INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY CURRICULUM PROJECT |
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Industrial Ecology Curriculum Project Industrial ecology is an approach to corporate economic and environmental performance that identifies and traces how materials, chemicals and energy flows are dissipated and transformed throughout industry and natural systems. The economic, environmental and community benefits of industrial ecology are rapidly becoming recognized by large and small companies. Industrial ecology is ultimately about optimizing resources, particularly those resources whose use has a direct environmental impact. These include air, biomass, chemicals, energy, land, materials, minerals, and water as well as other resources important to economic concerns such as equipment, facilities, financial resources, human resources, and information. Economic activity can be divided into eleven specific resource-using clusters: buildings/facilities; commercial services; communication; defense/military; food production; health/personal services; industry/manufacturing; recreation/entertainment; resource extraction; transportation, and; utilities. Undergraduate technology based programs at community colleges that educate and train future employees are often unaware of the current integration of industrial ecology into everyday business and industrial practices. This disconnect between existing and emerging industrial practices and the community college network has serious long term implications for community and public health, the economic and environmental performance of U.S. companies, and community college technology focused education and training programs. Recognizing the need for industrial ecology curriculum at the community college level, the Industrial Ecology Curriculum Project at The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) Catonsville campus began in the fall of 1997. The CCBC was chosen by the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation to serve as the lead community college for the project because of the unique and successful business partnerships and linkages developed by The Environment Project (TEP) at the college and because of the experience of TEP in developing innovative environmental science curriculum. AT&T, whose leadership in industrial ecology is widely recognized among the international corporate community and, R.R. Donnelly and Sons, Inc., Co., the world's largest commercial printer, supplied initial project funding. The Industrial Ecology Curriculum Project seeks to:
To guide the development of the curriculum, a national Advisory Council, consisting of leaders from industry, government, education and non-profits was established and several important initial research tasks completed. Important early research included a review of the results and findings of NSF's Industrial Ecology Fellows program, a compilation of reports, texts, articles and other materials on industrial ecology, and the identification of existing industrial ecology courses and curriculum at colleges and universities across the U.S. Research conducted includes:
The purpose of these initial research tasks was to identify and assimilate important curriculum concepts as well as minimize duplication of effort. The research efforts found that most industrial ecology courses are taught as part of graduate or upper-level undergraduate curriculum and that, for the most part, these courses are simply not accessible to most corporate decision makers as well as community college faculty. Several meetings and workshops involving representatives from large and small companies were held to identify and address important industrial ecology principles and guide the development of an industrial ecology curriculum for business professionals. These meeting and workshops include the following:
As the project matured, additional funding was received from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 3 Office of Pollution Prevention; The Hitachi Foundation; the GE Fund; EG&G Pressure Sciences/Perkin Elmer, and; Kimberly Clark. This two-year effort resulted in the first community college based industrial ecology course being offered at CCBC Catonsville on December 1, 1999 with a follow-up environmental management workshop held on February 2, 2000. In addition, the Strategic Environmental Management System Principles Coursebook was completed and published. For additional information about the Industrial Ecology Curriculum Project or for details on how to obtain copies of the Strategic Environmental Management System Principles Coursebook, contact Chris Fox. |
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