Junming Zhu

Exploring the resilience of industrial ecosystems

Industrial ecosystems improve eco-efficiency at the system level through optimizing material and energy flows, which however raises a concern for system resilience because efficiency, as traditionally conceived, not necessarily promotes resilience. By drawing on the concept of resilience in ecological systems and in supply chains, resilience in industrial ecosystems is specified on the basis of a systems ability to maintain eco-efficient material and energy flows under disruptions. Using a network model that captures supply, asset, and organizational dependencies and propagation of disruptions among firms, the resilience, and particularly resistance as an important dimension of resilience, of two real industrial ecosystems and generalized specifications are examined. The results show that an industrial ecosystem is less resistant and less resilient with high inter-firm dependency, preferentially organized physical exchanges, and under disruptions targeted at highly connected firms. An industrial ecosystem with more firms and exchanges is less resistant, but has more eco-efficient flows and potentials, and therefore is less likely to lose its function of eco-efficiency. Taking these determinants for resilience into consideration improves the adaptability of an industrial ecosystem, which helps increase its resilience.

The development of regional collaboration for resource efficiency: A network perspective on industrial symbiosis

Abstract Industrial symbiosis (IS) improves regional sustainability through inter-firm collaboration for more efficient use of materials and energy. Drawing on the literature of IS and complex networks, this paper proposes three forming processes of IS networks corresponding to different institutional settings – preferential growth under self-organization, homogeneous growth under coordination and facilitation, and random pairing under planning and policy promotion. We examine the growth of IS networks and the impact of promotional institutions by analyzing a diverse sample of 15 IS networks including 204 firms. Additional illustrations of by-product and utility networks are provided for the cases of Kalundborg (Denmark) and Kwinana (Australia). The results suggest that preferential growth is a dominant process widely held in self-organized IS networks, indicating an enduring disparity of firms’ capabilities in building IS. Firm-organized coordination as well as government facilitation and promotion tend to change the preferential growth to a more homogeneous one, by improving the capabilities of previously disadvantaged firms. The improvement of disadvantaged firms and non-preferential growth under facilitation and promotion call for the overall symbiotic opportunities to be explored more thoroughly, and render the IS system more resilient in a region. This effect of policy promotion, however, may take time to change the IS system, and may be diminished in utility exchanges and in areas with fewer, undiversified firms, due to technical difficulties and lack of opportunities to expand an existing IS network. Policy-making and planning should take into consideration the local industry composition and context, as well as other cost associated with the policies to determine the appropriate extent of promotion and incentives.

The Impact of Mortality Salience on Intergenerational Altruism and the Perceived Importance of Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), consisting of 17 specific goals such as ending poverty, reducing inequality, and combating climate change, were proposed by the UN member states in 2014 for the ongoing UN agenda until 2030. These goals articulate the growing need for the international community to build a sustainable future. To progress and build a truly sustainable future requires not only the immediate support of individuals for the current SDGs, but also their personal long-term commitment to the needs of future generations (i.e., intergenerational altruism). Reminders of death can influence attitudes, motivation, and behavior in various aspects of our lives. In the current research, we thus explored whether reminding individuals of their own death will influence their intergenerational altruism and perceived importance of the SDGs. Using a three-condition (mortality salience vs. dentist visit vs. neutral) randomized experiment, we found that mortality salience led participants to place a higher priority on the needs of future generations only when compared to the neutral condition. Further, we conducted a factor analysis that generated two SDGs factors (socially related SDGs and ecologically related SDGs). We found that mortality salience reduced participants’ perceived importance of the socially related SDGs when compared to both the dentist visit and the neutral conditions, and mortality salience decreased participants’ perceived importance of the ecologically related SDGs only when compared to the neutral condition.