Industrial metabolism and territorial development of the Maurienne Valley (France)

The globalisation of exchanges has resulted in excessive growth of material and immaterial flows. The disconnection among the supply, production, decision-making and consumption sites generates new spatial interdependencies. It determines local socio-economic dynamics and affects ecosystems. In this context, the question arises if territorial capability—“localized collective capacity to serve territorial development”—influences, from local level, these globalised flows systems. By combining territorial economic principles and territorial ecology approaches, we study the industrial metabolism of the Maurienne valley in France. The Maurienne case shows how territorial characteristics contribute to the economic resilience in rural areas. The calculation of wealth flows provides information on the local economic base, the weight of industry and its social impact. The analysis of physical flows reveals the materiality of this industry and the dependence on external resources and international companies. It highlights the various pressures and risks on the environment. To deal with these constraints, companies rely on relational and geographic proximities with local subcontractors. These relationships determine both the proper functioning of the local industrial system and the territorial capability to maintain and transform industrial activities. Most rural European territories experience the same industrial issues and environmental challenges. Therefore, this study offers new research perspectives to better understand and promote ecological transition in old and often rural industrial areas.

Industrial Metabolism Analysis and Green Optimization of a Painting Production Line

This article takes a coating production line as an example, uses industrial metabolism analysis method to quantitatively analyse its material metabolism process, and forms a material balance sheet to evaluate resource efficiency and environmental efficiency. The results show that the resource efficiency of the coating production line is 0.4%, and the environmental efficiency is 0.51%, indicating that there is a serious waste of resources and greater environmental pressure. The reason is the old spraying method, the use of highly volatile paints and cleaning agents, and the higher VOC content of the paint. In response to these problems, this article combines the input and output content of the production line and proposes several green optimization approaches from the perspectives of cleaner production, circular economy and ecological industrial parks.

Sustainable urban development based on energy and resource conservation concepts

In recent years, environmental-oriented concepts of sustainable urban development have been actively developing, in particular, in the spheres of energy efficiency and resource conservation in the context of the theory of thrift, smart and environmentally-oriented creation. Four scientific concepts can be distinguished from a set of scientific theories and methodological approaches: industrial metabolism; control «on the pipe»; social and ecological metabolism, thrifty production. In particular, the concept of «lean manufacturing» has shown its effectiveness in practice in many countries in various industries. This concept is environmentally friendly, has a high potential for implementation, but is not sufficiently appreciated by domestic enterprises. Despite its widespread implementation and development, the lack of its implementation at domestic industrial enterprises is explained by the lack of adapted methods and tools for resource conservation management based on this concept. It explains the relevance of the study, which proposes a theoretical and methodological substantiation of the program for a phased transition to «lean manufacturing», which ensures an increase in the efficiency of enterprises in modern conditions, which will increase the sustainability of cities ultimately.

Standardization Framework for Sustainability from Circular Economy 4.0

The circular economy (CE) is widely known as a way to implement and achieve sustainability, mainly due to its contribution towards the separation of biological and technical nutrients under cyclic industrial metabolism. The incorporation of the principles of the CE in the links of the value chain of the various sectors of the economy strives to ensure circularity, safety, and efficiency. The framework proposed is aligned with the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development regarding the orientation towards the mitigation and regeneration of the metabolic rift by considering a double perspective. Firstly, it strives to conceptualize the CE as a paradigm of sustainability. Its principles are established, and its techniques and tools are organized into two frameworks oriented towards causes (cradle to cradle) and effects (life cycle assessment), and these are structured under the three pillars of sustainability, for their projection within the proposed framework. Secondly, a framework is established to facilitate the implementation of the CE with the use of standards, which constitute the requirements, tools, and indicators to control each life cycle phase, and of key enabling technologies (KETs) that add circular value 4.0 to the socio-ecological transition.

Defiance from Down River: Deflection and Dispute in the Urban-Industrial Metabolism of Pollution in Guadalajara

Research in urban political ecology has been important in recent decades in understanding the complex socionatural processes entailed in urbanization, exploring the local and global linkages of the production and consumption processes of urban metabolism. While these studies have explored diverse networks and artefacts in this metabolism, little attention has been paid to the flows of the pollution of water and air, particularly of the industrial emissions that are also key to the socionatures of urbanization in industrialized regions of the Global South. In this paper, we explore two interconnected nodes in the metabolism of the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area in Western Mexico. These are key sites for the flows of resources and emissions, with different levels of social discontent and conflict related particularly to the health impacts of water pollution. Here, government authorities tend to deflect attention from industrial- and city-level sources of pollution, focusing instead on proximate sources and household emissions. Organized social resistance, on the other hand, calls attention to powerful industrial actors and speculative urban development while taking action to imagine new socio-ecological configurations in the region. We focus on the role of the state in maintaining socio-ecological inequities, and the lessons that can be learned about urban metabolism by expanding the frame to include industrial processes in the shaping of urban socionatures.

Stakeholders’ Interests and Perceptions of Bioeconomy Monitoring Using a Sustainable Development Goal Framework

The bioeconomy as an industrial metabolism based on renewable resources is characterized by, not intrinsic, but rather potential benefits for global sustainability, depending on many factors and actors. Hence, an appropriate systematic monitoring of its development is vital and complexly linked to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as diverse stakeholder expectations. To structure a framework of the important aspects of such a monitoring system, we conducted a series of stakeholder workshops to assess the relevance of SDGs for the bioeconomy. Our results show how the complexities of these issues are perceived by 64 stakeholders, indicating significant commonalities and differences among six SDGs, including specific interests, perceptions, and, in some cases, counterintuitive and contradictory issues. Eventually, the idea of a bioeconomy is a question of the perception of ends and means of a societal transformation toward holistic sustainability. Global implications like trade-offs, hunger, poverty, and inequalities are aspects of high relevance for monitoring of bioeconomy regions in which they actually do not seem to be substantial.

INVESTIGATING THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY AS A SOLUTION FOR CONSTRUCTION WASTE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

The construction industry results in a large amount of material waste, most of which currently ends up in landfills. This study aims to find new ways to reuse waste materials captured as outputs of construction projects. First, the circular economy (CE) concept is explored. Second, the application of CE as a potential solution for minimizing material waste on construction projects is investigated. To achieve a healthy industrial metabolism, the paper illustrates how a complex industrial ecosystem is one that produces little or no waste and whose constituents can be interdependent. Output ratios from the construction industry are compared with previous literature on material waste, as a foundation to present a cycle of material reuse. Reformulating the traditional input-output system into a more circular concept presents a set of challenges; however, the opportunities and significant impacts to the material cycles and landfills have proven beneficial and some major cities are starting to employ this concept with great success.