Organizations can begin with good intentions when they set out to reduce their environmental impacts. Without an adequate framework to guide their efforts however, the results can be less than optimal. We find the best results come from an integrated process, in which all stakeholders are engaged early to uncover their interests, and in which these interests are taken into account through the project.

Nature has no wastes. Our cities however, are not designed on nature’s cycles, but on a straight path from mining/harvesting through use to disposal. Industrial ecology (sometimes referred to as eco-efficiency, industrial symbiosis, or eco-industrial planning) is the practice of reforming our community designs based on nature’s principles, such that “waste” energy and materials from one organization become resources for others.