Industrial Metabolism: Restructuring for Sustainable Development (UNU, 1994, 376 pages): Acknowledgements

Industrial Metabolism: Restructuring for Sustainable Development (UNU, 1994, 376 pages)

Note to the reader from the UNU

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Part 1: General implications

1. Industrial metabolism: Theory and policy

(introduction...)

What is industrial metabolism?

The materials cycle

Measures of industrial metabolism

Policy implications of the industrial metabolism perspective

References

2. Ecosystem and the biosphere: Metaphors for human-induced material flows

(introduction...)

Introduction

The ecosystem analogue

The environmental spheres analogue: Atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere

Summary and conclusions

References

3. Industrial restructuring in industrial countries

(introduction...)

Introduction

Identifying indicators of environmentally relevant structural change

Structural change as environmental relief

Environmentally relevant structural change: Empirical analysis

Typology of environmentally relevant structural change

Specific conclusions

General conclusions

4. Industrial restructuring in developing countries: The case of India

(introduction...)

Industrial metabolism and sustainable development

Industry and sustainable development

Resource utilization

Energy efficiency: An overview

Energy use in Indian industry: A case-study

Conclusions

References

5. Evolution, sustainability, and industrial metabolism

(introduction...)

Introduction

Technical progress and reductionism

The mechanical paradigm

The evolution of ecological structure

Discussion

Part 2: Case-studies

6. Industrial metabolism at the national level: A case-study on chromium and lead pollution in Sweden, 1880-1980

(introduction...)

Introduction

The use of chromium and lead in Sweden

Calculation of emissions

The development of emissions over time

The emerging immission landscape

Conclusions

References

7. Industrial metabolism at the regional level: The Rhine Basin

(introduction...)

Introduction

Geographic features of the Rhine basin

Methodology

The example of cadmium

Conclusions

References

8. Industrial metabolism at the regional and local level: A case-study on a Swiss region

(introduction...)

Introduction

Methodology

Results

Conclusions

References

9. A historical reconstruction of carbon monoxide and methane emissions in the United States, 1880-1980

(introduction...)

Introduction

Carbon monoxide (CO)

Methane (CH4)

References

10. Sulphur and nitrogen emission trends for the United States: An application of the materials flow approach

(introduction...)

Introduction

Sulphur emissions

Nitrogen oxides emissions

Conclusion

References

11. Consumptive uses and losses of toxic heavy metals in the United States, 1880-1980

(introduction...)

Introduction

Production-related heavy metal emissions

Emissions coefficients for production

Consumption-related heavy metal emissions

Emissions coefficient for consumption

Historical usage patterns

Conclusions

References

Appendix

Part 3: Further implications

12. The precaution principle in environmental management

(introduction...)

Introduction

Precaution and "industrial metabolism"

Precaution: A case-study

History of the precaution principle

The precaution principle in international agreements

Precaution on the European stage

Precaution as a science-politics game

Precaution on the global stage

References

13. Transfer of clean(er) technologies to developing countries

(introduction...)

Introduction

Sustainable development

Environmentally sound technology, clean(er) technology

Industrial metabolism

Knowledge and technology transfer

Endogenous capacity

Crucial elements of endogenous capacity-building

International cooperation for clean(er) technologies

Conclusions

Two case-studies

References

Bibliography

14. A plethora of paradigms: Outlining an information system on physical exchanges between the economy and nature

(introduction...)

Introduction

Distinguishing between "harmful" and "harmless" characteristics of socio-economic metabolism with its natural environment

Outline of an information system for the metabolism of the socio-economic system with its natural environment

An empirical example for ESIs: Material balances and intensities for the Austrian economy

Purposive interventions into life processes (PILs)

Conclusions

References

Bibliography

Contributors

Acknowledgements

This book is the end result of a process that began with a conference in Tokyo in September 1988, sponsored jointly by the United Nations University (UNU), UNESCO, and the International Federation of Institutes for Advanced Study (IFIAS). This conference was convened to explore ways of broadening the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) to consider explicitly the human dimensions of global change.

The term "industrial metabolism" was coined during the preparatory stages of that conference, to encapsulate this interaction. Selected papers from the Tokyo conference were published in the International Social Science Journal (ISSJ) in 1989. A second, follow-up, workshop on "Industrial Metabolism" was held in Maastricht, the Netherlands, under the joint auspices of the UNU and IFIAS, in 1989. The present volume was conceived at that workshop.

We are extremely grateful for the financial support of the UNU for this book, and for the personal support and assistance of Dr Walter Shearer, New York Office of the UNU, and Dr Roland Fuchs, Vice-Rector of the UNU in Tokyo. We would like to thank Professor Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek, of Wuppertal Institut, and Professor Robert H. Socolow, of Princeton University, for their valuable comments on the first draft of the manuscript.