Jouni Korhonen
University of Tampere
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Featured researches published by Jouni Korhonen.
Journal of Cleaner Production | 2001
Jouni Korhonen
The industrial system operates through different principles of system development than the ecosystem. Industrial ecology can be a fruitful metaphor for facilitating the development of industrial systems toward the principles of system development of ecosystems. In this paper the industrial ecosystem analogy includes the four ecosystem principles of roundput, diversity, locality and gradual change.
Ecological Economics | 2001
Jouni Korhonen; Margareta Wihersaari; Ilkka Savolainen
Abstract Industrial Ecology is an industrial environmental management concept with an analogy in the natural ecosystem. In an ecosystem, materials are recycled between organisms, and energy is embedded in the matter of the food chain, while the only external input to the system as a whole is the solar energy. An Industrial Ecosystem is a system where the industrial actors use this natural recycling model and co-operate by using each others waste material and waste energy flows to minimize the system virgin material and energy input as well as the waste and emission output from the system as a whole. In theory, the economic environment win–win can be achieved as raw material, emission control and waste management costs are reduced through using waste as a resource of production. In this paper, the material and energy flows of the forest ecosystem are considered, and this natural recycling model is used to construct an industrial ecosystem in the forest industry of Finland. Recycling of matter including nutrients and carbon constitutes the basis in the operation of the forest ecosystem as well as in the operation of the forest industry system. The forest industry will use the cycle in these flows as a source of raw materials and energy. An industrial ecosystem is constructed with the flows of matter, nutrients, energy and carbon.
Journal of Cleaner Production | 2001
Jouni Korhonen
The resource basis of industrial energy production is still, to a large extent, in non-renewable fossil fuels, the use of which creates emissions that the ecosystem has difficulty in tolerating. The goal of industrial ecology is to substitute the non-renewable stocks with renewable flows. In this paper, a regional industrial ecosystem that relies on a power plant as its key organisation, as an anchor tenant, is considered in the context of energy production and consumption. The co-production method of heat and electricity (CHP, co-production of heat and power) is implemented in the local power plant. This method uses the waste energy from electricity production for district heat and industrial heat/steam. The fuel basis in a CHP plant can include heterogeneous waste fuels. The method has been applied, to a large extent, in only three countries in the world; Denmark, The Netherlands and Finland. Examples of CHP-based industrial ecosystems from Finland are considered. CHP is reflected upon from the viewpoint of industrial ecosystem principles.
Journal of Environmental Planning and Management | 2002
Jouni Korhonen
The development of the practical side of the concept of industrial ecology has taken two different but interrelated paths during the last two decades: the product-based systems perspective; and the geographically defined local-regional industrial ecosystem approach. Both approaches focus on material and energy flows aiming at reducing the industrial systems virgin resource use and waste and emission outputs. The ideal has arisen to mimic the model of a sustainable natural ecosystem, which relies solely on solar energy as the input and creates cyclical flows of materials (and related energy cascades) between organisms and in the food chain. It is argued in the industrial ecology literature that wastes, as defined in human industrial system terms, are non-existent in the natural recycling system. In this paper, an application of the product-based systems approach is given with paper life cycles and a basic life cycle inventory model. An application to the regional approach is presented in the regional energy supply system of the city of Jyväskylä in Finland. The paper aims at discussing the two approaches in industrial ecology and considers their contradictory characteristics as well as their similarities. When the basic vision and the overriding goal is the local industrial ecosystem, the product-based approach can serve as an inventory tool to support the project. In this situation, the two approaches would seem to be each others complement. When the two approaches are adopted as each others substitute, they may support conflicting decisions for environmental policy and management. This may create difficulties in the implementation of industrial ecology. On the basis of both of the approaches to industrial ecology, the external environment of an organization is considered to comprise the societal material and energy flow environment and the natural material and energy flow environment .
Progress in Industrial Ecology, An International Journal | 2004
Jouni Korhonen
The central question of the theory of industrial ecology (IE) is: Whether IE is/will be a form of descriptive or prescriptive science? Some debate the same (more or less) question by asking whether IE is objective or normative? This author argues that in the case of the physical flows of matter and energy the description of the ecosystem flows can produce an important prescription for the industrial ecosystem overall goal and vision of ecological sustainability. However, the ecosystem cannot tell us what to do in practice and we cannot prescribe concrete solutions or practical measures for industrial ecosystems based on ecosystem description. In the case of the structural and organisational characteristics and properties of industrial ecosystems, it is very difficult (or impossible) to derive anything prescriptive for industrial ecosystems from ecosystem description. Responses to this contribution are encouraged for publication in future issues of Progress in Industrial Ecology: An International Journal (PIE).
Journal of Business Ethics | 2003
Jouni Korhonen
This paper attempts to bridge business ethics to corporate social responsibility including the social and environmental dimensions. The objective of the paper is to suggest a conceptual methodology with which ethics of corporate environmental management tools can be considered. The method includes two stages that are required for a shift away from the current dominant unsustainable paradigm and toward a more sustainable paradigm. The first stage is paradigmatic, metaphoric and normative. The second stage is a practical stage, which in turn, is analytic, descriptive and positive. The method is applied to common industrial metabolism tools of ecological footprints (EF), environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and industrial ecology (IE). The application shows that all three tools can be used in business ethics, in particular, when the first stage of the method is applied to their use.
Progress in Industrial Ecology, An International Journal | 2005
Jouni Korhonen
The Theory of Industrial Ecology (Korhonen, 2004a) classified the properties and characteristics of industrial ecosystems: • the physical flows of matter and energy • the structural and organisational properties. I focus on the theory of the concept of diversity, an important concept in ecology, biology and sustainable development research. Can the concept of diversity be valuable and useful for developing industrial ecosystems, if yes, how, and if not, why not? A case study from energy and forest industry is analysed against diversity and other key industrial ecology principles. Furthermore, six arguments from the literature arguing for the value of the concept of diversity are evaluated. The article contributes by identifying and analysing the many different dimensions that the concept of diversity has. The definition, understanding and perception of the concept strongly affect its value. This suggests that the dominant engineering and natural science aspects of industrial ecology need to be bridged to business, management, organisational and policy studies, to social sciences and cultural studies.
International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management | 2003
Ville Niutanen; Jouni Korhonen
Local or regional development, economic, quality, social and environmental questions and problems have been addressed in national and regional policy, in the management of a municipal organisation as well as in the traditional or economic management systems of individual companies located in the region. What is common to all of these issues is that they are interdependent and in particular, they simultaneously affect or are affected by private companies, public organisations, research institutions, NGOs and citizen groups of the region in question. They call for a network approach and cooperation. In this paper, the possibilities for a regional network management system are discussed with a case study of waste management scenarios of the Satakunta Region, located in Southern Finland. A Regional Environmental Management System (REMS) extends the company-based and internally orientated environmental management system (EMS), such as the EU Eco-Management and Auditing Scheme (EMAS) or ISO 14001 standard, management model, beyond the boundaries of a single organisation. The ideal of this inter-organisational or network environmental management system is that regional private companies, public organisations, research institutions, NGOs and citizen groups, engage in a cooperative management effort in a regional context. The waste management system of the Satakunta region encompassing 12 regional municipalities is constructed into the main steps of REMS. There are many barriers to the implementation of such a diverse management system as REMS. But the results of this study indicate that, perhaps, the regional systems approach to many different municipalities and many different firms can better prevent problem displacement or problem shifting than more fragmented and isolated management efforts, e.g. of an individual firm or of an individual municipality. Two examples are given for this argument. We therefore suggest that the regional actors and decision-makers should develop and eventually construct a regional environmental management system for the Satakunta Region.
Environmental Values | 2005
Jouni Korhonen
This article is building the theory for the scientific field of industrial ecology. For this, the industrial ecosystem (IE) concept is used. IE uses the model of sustainable ecosystems in unsustainable industrial systems for making progress towards the vision of the industrial ecosystem. Six controversies are revealed and identified as research challenges. I invite all those who are interested in industrial ecology to respond to this contribution.
Business Ethics: A European Review | 2006
Jouni Korhonen
No abstract available.