ecolog Articles
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Industrial ecology and ecological economics
The editors of this journal initiated a discussion on the relationship between industrial ecology and ecological economics, to which the current article is intended to contribute. It consists of overviews of ecological economics and industrial ecology, followed by an analysis of the links between them. Judging from their theoretical background and historical development, the extent of cross ...
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Using Ecological Footprint accounts: from analysis to applications
It is argued in this paper that sustainability has specific, definable requirements, including the need to avoid ecological overshoot – that is, a level of resource demand that exceeds ecological carrying capacity. This paper demonstrates how ecological overshoot can be measured. Our evidence suggests that humanity is already in overshoot. Indeed, most industrialised countries run significant ...
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Grounding the ecological economics paradigm with ten core principles
To date, attempts at determining what ecological economics is have focused on what is required to ensure a correct balance between ecology and economics; that is, on ensuring ecological economics is not too much of one and not too little of the other. This has led to the emergence of process-oriented definitions of ecological economics. While such definitions are useful, they are informative only ...
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Editorial article: on the theoretical dimensions of industrial ecology
This editorial article for the double special issue of Progress in Industrial Ecology, 'Theoretical dimensions of industrial ecology', reviews the ten accepted contributions. We find four themes that we perceive as challenges for the theory of industrial ecology in terms of its contribution to sustainability science and sustainable development: 1) development of the science of industrial ecology; ...
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Ecological modernisation and nature conservation
Although ecological modernisation has a prominent position in contemporary environmental sociology, efforts to use ecological modernisation concepts in the specific case of nature conservation are remarkably absent. This article explores the potentials of applying ecological modernisation as a discourse and as a theory to issues of nature management. It is argued that ecological modernisation ...
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Ecological purchase behaviour: insights from a Middle Eastern country
This study examined the influence of attitude towards environment and subjective norms on the ecological purchase intentions of Iranian consumers. The study subsequently investigated the influence of ecological purchase intentions on actual purchase behaviour of consumers and explored the key factors resulting in the lack of tendency for purchasing ecological products by Iranian consumers. Out of ...
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An ecological compensation standard based on emergy theory for the Xiao Honghe River Basin
The calculation of an ecological compensation standard is an important, but also difficult aspect of current ecological compensation research. In this paper, the factors affecting the ecological–economic system in the Xiao Honghe River Basin, China, including the flow of energy, materials, and money, were calculated using the emergy analysis method. A consideration of the relationships ...
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Environmental benchmarks vs. ecological benchmarks for assessment and monitoring in Canada: Is there a difference?
Environmental benchmarks are widely used in Canadian environmental assessment as a standard against which to monitor air or water quality in response to human activities in the environment. Recent work in Canada has developed the concept of ecological benchmarks as a complement to environmental benchmarks. However, implementation of ecological benchmarks may be challenging. This paper presents an ...
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Gulf Ecology Merger
WKC Group Merger with Gulf Ecology We are pleased to announce the recent merger between WKC Group and Gulf Ecology. Gulf Ecology is a successful, niche consultancy business based in Dubai offering regional marine ecology and terrestrial ecology services. In combining resources, WKC is now able to offer terrestrial and marine ecology services throughout the Arabian Gulf, and similarly, we are keen ...
By WKC Group
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Industrial ecology as mediator and negotiator between ecology and industrial sustainability
This article discusses hybrid theory development efforts within industrial ecology. The framework is Latour's (1988) Prince metaphor, which he expanded to describe machines and machinations, technology and society. Technology including industrial ecology is regarded here as mediator between nature and society. Aspects on standard ecology and principles for ecosystem thinking as background for our ...
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Commentary: regional environmental management systems: lessons and challenges for industrial ecology research
Industrial ecology has made a major contribution to the tools of corporate environmental management over the last ten years. However, it is argued that most of that contribution has been at the level of products and individual firms. It is argued that if the concept of industrial ecology is to be developed in a way that attracts public policy attention then it will have to demonstrate greater ...
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Thermo-ecological performance optimisation of two stage irreversible refrigerators
The present study investigates the optimal performance of two stage refrigeration system based on thermo-ecological performance criterion. To maximise the ecological performance function, the working fluid temperatures are optimised. The optimal conditions such as cooling load, entropy generation rate and Coefficient of Performance (COP) are arrived analytically. The derived solution provides a ...
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The ecological antecedents of terrorism
The global 'war on terror' is wreaking havoc on the natural environment and involving increasing number of organisations. This paper invites sustainability and strategic management studies scholars to explore the relations between terrorism and ecology. In several terrorism prone areas of the world, the disruption of ecological systems that support human populations is an important antecedent to ...
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Assessing ecological risks at US Department of Energy facilities using methods borrowed from landscape ecology and habitat suitability analysis. Part II. Adapting Habitat Suitability Index models and landscape-scale ecological models for use in ecolo
Historical and continuing US Department of Energy (USDOE) operations have not only contaminated the environment but have altered the landscape as well as habitat quality and quantity. The changes in the landscape that have occurred within USDOE facilities may be as important as assessing the effects resulting from the release of chemical contaminants into the environment. We examined several ...
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Achieving ecological sustainability with the introduction of a 'Sustainability Guarantee'
For nearly a decade, a small number of economists have been promoting a Job Guarantee to achieve full employment (Mitchell and Watts, 1997; Wray, 1998). As an ecological economist, I have also been a recent supporter of the Job Guarantee on the basis that: (a) the macroeconomics of the Job Guarantee appear to be sound; (b) unemployment is an inequitable outcome that should not be tolerated; and ...
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Re-writing the ecological metaphor: Part 1
Biological, evolutionary or ecological metaphors underpin much of theorisation in the social sciences in general, and the themes of inter-firm competition and technological change in particular. The argument advanced in this paper is that the use of ecological metaphors has been partial and selective. In key areas of theorisation such as industrial ecology the selective use of ecological ...
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Whither ecological economics?
This paper examines the nature of ecological economics, arguing that it comprises two aspects, the qualitative framework within which it operates and the quantitative techniques which it uses to measure sustainability, evaluate policies and assist decision-making. The former is distinct to ecological economics, whereas the latter is largely shared with environmental economics. Although these have ...
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Ecological tax reform and the double dividend of ecological sustainability and low unemployment: an empirical assessment
Ecological Tax Reform (ETR) is a policy designed to tax such 'bads' as resource depletion and pollution and to reduce tax impositions on such 'goods' as labour and income. The aim of ETR is relatively straightforward: (1) taxing depletion and pollution should decrease the rate of resource throughput per unit of economic activity and relieve any growing pressure on the natural environment; (2) ...
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A holistic approach for evaluating ecological water allocation in the Yellow River basin of China
The characteristics and sustainable management of water resources on a basin scale require that they should be managed using a holistic approach. In this study, a holistic methodology called the holistic approach in a basin scale (HABS) is proposed to determine the ecological water requirements of a whole basin. There are three principles in HABS. First, ecological water requirements in a basin ...
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Ecologically-oriented enterprises in Hungary
In this paper, we describe how we conducted in-depth empirical research about the value-background and coping strategies of ecologically-oriented enterprises in Hungary. It is a common belief that companies that have an ecological orientation are at a disadvantage on competitive markets because ethical and environmentally-friendly behaviour can generate costs and lessen competitive advantages. ...
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