Industrial Ecology: A Review with Examples from the Canadian Mining industry/L'ecologie Industrielle: Une Revue Avec Des Exemples De L'industrie Miniere Du Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In this paper a major theoretical framework that pertains to geographic study, Industrial Ecology, is reviewed through a detailed literature review which seeks to define the field, examine its genealogy, summarize popular critiques, and situate this area of thought in relation to the closely related fields of Industrial Symbiosis, Industrial Metabolism, and Corporate Social Responsibility. Next, the potential for meaningful Industrial Ecology fieldwork to be conducted in Canada is illustrated by a brief example of the Industrial Ecology type phenomenon in the Canadian Mining Industry, as exemplified by the recycling activities of two of Canada's largest mining firms--Falconbridge and Noranda. It is argued that the potential exists to expand upon the sparse Industrial Ecology literature which examines Canadian case studies and that such research could make a meaningful contribution to this field. Dans cet article, l'ecologie industrielle est presentee en tant qu'un schema theorique important pour la geographie. Une revue detaillee de la litterature permet une definition du domaine; les antecedents du domaine sont presentes, ainsi qu'un resume de ses critiques les plus courants et une analyse de son positionnement en rapport avec des domaines connexes tells que la symbiose industrielle, le metabolisme industriel et la responsabilite sociale corporative. Puis le potentiel d'un travail de terrain serieux dans le domaine de l'ecologie industrielle est illustre un brievement avec un exemple du phenomene dans l'industrie miniere canadienne, en utilisant comme exemples les activites de recyclage de deux de plus grandes compagnies minieres au Canada, Falconbridge et Noranda. On raisonne qu'il y a un potentiel d'elargir l'envergure de la litterature relativement limitee qui traite des etudes de cas canadiennes de l'ecologie industrielle et qu'une telle recherche peut contribuer de facon significative au domaine. Introduction: Industrial Ecology Industrial Ecology is a relatively new and prescriptive field of study which seeks to transform the current industrial system by placing it within, and modeling it after, natural systems (Jelinski et al 1992; Lifset 1997; Gallopoulos 2006). As a key analogy that motivates the field's thinking, Industrial Ecology relates the flow of energy, resources, and wastes in modern industry to their natural corollaries arguing that an ecological system operates through a web of connections in which organisms live and consume each other and each other's waste. The system has evolved so that the characteristic of communities of living organisms seems to be that nothing that contains available energy or useful material will be lost ... (Frosch 1992). Following this analogy, Industrial Ecology seeks to emulate mature ecological systems in order to reduce environmental impacts through maximized efficiency of energy and resource inputs and the minimization of unutilized waste (Jelinski et al 1992). Industrial Ecology argues that traditionally industry operates in a 'linear' fashion, creating 'open' resource and energy loops where ...the flow of material from one stage to the next is independent of all other flows ... (Jelinski et al 1992). This leads to 'end-of-the-pipe outcomes' where both useful and useless (waste) products are generated as part of the production process. It is argued that in mature ecosystems all resources loops are 'closed' and that nearly all resource utilization in nature results exclusively in products that are useful to other organisms--anything that is generated as 'waste' by one organism is eventually taken up by another as food. Following the natural model, Industrial Ecology seeks to 'close' the industrial loop so that all waste products and available flows of energy are put to a productive use (Jelinski et al 1992; Lifset 1997; Gallopoulos 2006). This involves the evolution of increased complexity and interconnectedness within the industrial system (Ruth 1998). …
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.015 | 0.042 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.004 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.005 | 0.003 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".