Initiating a waste management and resource recovery network: a college, NGO, and corporate partnership

Israel Dunmade; Kurt Rosentrater

doi:10.1117/12.687264

11 October 2006 Initiating a waste management and resource recovery network: a college, NGO, and corporate partnership

Israel Dunmade, Kurt Rosentrater

Proceedings Volume 6385, Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing VI; 63850L (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.687264
Event: Optics East 2006, 2006, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Abstract

The increasing awareness of sustainable development concept and its economic benefits are making environmentally proactive companies to consider how they can achieve eco-efficiency improvement through material exchange and by partnering with academic, governmental and non-governmental agencies. This paper reports the experiences and achievements of a tripartite partnership initiated by the author with a number of companies in Calgary and a Calgarian NGO. The network is a form of eco-industrial network that is being developed to benefit the participating companies and to develop industrial ecology students' skill in eco-industrial network modeling. The paper highlights the initial difficulties, how they were overcome and a conceptual model developed for assessing the sustainability of the material exchange loop. The preliminary results obtained revealed that the companies are enthusiastic in taking part if it will help them achieve waste management cost reduction, improvement in their corporate environmental performance and corporate goodwill, and protection of their proprietary information. It also reveals that such corporate exposure to students develop their skills in balancing their academic view with what works in the corporate world.

Citation Download Citation

Israel Dunmade and Kurt Rosentrater "Initiating a waste management and resource recovery network: a college, NGO, and corporate partnership", Proc. SPIE 6385, Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing VI, 63850L (11 October 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.687264

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available