Talk:Industrial ecology

I have made a copy of this page for an academic colleague who is a leading industrial ecologist and he has promised to help to improve it. While the basic theme is good and reliable, there are some specific weaknesses. The reference to the work of Evan is specially interesting because this refers to the independent development of concepts in industrial ecology in socialist Eastern Europe (notably the Mendeleev Institute). The external links can be substantially strengthened by linking to the Society for Industrial Ecology and its related journal.

Martin Willison, Nova Scotia

I have added some text and links related to the Journal of IE and the International Society of IE.

Rene Kleijn, Leiden University, Netherlands

Synergy

Is industrial ecology sometimes called synergy? Is there an industrial ecology complex called synergy? I thought I heard something like that, somewhere. This article is the best thing ever by the way. Good work. Lotusduck 19:16, 28 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I think you mean "Eco Industrial Park" when you are talking about a "complex" or "estate". Industrial ecology is a bigger framework for business operation that includes many aspects such as green accounting, lifecycle assessment, industrial symbiosis, etc. Chaerani 11:05, 16 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Incoherent babble that is bad and unreliable

I don't believe the our industrial system is a biological process. These two terms are imcompatible. I think the term industrial ecology is pure jargon and suggest a deletion occur. Each government body or private entity involved in industrial development is unique, there are no populations or species and so the process is not ecological. Notice that ecology is a sub category of biology. It's like chalk and cheese.

Just because some waste is being reused does not mean it is a "closed loop system". All living things consume energy and therefore can never exist within a closed system. It is not possible to just ignore the laws of thermodynamics. It is not possible to endlessly reuse waste products. What a weak and useless discipline of study. It is just another field of research which provides an excuse for continuing economic growth as usual. - Shiftchange 22:42, 17 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

hi, crticism of the filed can only be done in academic journals not here. Industrial ecology is a well established field with more than two decades of reseacrh. though the correlation between ecology and industrial systems appear first, the field is certainly more accomodating than that--Ravishankar 13:15, 26 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]