The Conference Board of Canada has released its report entitled Mission Possible: Successful Canadian Cities

I was surprised to see the term "industrial ecology" mentioned repeatedly in the Board's recommendations. It is a term that I haven't heard in a while. In the intervening period since I heard it last the concept of "industrial ecology" has been somewhat popularized by such works as William McDonough & Michael Braungart's Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

While the concept of industrial systems mimicking natural ecological systems - where one industrial sector utilizes the waste of another sector as feedstock for what the Board calls "productive processes" - is a conceptually simple one, current industrial systems generally do not operate in that way. They generally produce things that are very difficult to "remetabolize" because reuse and recycling was never part of the design process of those things.

Anyway here are the CB's recommendations - it's all pretty high level stuff but intertesting nonetheless.

Recommendations for Environmentally Sound Growth

14) All levels of government work with research institutions to undertake extensive research on ways of dealing with wastes, including ways to convert wastes into inputs for productive processes.
15) Municipal governments and NGOs work with industry to facilitate industry information sharing on eco-industrial networks, clusters and parks.
16) All levels of government and NGOs raise awareness of the economic benefits of industrial ecology to encourage greater industry and municipal participation.
17) Federal and provincial governments review and change regulations to support industrial ecology by permitting the development and use of by-products created from wastes.
18) All levels of government use fiscal tools, such as charging higher wastewater disposal fees and solid waste tipping fees, to support environmentally sound practices.
19) Municipal governments either provide the appropriate infrastructure and design for industrial parks or retrofit them to facilitate the co-sharing of areas and the exchanges and transformation of wastes into by-products.
20) Businesses consider changes in management and leasing policies to accommodate co-use of facilities.

Thefull report can be downloaded by going here: Conference Board of Canada