Weslynne Ashton

Understanding the Organization of Industrial Ecosystems

Industrial symbiosis (IS) has been used to describe the physical exchange and shared management of input and output materials by geographically proximate firms. Firms that engage in IS are said to belong to an industrial ecosystem. Symbiosis has been found to be motivated by economic considerations, such as lowering costs for waste disposal, as well as by environmental ones, such as accessing limited water supplies. Communication and trust among managers are thought to play important roles in exchanges; however, empirical studies have not been previously conducted. This study used social network analysis (SNA) to identify the prevalence of industrial symbiosis linkages in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico. The study quantified patterns in various relationships among firms and managers, including formal relations through supply chains, and informal ones through interpersonal interactions. SNA and statistical methods were used to explore how these ties correlate with observed industrial symbiosis activities. IS linkages were found to be less prevalent than product sales among firms and were concentrated among pharmaceutical firms at the core of the regional network. Trust among managers and position in the social hierarchy were found to be correlated with IS but not supply chain links. SNA was useful for examining the organization of different relationships in the industrial ecosystem, but contextual information is still needed to add meaning to its findings.

The adoption of green business practices among small US Midwestern manufacturing enterprises

Manufacturers around the world green their businesses for a variety of reasons, including competitiveness, social responsibility, and external stakeholder pressure. However, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are thought to lag behind larger ones in the adoption of green business practices. This paper explores the motivations for US Midwestern SMEs adopting a variety of green business practices, using a survey of 59 SMEs in the tool and die manufacturing industry. The majority of firms appear to be internally motivated to implement green practices – driven primarily by cost and competitiveness concerns, more than by social responsibility concerns. External coercive pressure from government or customers does not appear to be a significant motivation for these SMEs. However, informal pressure through government incentives and support programs, as well as mimetic pressure through peer learning via industry associations, appear to be more effective in helping these SMEs to further ‘go green.’

Marketing educational improvements via international partnerships under brain drain constraints

We study the dynamics in an educational partnership between a university and a developing region. We examine how the university achieves its goals to improve and advertise its offerings while recruiting a cohort of students from the developing region and maintaining a sustainable relationship with the region and its students. We show that mutually beneficial partnerships can arise, particularly when both the university and the region exhibit strong preferences toward cohort students returning to work at home. We further show that such partnerships can induce developing regions to invest in domestic opportunities for returning students.

The Intimacy of Human-Nature Interactions on Islands

Islands provide a place to conceptualise human-nature interactions in socio-ecological systems and to explore how such phenomena occur within decisive boundaries. Isolation, vulnerability to disruption, and constraints on the availability of natural resources add urgency to island sustainability questions with limited solution sets. This chapter presents findings that contribute to the larger issues of resiliency and vulnerability on islands. Cross-cutting reflections are offered based on studies conducted over the last 10 years at the Yale Center for Industrial Ecology of four diverse islands: Singapore, a highly developed island city-state; Puerto Rico, an island rich with nature and industry; O’ahu, a high density, tourism-dependent island, home to Honolulu, Hawai’i; and Hawai’i Island, also known as “The Big Island”, with a larger land area and a lower population density than O’ahu. Over the course of the twentieth century, each of these islands became heavily dependent on imports such as water, food, or fuel to sustain basic human needs and modern economic functions. Within the last decade, each has consciously sought to restructure its socio-ecological configurations by using more locally available resources in one or more of its metabolic linkages. This pattern has the potential to reconnect island economies with their natural systems while simultaneously enhancing relationships and increasing resilience.

Financing resource efficiency and cleaner production in Central America

Resource efficiency, including cleaner production and energy efficiency (CP/EE), is an important strategy for developing countries to grow their economies in a sustainable manner. However, informational, technical and economic barriers often limit the implementation of such strategies in the private sector, particularly among smaller enterprises. Since the 1990s, international aid agencies, governments, banks and non-governmental organizations have supplied financial incentives to encourage enterprises to adopt resource efficient practices in Latin America. “Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas” (PCPA) was a 3-year multinational project focused on promoting cleaner production practices in micro, small and medium size enterprises (MSMEs) through collaboration with academia. In this paper, we examine the availability and utilization of different types of financing instruments for CP/EE in MSMEs in Central America. We survey nineteen programs across five countries to examine how effectively these instruments are utilized, barriers that hinder their adoption, and best practices for increasing their uptake. We also incorporate the experience of 39 MSMEs that participated in PCPA, with respect to their demand for CP/EE and external financing options. We find a mismatch between MSMEs’ demands and expectations with the supply and interest of financing programs, leading to the underutilization of the funds.

Green Supply Chain Formation Through By-Product Synergies

Many firms across the world are discovering and benefiting from the ability to identify, recover, and reuse industrial by-products from other firms in traditionally unrelated industries. We examine how the formation of a by-product synergy between two firms, in different industries, and its environmental impact, are influenced by factors such as the by-product trading price, the fixed costs of synergy formation (e.g., innovation cost), and the distinct characteristics of the two markets in which potential partners operate. We show that an incentive compatible region, which ensures a profit increase for both firms, can be characterized by an interior region of the by-product trading price, and the incentive compatible region may enlarge or shrink with the firms share of the fixed cost. Second, we find that when the firms are willing to share the synergy formation cost, higher volatility of either market could better incentivize the formation of the by-product synergy. Third, we find conditions when there exists a set of prices that are both incentive compatible and environmentally efficient.

Resource reuse and recycling in an Indian industrial network: efficiency and flexibility considerations

The recovery, reuse and recycling of waste materials is critical in locations where resources are limited, in order to extract maximum embodied value from those materials. The Indian context, as exemplified in this case study of the Nanjangud Industrial Area (NIA), displays diverse options for materials cycling. The three most important are through 1) in facility reuse and recycling, 2) market-based recycling via complex networks of informal scrap dealers and reprocessors and 3) direct reuse between pairs of manufacturers (industrial symbiosis). This study combines material flow analysis with network analysis to examine patterns in the cycling of industrial process residuals via these three routes. It examines the efficiency of materials cycling in the study site, and compares the advantages and disadvantages of these arrangements.

Linking education to industry: water and energy sustainability in Latin America

The sustainable economic development of Latin America depends in great part on a workforce that is equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote sustainability practices, including effective management of water and energy resources and minimization of carbon emissions and water pollution. Such a skilled workforce is necessary for the successful operation of industries so that they contribute to the development of societal and environmental well-being in these societies. The “Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas” (Pathways) partnership focused on offering practical training in cleaner production to engineering and business students at seven universities in Latin America. Experiential learning was a key feature of this partnership, as student teams worked with small, and medium enterprises (SMEs) in each host country. The students analyzed the companies’ operations and then developed relevant cleaner production recommendations for them. They conducted water and energy audits, along with mass balances, waste and carbon emissions accounting, as well as return on investment calculations. After vetting these recommendations, project advisors helped companies implement priority projects, and monitor the financial and environmental benefits realized. The students were expected to gain the expertise and capabilities during their practice to guide companies on a sustainable development path. In turn, the companies were expected to improve their environmental and economic performance by implementing the recommendations. The article asks whether the “Pathways” educational model has been effective in improving the environmental and economic performance of the SMEs, by helping them to reduce their water and energy consumption, along with other measures. To address this question the authors first focused on the student cleaner production recommendations in order to analyze their potential impact on the SMEs, and then quantified the companies’ water and energy savings post-implementation of the student recommendations. The analysis also looks at key factors that have influenced the success of the educational model in the various countries. When successful, the model helps the companies with water and energy savings, and in the aggregate, leads to a lower carbon footprint and improved water sustainability in the countries engaged through this initiative. Implications for longer-term impacts of the educational model are also discussed.

The need to adapt sustainability audits to atypical business models

While a growing number of businesses aspire toward sustainability, doing so requires new business models that aim to achieve triple bottom line benefits (economic, environmental, and social), while utilizing appropriate technologies and new knowledge platforms for doing business. “Third Places,” defined as places of public gathering outside of work or home, have emerged as powerful platforms for business model innovation, in the form of incubators, co-working spaces, and innovation hubs. Third Places enable a diverse group of actors, including entrepreneurs, employees, and investors to informally interact and develop innovative ways of doing business. Third Places tend to be structurally more complex than traditional production facilities as they have multiple firms interacting in formal and informal ways. In this commentary, we discuss the challenges of measuring the sustainability performance of Third Places using conventional sustainability audit tools.