The Ecology of Industrial Plants

You remember mutual symbiosis from middle school biology, where two animals – like the clown fish and the sea anemone – form a relationship that benefits both. The same life-cycle principles are now being applied to industrial systems.

In an emerging field called industrial ecology, researchers help industrial parks manage the flow of excess energy, materials, and water from one company to another. Manufacturers reuse each other’s waste, which saves money and reduces energy consumption and shrinks the environmental impact of products and services.

As part of our "next green thing" series, we’re joined by Marian Chertow. She’s professor at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and a leader in the field of industrial ecology. Just as a biologist or zoologist traces the life cycle of plants and animals through an ecosystem, Chertow traces the pathways of steam and sludge through smokestacks and drainage pipes to ask whether one industrial plant's trash may be another's treasure.

The Journal of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies: Reincarnating Trash on the Big Island

(Photo by McBeth via Flickr/Creative Commons)