Is it possible to talk about ecology and industry in the same direction? Certainly more than possible, it is necessary to achieve sustainable development .
In this way we putting the industrial ecology , a theme that tries to exert an analogy between natural ecosystems and industrial ecosystems, through a relationship between industries, which function as a string, where the union of a set of relationships between companies create a whole , a relationship on a larger scale.
Two functions are the key elements in this type of relationship, first, tend to close the material cycle, ie the raw materials of some firms are the products of others, such as in systems natural, so it is obvious the large reduction in waste that is produced, reaching zero level talk waste.
Another of these pillars is to reinforce teachers and promote energy efficiency , eco-efficiency, promoting the efficient use of energy in all business processes in cascade.
The closing of the cycle of matter or industrial metabolism, is not only the sole purpose of industrial ecology, but it encompasses many other aspects which aims to improve the energy efficiency of existing industry always looking for sustainability.
assimilate the fact of industrial systems with natural ecosystems, requires that the industry is related to its environment, apply the industrial ecology make a new industrial park is a good tool thus creating inter-company networks or so-called eco-industrial parks or industrial symbiosis , such as that of Kalundborg in Denmark or Brownsville, Texas, USA.
Industrial ecology is booming and it is necessary to strengthen it, because to include companies and their benefits in the way of sustainable development is a great tool to do so, as companies are a powerful entities capable of changing many systems that now seem the only way in both processes and products.
There is a journal devoted to the theme of industrial ecology, Journal of Industrial Ecology, where you can find many studies and latest developments in this field, and in 2001 formed the International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE), which organizes conferences to discuss industrial ecology.