Implementing industrial ecology? Planning for eco-industrial parks in the USA David Gibbs * , Pauline Deutz Department of Geography, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK Received 5 August 2003; received in revised form 9 June 2004 Abstract Despite the widespread incorporation of sustainable development into policy discourses, actually achieving the Ôwin–win–winÕ scenario of economic, environmental and social development continues to be problematic. Advocates of industrial ecology suggest that by shifting the basis of industrial production from a linear to a closed loop system, these gains can be achieved. In recent years, concepts drawn from industrial ecology have been used to plan and develop eco-industrial parks (EIPs) that seek to increase busi- ness competitiveness, reduce waste and pollution, create jobs and improve working conditions. Despite a growing interest in EIPs, there have been few empirically informed studies that seek to explore the potential contribution such EIPs may make to sustainable development. This paper contributes to a developing sympathetic critique of industrial ecology by focusing on the key problems and dilemmas that arise in the course of developing eco-industrial parks, drawing upon empirical work conducted in the USA. The paper draws upon both an extensive survey of EIPs and in-depth interviews conducted with a range of stakeholders at ten US sites. As the paper reveals, EIPs in the USA are in their early stages and likewise their contribution to both economic development and environ- mental policy, let alone social policies, is complicated and inchoate. The empirical material reveals that key features of industrial ecology such as inter-firm networking and collaboration in the form of materials interchange and energy cascading are either absent or in the early planning stages. In each of the ten cases what is emerging is a form of EIP partly determined by the geographic setting and broader economic realities of the locality. While collaborative behaviour between firms is central to EIP development if the potential benefits of industrial ecology are to be realised, it is important to realise that such behaviour is difficult to develop from scratch through policy intervention. In conclusion, the paper suggests that expectations must be realistic for the community and location in question. As part of that realism, EIP projects must be designed to allow for a gradual approach, and each phase needs to be financially viable. Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Industrial ecology; Eco-industrial park; Sustainable development; USA 1. Introduction Despite the outpouring of academic and policy liter- ature on the topic since the Earth Summit of 1992, the actual implementation of sustainable development on the ground has continued to prove elusive (Milani, 2000; Roberts and Colwell, 2001; Gibbs, 2002). One at- tempt to counter this seeming impasse impeding the Ôwin–win–winÕ scenarios (economic–environmental–so- cial) proposed in the sustainable development literature has been to argue that implementing concepts drawn from industrial ecology form a partial solution. Advo- cates of industrial ecology suggest that by shifting the basis of industrial production from a linear to a closed loop system, both economic and environmental gains can be achieved (see Erkman, 1997 for an historical 0016-7185/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2004.07.009 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: d.c.gibbs@hull.ac.uk (D. Gibbs), p.deutz@hull. ac.uk (P. Deutz). www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum Geoforum 36 (2005) 452–464