Page 140 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

Ch003-P373623.qxd 3/22/07 5:29 PM Page 119
Sustainable Development and Industrial Ecology
Moreover UNEP stated that 119
Both Dalhousie University and the Eco-Efficiency Centre act as educa-
tors in this endeavor. For the past seven years, we have written The
Burnside Ecosystem column in the monthly park newspaper. The Centre
prepares and publishes a series of fact sheets on various generic and
sector specific topics which are distributed to businesses in the park. In
addition, we have just concluded an agreement with the Metropolitan
Chamber of Commerce which will result in the publication of 3 or 4 arti-
cles per year in their monthly magazine. Under the supervision of their
professors, students undertake projects with companies in the park. For
example, during the past five years, papers on the implications of envi-
ronmental management systems with a gap analysis have been written
and presented to 25 businesses in the park. The Centre encourages
materials exchange and symbiotic relationships between companies
and supports Clean Nova Scotia in the province-wide waste materials
exchange. There is a possibility that the Centre will be taking this func-
tion over in the next few months. Finally, the project and the Centre
encourage professors and students to collaborate with companies or
sectors on applied research projects. One such study involves the inte-
gration of an environmental management system and the Natural Step
into a furniture manufacturer owned by a multi-national corporation.
Another project is a demonstration of an engineered wetland for the
treatment of landfill leachate and runoff.

Analysis and comments
According to Mr Raymond Cote, the contact person in the park, what con-
stitutes success in the park is as follows (Smart Growth 2000):

• Commitment from park owners;
• Flexibility in implementation of environmental regulations;
• Participation by capital owners;
• Appropriate economic instruments;
• Active information, education and interpretation; and
• A technical extension service.

With the following linkages:
• System Definition [Surveys and Database]; Industrial, social, brain-
power inventories;
• Food Web [Materials Flow Database];
• Energy Conservation [Energy Audits];
• Resource Conservation [Waste Audits and Materials Exchange];
• Scavengers and Decomposers [Recyclers and Waste Managers];
• Information Exchange [Cleaner Production Centre Business Leaders
Forum, Newspaper Column].