Program to Encourage 'Green' Industry in Developing Countries
Contact: Dave DeFusco, Director of Communications, 203-436-4842
June 14, 2007
New Haven, Conn.—A Yale research team is introducing a program that will encourage the adoption of environmentally friendly industrial activity in developing countries.
The program, called “Industrial Ecology in Developing Countries,” 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 [profile], 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 through the proposed Circular Economy Promotion Law, which 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 the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies is leading the team’s efforts in China. The Yale team is collaborating with China’s State Environmental Protection Administration and the National Center for Innovation Research on Circular Economy of Nankai University. Ms. Abby Leigh of New York is funding the program.
June 14, 2007
New Haven, Conn.—A Yale research team is introducing a program that will encourage the adoption of environmentally friendly industrial activity in developing countries.
The program, called “Industrial Ecology in Developing Countries,” 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 [profile], 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 through the proposed Circular Economy Promotion Law, which 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 the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies is leading the team’s efforts in China. The Yale team is collaborating with China’s State Environmental Protection Administration and the National Center for Innovation Research on Circular Economy of Nankai University. Ms. Abby Leigh of New York is funding the program.
