Program to encourage "green" industry in developing countries
A Yale research team is introducing a program that will encourage the
adoption of environmentally friendly industrial activity in developing
countries. The program will examine the flow of energy, materials, and water
through industry and the natural environment. The first studies are being
conducted in China and India, whose rapidly industrializing economies are
putting a strain on natural resources. The program's ultimate goal is to
encourage ecologically sustainable industrial production that is fueled by
firms that share resources and waste.
"Industrial ecology is especially critical for developing countries,
where large, poor populations are urbanizing rapidly and depleting key
resources," said Marian Chertow, director of the program for the Yale Center
for Industrial Ecology. "Resource productivity and eco-efficient industry are
urgently needed to address these challenges to sustainable development." The
Chinese government has already created 16 eco-industrial park projects that are
intended to serve as prototypes for ecologically sustainable production. China
has been seeking a new industrialization model that will reconcile rapid
economic growth and environmental degradation; the proposed Circular Economy
Promotion Law would require an evaluation of the environmental friendliness of
products before they enter the market. In India, the Yale team will work with
regional planners and the nonprofit Resource Optimization Initiative in
Bangalore to identify the flow of resources through local economies and what is
being used and wasted. Besides Professor Chertow, Matthew Eckelman of the Yale
School of Engineering will run the India/South Asia Program, and Shi Han of
F&ES is leading the team's efforts in China.
Eco-rating system created for land development
Yale researchers have created a rating system to encourage ecologically
sound land development. The Land and Natural Development (LAND) Code (published by John Wiley & Sons) provides
architects, engineers, landscape architects, developers, and city officials
with a science-based rating system that awards either a silver, gold, or
platinum designation based on how well a parcel of land is developed in harmony
with the natural environment.
"The goal in creating the LAND code has been to delineate a clear and
practical pathway for developing sites in harmony with natural processes," said
Gaboury Benoit, a co-author of the book and professor of environmental
chemistry at the environment school. "Land will inevitably be developed, and
this book shows how that can be done with the least environmental harm." The
book includes easy-to-read chapters on water, soil, air, energy, living
resources, and materials, and contains examples of projects that have been
sustainably developed (meaning that an ecosystem maintains a defined or desired
state of ecological integrity over time). Retaining ecological integrity does
not necessarily mean leaving nature alone, according to co-author Diana
Balmori, a landscape architect and lecturer in landscape and urban history at
Yale. "Sometimes the best results can be achieved with intensively engineered
methods," she said. "Nevertheless, we try to recommend ways that natural
processes can be partly retained or re-created by the use of engineered structures
and practices that emulate the natural processes they supplant. We believe that
environmental sustainability furthers human sustainability by creating systems
that contribute to people's comfort, enjoyment, and health."
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