Looking Forward, Pushing Back and Peering Sideways: Analyzing the Sustainability of Industrial Symbiosis

This paper compares and contrasts two different forms of interorganizational relationships that deal with the production and movement of waste: industrial symbiosis and supply chains. Industrial symbiosis reuses, recycles and reprocesses byproducts and intermediates within the system of organizations, whereas conventional supply chains reduce waste within manufacturing processes and reuse end-of-life products. Although both these models address waste, there is surprisingly little consideration of industrial symbiosis within supply chain research. Yet, industrial symbiosis has much to offer the study of sustainable development within supply chains. Industrial symbiosis emphasizes community, cooperation and coordination among firms, which serves to protect the environmental integrity, social equity and economic prosperity of the region — all hallmarks of sustainable development. However, such tight integration among a diverse set of organizations is difficult to jump start and difficult to maintain. In this paper, we also outline the challenges and offer some ideas on how to address these challenges. We ground our insights from interviews with firms in the Sarnia-Lambton region of Ontario, Canada. This region is home to over 130,000 people, and has a strong physical infrastructure and social structures that have facilitated symbiotic relationships among local businesses.

[1]  L. V. Wassenhove,et al.  MANAGING PRODUCT RETURNS FOR REMANUFACTURING , 2001 .

[2]  Frank Boons,et al.  History's Lessons: , 2008 .

[3]  W. Ashton.  Understanding the Organization of Industrial Ecosystems , 2008 .

[4]  Madeleine E. Pullman,et al.  UNRAVELING THE FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN: STRATEGIC INSIGHTS FROM CHINA AND THE 2007 RECALLS* , 2008 .

[5]  J. Linton,et al.  Sustainable supply chains: An introduction , 2007 .

[6]  David Gibbs,et al.  Reflections on implementing industrial ecology through eco-industrial park development , 2007 .

[7]  Robert D. Klassen,et al.  Linking forward and reverse supply chain investments: The role of business uncertainty , 2007 .

[8]  Charles C. Snow,et al.  Organization theory and supply chain management: An evolving research perspective , 2007 .

[9]  G. Hult,et al.  Bridging organization theory and supply chain management: The case of best value supply chains , 2007 .

[10]  Stephan Vachon,et al.  Supply chain management and environmental technologies: the role of integration , 2007 .

[11]  Qinghua Zhu,et al.  Industrial Symbiosis in China: A Case Study of the Guitang Group , 2007 .

[12]  D. V. Beers,et al.  Industrial Symbiosis in the Australian Minerals Industry: The Cases of Kwinana and Gladstone , 2007 .

[13]  M. Chertow.  “Uncovering” Industrial Symbiosis , 2007 .

[14]  Luk N. Van Wassenhove,et al.  The Economics of Remanufacturing Under Limited Component Durability and Finite Product Life Cycles , 2007, Manag. Sci..

[15]  R. Klassen,et al.  EXTENDING GREEN PRACTICES ACROSS THE SUPPLY CHAIN: THE IMPACT OF UPSTREAM AND DOWNSTREAM INTEGRATION , 2006 .

[16]  N. Jacobsen.  Industrial Symbiosis in Kalundborg, Denmark: A Quantitative Assessment of Economic and Environmental Aspects , 2006 .

[17]  Charles J. Corbett,et al.  Extending the Horizons: Environmental Excellence as Key to Improving Operations , 2006, Manuf. Serv. Oper. Manag..

[18]  P. Bansal.  Evolving sustainably: a longitudinal study of corporate sustainable development , 2005 .

[19]  Murat Mirata,et al.  Experiences from early stages of a national industrial symbiosis programme in the UK: determinants and coordination challenges , 2004 .

[20]  Leenard Baas,et al.  An industrial ecology project in practice: Exploring the boundaries of decision-making levels in regional industrial systems , 2004 .

[21]  John R. Ehrenfeld,et al.  Industrial ecology: a new field or only a metaphor? , 2004 .

[22]  W. Vermeulen,et al.  Eco-industrial park initiatives in the USA and the Netherlands: first lessons , 2004 .

[23]  Brian H. Roberts,et al.  The application of industrial ecology principles and planning guidelines for the development of eco-industrial parks: an Australian case study , 2004 .

[24]  Qinghua Zhu,et al.  Integrating green supply chain management into an embryonic eco-industrial development: a case study of the Guitang Group , 2004 .

[25]  Sunil Gupta,et al.  Supply Chain Decision Making: Will Shorter Cycle Times and Shared Point-of-Sale Information Necessarily Help? , 2004, Manag. Sci..

[26]  Luk N. Van Wassenhove,et al.  Closed - Loop Supply Chain Models with Product Remanufacturing , 2004, Manag. Sci..

[27]  Vineet Padmanabhan,et al.  Comments on "Information Distortion in a Supply Chain: The Bullwhip Effect" , 1997, Manag. Sci..

[28]  Thomas Y. Choi,et al.  Supply‐chain linkages and operational performance: A resource‐based‐view perspective , 2003 .

[29]  D. Gibbs.  Trust and Networking in Inter-firm Relations: the Case of Eco-industrial Development , 2003 .

[30]  Andrew J. Hoffman,et al.  Linking Social Systems Analysis To The Industrial Ecology Framework , 2003 .

[31]  K. Tan.  Supply Chain Management: Practices, Concerns, and Performance Issues , 2002 .

[32]  John D. Sterman,et al.  All models are wrong: reflections on becoming a systems scientist† , 2002 .

[33]  Jouni Korhonen,et al.  Two Paths to Industrial Ecology: Applying the Product-based and Geographical Approaches , 2002 .

[34]  Zach G. Zacharia,et al.  DEFINING SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT , 2001 .

[35]  Thomas Y. Choi,et al.  Supply networks and complex adaptive systems: Control versus emergence , 2001 .

[36]  S. Sarasvathy.  Causation and Effectuation: Toward a Theoretical Shift from Economic Inevitability to Entrepreneurial Contingency , 2001 .

[37]  J. Korhonen.  Some suggestions for regional industrial ecosystems – extended industrial ecology , 2001 .

[38]  M. Frohlich,et al.  Arcs of integration: an international study of supply chain strategies , 2001 .

[39]  Marian Chertow,et al.  INDUSTRIAL SYMBIOSIS: Literature and Taxonomy , 2000 .

[40]  J. Huber,et al.  Towards industrial ecology: sustainable development as a concept of ecological modernization , 2000 .

[41]  John R. Ehrenfeld,et al.  Industrial Ecology , 2000 .

[42]  Edward Cohen-Rosenthal,et al.  A Walk on the Human Side of Industrial Ecology , 2000 .

[43]  Marshall L. Fisher,et al.  Supply Chain Inventory Management and the Value of Shared Information , 2000 .

[44]  D. Lambert,et al.  Issues in Supply Chain Management , 2000 .

[45]  Robert D. Klassen,et al.  Environmental Management in Operations: The Selection of Environmental Technologies* , 1999 .

[46]  Braden Allenby,et al.  Culture and Industrial Ecology , 1999 .

[47]  Jeffrey H. Dyer,et al.  The Relational View: Cooperative Strategy and Sources of Interorganizational Competitive Advantage , 1998 .

[48]  R. Handfield,et al.  ‘Green’ value chain practices in the furniture industry , 1997 .

[49]  L. LeeHau,et al.  Information Distortion in a Supply Chain , 1997 .

[50]  J. Ehrenfeld,et al.  Industrial Ecology in Practice: The Evolution of Interdependence at Kalundborg , 1997 .

[51]  Ken Geiser,et al.  Pollution prevention and…or industrial ecology? , 1997 .

[52]  Erich J. Schwarz,et al.  Implementing nature's lesson: The industrial recycling network enhancing regional development , 1997 .

[53]  Amit Kapur,et al.  Industrial ecology: goals and definitions , 2002 .

[54]  Raymond P. Côté,et al.  Industrial parks as ecosystems , 1995 .

[55]  N. E. Gallopoulos,et al.  Strategies for Manufacturing , 1989 .

[56]  Mark S. Granovetter.  Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness , 1985, American Journal of Sociology.