Industrial Ecology: Creating By-Product Synergies
in a Context Informed by Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment

Session Coordinator: Karl Ostrom

This two part session features LCA professional presentations and interactive discussion with industrial participants from By-Product Synergy Northwest. This Northwest network of businesses and government agencies is implementing a waste to profit model, designed by the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development. Participating companies catalog material inflows and outflows in a uniform database that is then analyzed for synergies using both internal and external technical expertise. Participants discover valuable connections and create action plans for synergies judged to be commercially viable, and organize strategies for addressing technical, regulatory or other barriers.

This seminar is open to both conference registrants and By-Product Synergy NW network members. Participants will gain an understanding of how LCA tools can be used to evaluate the potential benefits and impacts of synergies to prioritize opportunities. With LCA tools, impact and measurement challenges can be more effectively addressed. Company representatives will gain knowledge helping them to assess how their businesses can potentially gain from participating in a by-product synergy network. Experts in life-cycle measurement will have the opportunity to learn how their skill can be applied to facilitate environmental impact reductions in manufacturing and re-use processing.

Part I: Featured Presentation:
“Industrial Ecology Models for the Puget Sound Region”

Joyce Cooper, PhD. Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington. Dr. Cooper’s research interests include the development and enhancement of Design for Environment (DFE) methodologies and models, as related to (1) innovative, sustainable, and concurrent technology development, design, and dissemination; (2) life-cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental performance measurement; & (3) Industrial Ecology.

PRESENTATION ABSTRACT
Models of Industrial Ecology for the Seattle-King County Region are described. The models provide a way to identify opportunities for the further development of materials exchange between existing regional businesses, to assess opportunities in comparison to pollution prevention options, and to recruit businesses to the region that facilitate important exchanges. Next, the integration of LCA into the modeling mix is demonstrated, including the use of GIS for regional transportation assessment. Finally, a plan for setting priorities at the regional level and engaging regional policy makers through a searchable web-site for the identification of partnerships between existing & potential businesses is described.

Respondents:
Dwight Collins, PhD, Professor, Presidio School of Management
Rick Flaherty, CEO, Leader International, & Mahmoud Dweib, Ph.D., Plant Manager for Cook Composites and Polymers, Rick and Mahmoud are participants in By-Product Synergy NW

Respondents will be followed by facilitated discussion among other BPSNW members & LCA conference workshop participants.

Moderator: Karl Ostrom, NBIS

Part II: First of Two Featured Presentations:
“How the energy/carbon price will accelerate changes in product selection, energy dependent processing, design, and waste management” presentation

Bruce Lippke, PhD, Professor/Director College of Forest Resources, University of Washington and current President of a consortium of 15 university and professional research organizations known as CORRIM (the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials). CORRIM is developing life cycle inventory data measuring the environmental performance of every life stage of wood materials.

PRESENTATION ABSTRACT
The use of Life Cycle Inventory and Life Cycle Assessment to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with the use of various building materials, construction subassemblies, design alternatives and production processes illustrates numerous opportunities for environmental performance improvement. The LCI data on wood products provided by the Consortium of Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) used in conjunction with data on other materials for designing structures in the ATHENA™ Environmental Impact Estimator model (EIE) simplifies the task of understanding best opportunities for improvement.

Given ongoing and anticipated changes in fossil energy costs and carbon emissions, the motivation for change can be expected to increase. Waste recollection for energy recapture if not higher valued recycling, once considered cost prohibitive, will become a significant change agent.

Respondents:
Yancy Wright, Sustainable Initiatives Coordinator – LEED AP, Sellen Construction Company
Karl Englund, PhD, Assistant Research Professor, Extension Specialist, Wood Materials Engineering Laboratory, Washington State University
John Earl, Environmental Manager, Canyon Creek Cabinet Company, & participant in By-Product Synergy NW, followed by facilitated discussion among other BPSNW members & LCA conference workshop participants.

Moderator: Karl Ostrom, NBIS

Part II: Second of Two Featured Presentations:
“ Ranking and monetizing discards management options using LCA results involving seven environmental impact categories: climate change, acidification, eutrophication, ecosystems toxicity, human health – particulates, human health – toxics, and human health – carcinogens” presentation

Jeff Morris, Ph.D., a specialist in environmental economics has served on the faculties in economics at the Universities of Washington and Colorado, and as visiting faculty will team teach a course on ecological and social sustainability this coming academic year at The Evergreen State College. Jeff is also a principal in Sound Resource Management, an economic and environmental research and consulting firm. Jeff’s cost-benefit studies of discards management systems have included the WA Dept. of Ecology, Seattle Public Utilities, and other major urban clients across North America. Recently Jeff led a national team of economists and life cycle experts in developing the Consumer Environmental Index (CEI), a tool for tracking the trends in the environmental impacts of annual purchases, use and disposal of goods and services by consumers, businesses or governmental agencies.

PRESENTATION ABSTRACT:
LCA results involving seven environmental impact categories (climate change, acidification, eutrophication, ecosystems toxicity, human health – particulates, human health – toxics, and human health – carcinogens) are presented to show that discards management options may rank differently for different environmental impacts. Monetizing the costs of these impacts will be discussed as a method for comparison. Examples will be given from Carpet, Food Scraps, Wood Scraps, and other Material Discards. Implications of comparative environmental impacts for economic management suggest that transport distances are frequently of lesser importance than using recycled materials as manufacturing inputs in place of virgin raw material inputs.

Respondents: David Quigg, Director of Marketing, Grays Harbor Paper & Shirli Axelrod, Senior Environmental Analyst, Seattle Public Utilities, both, participants in By-Product Synergy NW, followed by facilitated discussion among other BPSNW members & LCA conference workshop participants.

Moderator: Karl Ostrom, NBIS