybe you are already familiar with Devens.
    The web page has a good set of links, too.

    I have served on a steering committee for one of programs at Devens.
    Major reality check for researchers and teachers. Implementation is not as
    easy as it looks. And some involved in eco-industrial development question
    the transferability of the Kalundborg experience.

    Kurt
    __________________________________________________
    Kurt Fischer
    The Greening of Industry Network
    tel 781.646.4596 fax 781.646.4189 kurt.fischer@greeningofindustry.org
    JOIN GIN! http://www.greeningofindustry.org/

    Dates to note:
    February 17-18, 2006: Sustainable Regions and Global Trade, GIN workshop
    at the School for International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont USA.
    July 2-5, 2006: GIN2006, The 13th International Conference of the
    Greening of Industry Network, Cardiff University, UK.