Is industrial ecology a promising path towards sustainable development of a developing country ? The case of India

Industrial ecology is a concept that appears like an oxymoron. Indeed, ecology is the protection of the environment while the industry, pursuing economic development, is considered as harmful to the biosphere. However, due to the increased attention given to the natural environment protection, solutions need to be developed to lessen the negative impact on the one hand and further, to be able to develop the economy as well as protecting the environment at the same time. Sustainable development is therefore seen as a development in which resources are shared in the present as well as in the future for the benefit of all species without impeding the economy. It requires each and every stakeholder to take necessary actions. In a not so distant past, solutions have been undertaken in the fashion of end-of-pipe solutions, following the logic to transfer the wastes or pollutants from one medium to another in a linear fashion. Industrial Ecology goes indeed further, in this concept the production is designed as a loop as well as a web of resources flow and the efforts are made by different entities to reduce the overall impact on the environment. The concept embraces the notions of end-of-pipe solutions (Pollution Prevention and Cleaner Production) as well as industrial symbiosis processes in which separate agents cooperate and finally Industrial Metabolism, the study of the entire flow of resources, energy and products in a region. Industrial Ecology studies the industrial manufacturing as well as the environment in which the production takes place to consider all the exchanges that exists in a given area in order to rearrange production with the ultimate goal of optimizing production as well as consumption of resources, products or energy while making it sustainable and compatible with the biosphere. It can be done by exchanging resources between agents in the sense that one’s waste becomes one’s resource and ultimately reducing the need for raw materials. Furthermore, agents using the same kind of facilities might be collocated to benefit from economies of scale. On top of everything, service sharing also becomes possible. In developed economies, in which the economic and human development is already at a high level, the protection of the environment is a next logical step. On the other hand, developing economies have to work on both the economic development and the social development while protecting the environment to comply with international agreements. In that sense indeed, Industrial Ecology might be a solution. The country chosen to illustrate an Industrial Ecology protect is India, a country populated by 1.4 billion and whose economy is growing at a very large pace. India’s environment is facing an increased pressure, correlated to the growth rate of its economy. It could also give a net advantage as compared to older economies. Indeed, the manufacturing sector’s growth is almost at zero in developed economies while it remains at a high level in developing countries. Adopting Industrial Ecology early on might reduce the costs required to move production or to build new facilities in a similar zone. These costs are seen as the main obstacle for the development of industrial ecology in developed economies. As an illustration of an industrial ecology initiative in India, the case of the Seshasayee Paper and Boards limited in Tamil Nadu was chosen. That company was facing a constraint on its supply of resources and decided to diversify its sources of raw material to integrate wastes from the sugar cane industry, Bagasse. Such an initiative was supported by the Indian government and resulted in the development of the necessary technology to use it in quality paper production. However, they decided to take one further step and founded a sugar production company as well as a mill. On top of that they coordinated the local farmers for them to plant sugar canes and eucalyptus trees to be used in the mill. Finally, they shared facilities such as boilers and effluent water treatment plants. The total exchange of resources is made in a pyramidal fashion, farmers supply the sugar cane required for sugar production as well as their dry agricultural wastes to be used as a combustible. The sugar mill takes in the sugar cane to be transformed as sugar while producing bagasse and molasses. Bagasse is integrated by the paper factory in its production process and the molasses used to produce ethanol as a fuel. Finally, both mills treat their effluents in a shared facility and the clean water used as irrigation for the local fields as well as drinkable water for local villages. The system is embedded into the local social system and creates an interesting decision-making process. The fact that the founders of the network created their partners (through literal creation or federalisation) set the trust required for community building and cooperation behaviours. Furthermore, given the fact that Seshasayee created Ponni Sugar after a careful study of the sugar production trade gave both of them a valid understanding of the other’s process. Besides these two, they also cooperated with the local farmers’ community by helping in the establishment of a cooperative society but also by offering training in order for the workers to increase their skills regarding the change involved by the use of effluents. In this example, we see an industrial ecology initiative in operation that has been running for three decades. In this system, waste is literally turned into wealth for everyone involved, farmers, Ponni Sugar and Seshasayee; meeting a triple aspect: economic development, local community empowerment and environmental protection. In terms of making a step towards a sustainable development, this example is very illustrative. Indeed, first and foremost, the economic side of the venture is clear and benefitted all parties involved. The farmers benefited from a better quality soil increasing their production, part of their production is entirely bought by their partners having a beneficial impact on their salary and hence quality of life. Such a situation could be compared to what was experienced by Henri Ford in 1914. By improving the situation of their partners, Seshasayee creates attachment to the system but also increases the size of their market (intuitively, as the purchasing power increases, the quantity consumed of paper and sugar increases as well). Last but not least, it gave them a competitive advantage compared to other producers more impacted by market variations and allowed the companies to maximise profit. Seshasayee and Ponni Sugar benefited from economies of scale given by the utility sharing put in motion, economies from their supply of material including wastes as well as reduced transportation costs. Secondly, people also benefited from the system. The local community increased, attracted people in the system due to its profitability. Training was offered to the partners increasing their value and the companies shared their development with the local community in other ways such as giving access to drinkable water in remote villages, a rare commodity. Finally, as far as the environment is concerned, there are different aspects to be covered. First, it is safe to assume that the overall impact on the environment has decreased due to waste exchange, decrease in raw material dependency and reduced transportation networks. The sum of advantages is intuitively bigger in the system compared to a situation in which all actors work separately. Wastes are reduced, energy is shared and produced out of refuses; the supply of raw materials is more controlled, etc. However, due to the lack of quantitative data at my disposal, there is no evidence to back this claim up. Beside such a consideration, it is not yet totally sustainable, fossil fuels are still used. One way to decrease the use of such raw materials would be to increase the production of sugarcane and therefore bagasse but such a solution does not appear to be possible in the short run. The company needs to stay competitive and has, like any other, to combine its profitability as well as to minimise its environmental impact and has therefore to use other, less environmentally friendly solutions to be able to respond in a short term to the market fluctuation.