SUSTAINABILITY AINABILITY

2 Printed on paper that contains at least 30 percent po
This ‘closed loop’ industrial system can become a reality

when businesses, institutions, governments, and consumers

join hands to reject the currently predominant take-use-dispose system of materials consumption. Under this system, too

many resources flow in one direction: from the earth, into

products, and finally into landfills and incinerators, from

which the original materials are, in most cases, unrecoverable.

Many products are not designed with reuse or recycling in

mind, often making these activities difficult and expensive.

This linear or cradle-to-grave model is inherently wasteful. 

In the emerging circular or cradle-to-cradle mo

concept of waste eventually becomes obsolete. W

producers and consumers becomes input for othe

and consumers, or for the earth itself, and resour

cycled through the system to sustain future gener

The transition from a linear to a sustainable, c

cradle system of materials use will not happen ov

Rather, it involves an evolution of approaches, ea

ambitious than the last one. This Update looks at 

tinuum of sustainability approaches, beginning w

that examine material flows within an organizatio

we discuss approaches that explore the flow of m

resources among a network of organizations. Fina

cuss the ultimate goal of sustainability, a socioeco

tem that protects and enhances, rather than degr

human and natural resources needed by future ge

to enjoy a quality of life equal to or greater than 

The sustainability continuum represents a grad

ing of organizational perspective and responsibi

immediate group of facilities, suppliers, and c

society as a whole. This Update is designed to 

your organization to use WasteWise to help 

organization on the road to sustainability. D

will help keep your organization competitiv

new paradigm of interaction among society

my, and the environment. Ray Anderson, c

and chief executive officer of Interface, Inc., 

tured the necessity of this transformation: “In 

A

who processes the trimmings for use

in office chairs. The manufacturer

takes the chairs back when customers are finished with

them, reuses all the serviceable parts, recycles all the

parts that cannot be reused, and shreds the damaged

upholstery, uncontaminated with hazardous constituents, for

composting. The compost is sold to a nearby farmer, who uses the

material as fertilizer for his organic cotton crop.

If there is to be prosperity in the future,

society must make its use of resources

vastly more productive—deriving 4, 10,

or even 100 times as much benefit from

each unit of energy, water, materials, or

anything else borrowed from the planet

and consumed. 

—Paul Hawken and Amory and L. Hunter Lovins 

in Natural Capitalism: Creating the 

Next Industrial Revolution, 1999.

“

”
gpy 

ing waste water, installing air filters on smokestacks, and

building cleaner and safer landfills and incinerators.

Over the last two decades, forward-thinking leaders from

government and industry have begun to realize that it makes

more sense (both environmentally and economically) to prevent pollution rather than manage it after it is generated.

Rather than, for example, having to clean waste water before

discharging it into nearby rivers, responsible companies have

begun to find ways to alter their industrial processes to

reduce or eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals. For solid

waste, this means designing more efficient processes and

products so that less solid waste is generated or identifying

ways to recycle or reuse waste materials. Pollution prevention

remains a leading environmental strategy for organizations

today. Waste prevention, a subset of pollution prevention,

has been the cornerstone of the WasteWise program.

Improving Resource Efficiency

Within the Organization

While pollution prevention often involves a process-byprocess analysis, it has inspired some organizations to look at

the manner in which natural resources flow through their entire

systems. Material flow analyses look at where an organization’s

resources come from, how they are used, and where they end

up. Such analyses, for example, could help a company or institution discover that a majority of its environmental problems—

and some of its costs—come from its use of one particular

substance. Switching to a more environmentally friendly alternative, therefore, could make a big difference for this organization, both environmentally and financially. Material flow

analyses can also be used to improve resource productivity—

getting more value out of every unit of a resource—while

simultaneously reducing the ecological impact of one’s activities.

Put simply, the goal is to produce more with less.

Eco-efficiency is a comprehensive new approach to this goal.

It involves a range of interrelated business and environmental

goals such as cutting costs, delivering higher quality products,

reducing materials consumption and waste, and eliminating

toxic releases into the environment. According to 

Business Council for Sustainable Development (W

eco-efficiency is a “management philosophy that e

businesses to simultaneously become more compe

innovative, and more environmentally responsible

Identifying Opportunities for Resource 

WasteWise has always focused on resource effici

ultimate goal of preventing or recycling waste is th

(nonwasteful) use of natural resources—such as tre

and petroleum—and financial resources. Organiza

the movement toward greater sustainability evaluat

overall systems can become more resource efficient 

every stage of operation and use. Tools to do so inc

assessment (LCA) and Design for the Environment (D

LCA is an analytical tool to holistically evalua

ronmental consequences of a product or process. 

LCA, an organization can examine a product’s en

tal impact as it moves from raw materials extract

manufacturing and use to final disposal—from cra

Although

sometimes

complicated

and data-intensive, LCA evaluates whether

materials and 

products are

environmentally preferable

for the uses to

which they

are put. 

General Motors Corp.

International Paper Company

Xerox Corp.

In 1996, Dell Computer Corp

launched a “cradle-to-cradle

for its OptiPlex line of compu

modular design allows easy u

assembly, recycling, and reuse

chassis is fully recyclable. This 

ly sound design has since bee

all non-portable Dell-branded 

For more examples like this, s

WasteWise Update: Extended 

Responsibility (October 1998).

<www.epa.gov/wastewise/pub_c

1 World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Eco-Efficient Leadership 

for Improved Economic and Environmental Performance. 1996. p. 4.
ppypyp

the boundaries of the “product” to include the business

transactions surrounding the production process, such as

distribution and management. Organizations can take this

approach a step further by involving their suppliers and customers. Some companies, for example, have established programs to take back the packaging used to transport products

to their customers or even the products themselves after

their useful lives. These materials are then reused or recycled. Product takeback programs are becoming more and

more common among producers of electronic products.

Organizations with the foresight to improve environmental

performance and resource efficiency before being mandated to

do so by regulations will avoid delays and higher costs later.

Furthermore, those that give priority to resource productivity,

process change, and product innovation will achieve significant

performance gains at a lower cost and gain a competitive

advantage in the marketplace. These actions minimize pollution and resource depletion while helping to build a sustainable environment, economy, and society.

Looking

at a Wider Network

According to author Robert Ayres, “10 tons of 

raw materials (not including construction materia

son [are] extracted from U.S. territory by the econ

6 percent of the total is embodied in durable prod

other 94 percent is converted into waste residuals 

it is extracted...”2 These statistics demonstrate tha

organizations need to go beyond the simplest step

reduction in order to make facilities and industrie

able. Organizations that have recognized this need 

ing further along on the sustainability continuum

beyond their own walls to transform their relation

a wider network of organizations.

The study of material and energy flows and th

formations into products, byproducts, and waste

out industrial and ecological systems is a primary 

the movement often referred to as industrial ecolo

Cradle-to-Cradle

Material flow analyses can help organizations r

own materials to flow in more circular patterns, t

viding their wastes as inputs for other industries a

versa. Under this model, organizations no longer 

cycles of the materials and energy they consume a

ultimately ending in a landfill or in the environm

they seek opportunities for the continual reuse an

of materials through a cooperative industrial syste

processes are designed to consume available waste 

and to produce only usable waste. In an Octob

cle in The Atlantic Monthly, William McDono

Michael Braungart elaborate on this vision: “

are to prosper within the natural world, all t

and materials manufactured by industry mu

each useful life provide nourishment for so

2 Ayres, Robert U. “Externalities: Economics a

dynamics.” Archibugi and Nijkamp, ed. Eco

Ecology. 1989. Cited in Lowe, Ernest, John 

Stephen Moran. The Source of Value: An Exe

and Sourcebook on Industrial Ecology. 1996

Eco-efficiency is an essential step, a

bridge, on the road to sustainability...

Intellectually and physically, you cannot

go from [the idea of] pollution control to

sustainability. You must go through a

sequence of learning.

—Professor Andrea Larson, 

Darden School of Business, University of Virginia

at a presentation during the 1998 

WasteWise National Forum.

“

”
As organizations pursue opportunities to create cradle-tocradle materials systems, they begin to forge cooperative,

resource-sharing relationships with otherwise unrelated businesses and institutions and the surrounding community.

Individual processes and products become part of an interconnected industrial system in which new products or

processes evolve out of or consume available waste streams,

fg 

Ernest Lowe, John Warren, and Stephen Moran d

eco-industrial park as “a community of manufactu

service businesses seeking enhanced environmenta

nomic performance through collaboration in man

ronmental and resource issues including energy, w

materials. By working together, the community o

Sustainable Development

Pollution

Control

Pollution

Prevention

Environmentally Conscious 

Design & Manufacturing

Design for the Environment

Lifecycle Design

Industrial Ecology

Moving Toward Sustainability

Scope of Temporal Concern

Product Lifetime Human 

Lifetime

Civiliza

Span

Manufacturing Use Disposal

Scope of Environmental Concern

Manufacturing Use Disposal

Single

Product 

Life Cycle

Multiple 

Products

One Manufacturer

Multiple

Manufacturers

Society

Source: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

3 Garner, Andy and Gregory Keoleian. Industrial Ecology: An Introduction. November 1995. p. 12.
tion, whether it’s the government or AT&T. In addition,

there is now the concept of the triple bottom line, wherecompanies are evaluated by stakeholders not just on economic performance, but also on environmental and socialperformance.WasteWise: Many companies use the word “sustainability”

to describe the direction their business practices are heading.Where does AT&T stand on the road to sustainability?

Allenby: I will tell you honestly that I don’t think there’s a

company in the world that is anywhere near sustainability;moreover, I don’t think there’s a company in the world thattruly understands sustainability. 

WasteWise: Are there some common steps or stages that

companies need to go through to start heading in the general direction of sustainability?

Allenby: To attain sustainability, there are at least three

dimensions along which evolution has to occur:

• Institutional. We simply don’t have the institutions to manage the environment strategically. For example, institutional

inadequacy is a big part of the disputeover the Kyoto Protocol. 

• Ethical. What kind of world do we

really want and who’s to decide? 

• Scientific. Industrial ecology is

the science and technologybase that underlies sustainability. We have a lotof gaps right now inour understandingof sustainabilityfrom a scientificperspective.

WasteWise: Do

you think that more research and scientific exploration isthe key to moving forward on the road to sustainability?

Allenby: Yes and no. One of the unfortunate things about the way that people

throw around the phrase ‘sustainabledevelopment’ is that it hides the factthat none of us really know anythingabout it along any dimension.

If you try to establish policy without any science behind it, that’s not a

good thing, so I think we need to do alot of scientific research. But similarly, ifyou have a lot of data but the institutions and the ethical structure haven’t been developed, you don’t get anywhere either. It all needs to happen in unison.

It’s complicated by the fact that previously all a firm had

to do was talk to the national and state governments tofind out what it had to do. But now the dialogue is not

only between a firm and the federal government, but also

includes nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), other

stakeholders, communities, and other firms; it’s a far

more complex operating environment than we had

in the past.

WasteWise: What are some of AT&T’s 

contributions? 

Allenby: The most important thing to

understand is that the traditional environmental approach, which tends to

focus on manufacturing and manufacturing waste, breaks down for a

service company like AT&T. The

traditional environmental

assessment, which only asks,

“What are the bad things

that you do?”, ignores

the fact that AT&T’s

greatest environmental impact is to enable improvements in environmental efficiency across the economy as a whole.

w With AT&T

the environment, health and safety vice president for AT&T and an adjunct professor at Columbia 

hool of International and Public Affairs. He is a coauthor of the first three engineering textbooks on 

ogy (Industrial Ecology, Industrial Ecology and the Automobile, and Design for Environment), and 

he first policy textbook on industrial ecology (Industrial Ecology: Policy Framework and Implementation). 

ff spoke to Dr. Allenby about the sustainability concept and its application at AT&T. 

t involved with indus

s?

 is probably indicative

of the environment has

satisfying. The regula

e issues that were

cerns. 

onment is only affected

acts, so we had our

ssues involve more

amental interaction of

tem, and their tech

Within this framework,

ause it was becoming

 and not the former

d to work, I began to

t, industrial ecology,

ike AT&T adapting to

environmental issues

than end-of-pipe fixes?

y as a whole, and

rom viewing the envi

—that is, you take care

y as an afterthought,

 do has already affect

nvironment as a strate

 concern about

be built into the

istence of the institu7 WasteWise Update
yg py 

support the development

of industrial ecology

and broader options

for society? There,

the AT&T

Foundation supports

Industrial Ecology

faculty fellowships.

We award about six per

year. We work with the

National Environmental

Education and Training

Foundation to develop an industrial

ecology curriculum for community colleges.

Then you go to the top level, where AT&T as a broadband service provider can enable improvements in environmental and social efficiency across the economy. This is the

most important environmental performance level for many

service firms. Take something as simple as “telework.”

WasteWise: “Telework” meaning telecommuting?

Allenby: Telecommuting, or virtual offices, or working

from a satellite office. Telework offers not just the primary

benefits for the environment (the emissions prevented from

the cars that are not on the road), but also the secondary

one: every car you take off the road reduces congestion by a

small amount and therefore reduces the emissions of all the

other cars on the road by a small amount. Additionally, we

have saved over half-a-billion dollars from 1992 to 1998

because of office space reductions we’ve been able to make as

a result of telework. That’s less construction material.

WasteWise: What are some of the obstacles to measuring real environmental progress? 

Allenby: If I’m doing environment as overhead, I can identify it. I know what it is, I know it’s environmental. But if

I’m doing something that truly matters, if it’s strategic, then

environment becomes only one dimension of the activity.

Both the analysis, and the technological issues, become far

more complex. Consider the environmental costs and benefits of e-commerce. If I buy a book from an e-commerce

tal movement w

with regulato

within com

to be done 

environm

cost you. 

true, but 

let that psy

prevent the

doing things 

very smart. Agai

ing is a good examp

social point of view, broa

technologies will support new w

commuting and working that can significantly 

waste, and that’s where you get the bang for the 

opportunities are enormous. But telework as an e

mental technology has yet to be understood by e

talists or regulators. Many such opportunities exi

sector. It’s a question of imagination.

WasteWise: What do you expect will be AT&

impact on industry, society, and the environme

Allenby: That is hard to answer because telecom

tions is such a fundamental part of the infrastruc

robust economy. I think the industrial revolution 

focusing on energy and materials-intensive sector

where the quality of life came from in the early d

industrial revolution: better fiber, better clothing

gins, steam engines, then automobiles. I think th

information sector, including companies like AT

potential to generate significant increases in the q

life while reducing the environmental impact so 

haps we can sustain that quality of life over time

knows if it’s going to happen but it has that prom

question, in part, is how much imagination, crea

innovation can we bring to the process?

The more that AT&T pushes that envelope, 

will push other companies to do so as well. An

we do so, the better off we all will be.

Dr. Allenby can be reached via e-mail at ballenb
cance of using environmentally friendly materials and

processes. Herman Miller is consistently being recognized

for its environmental achievements—the company was not

only a 1999 WasteWise Partner of the Year, but also a recipient of a 1998 Green Award from the U.S. General Service

Administration for product design and business practices

and one of Fortune magazine’s “Most Admired” companies.

“Our achievements toward reaching sustainability take a lot

of determination and hard work. We set substantial environmental goals for Herman Miller and do our best to reach

those goals in a timely manner,” says James Gillespie, environmental specialist.

Recognizing that complex relationships exist among the land,

water, and air, Herman Miller has

developed comprehensive environmental goals that include energy

conservation, air emissions reductions, transportation impact reductions, and green buildings. The

company has made some of its most

notable accomplishments with its

solid waste management program,

mostly by reducing transport packaging. In fact, in 1999 the company

eliminated more than 370 tons of wood pallet waste, nearly

270 tons of corrugated cartons, and nearly 8 tons of polystyrene packaging filler through packaging changes. While

not quite reaching its “zero landfill” goal by the end of

1995, Herman Miller was able to reduce its use of landfills

by 65 percent, or 5,500 tons less

than 1994. This endeavor helped

the company realize $500,000 in

direct cost savings and avoidances. Still striving to reach the

“zero landfill” goal,

Herman Miller is working

on reducing its solid waste

by another 10 percent

over the next 3 years.

In pursuit of the elusive goal of sustainabili

Environment Team that will

use the LCA to look at product

life cycles, including all the

processes and materials

involved in the manufacture and distribution of its products.

The LCA will help the company determine how it can conserve

resources by altering product designs and process

Despite these successes, Herman Miller canno

sustainable business on its own. Some of its proc

ate byproducts that Her

itself cannot transform 

material. To meet its “ze

goal, Herman Miller is 

with area businesses and 

make sure its byproduct

usable inputs for local i

The company is a chart

of the West Michigan S

Business Forum (WMS

group of more than 50 

encouraging the adoptio

implementation of susta

ness practices. Herman Miller and its peer group 

Michigan organizations are laying the groundwo

interconnected industrial system by developing c

solutions to mutual waste management concerns

They are working, for example, to form a mar

cooperative for recyclables in response to recent c

tions in the Michigan waste management industr

waste haulers that used to service niche market re

such as polyurethane foam and low-density polye

shrink wrap have been acquired by larger compan

more restricted service offerings.

WMSBF reacted to this dilemma by polling i

on their interest in pooling recyclables in the ho

ing better prices and collection service. Eighty p

the members expressed interest. WMSBF is surv

companies to determine the material types and q

available for group marketing, collection contain

WasteWise Partners in the

West Michigan Sustainable

Business Forum

• American Electric Power Service Corp.

• Georgia-Pacific Corp.

• Herman Miller, Inc.

• Pharmacia & Upjohn Company

• Steelcase Inc.

(Continued 
gppy gg

wastes and conserving resources. These industries sought to

make economic use of their byproducts and to minimize the

cost of compliance with new, stricter environmental regulations.4 While the symbiotic relationships among the industries evolved gradually over the past 25 years without any

planning, the Kalundborg industrial ecosystem represents a

closed system within which one facility’s waste becomes

another facility’s feedstock, ensuring that raw materials are

recycled or disposed of efficiently and safely. Participating

industries each benefit economically from reduced costs of

Steam and various raw materials are exchanged 

industrial ecosystem, which includes an oil refi

plasterboard factory, a biotechnology productio

fish farm, a coal-fired electrical power station, c

ducers, and the municipality of Kalundborg. G

from the oil refinery, for example, is sent to the 

power station, saving the equivalent of 30,000 

annually. The town of Kalundborg eliminated t

3,500 oil-fired residential furnaces by working 

power plant to distribute heat through a netwo

Cement & 

Agriculture

Plasterboard

Factory

Greenhouses

Pig Farm

Sulfuric Acid

Producer

Waste

Heat

Biotechnology

Firm

Sulfur

Sludge

Yeast

Sludge Fish Ponds

Steam

Power Station

Steam

Oil Refinery

Gas &

Water

Fly Ash

Gypsum

Reside

Hous

Waste

Heat

Lake Water

Industrial Symbiosis: The Eco-Industrial Park at Kalundbor

4 Denmark is already establishing regulations that will require virtually all industry discharges to be in the form of products 

other useful purposes by the year 2000.

Source: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
helping potential businesses reduce costs. The developers of the power plant had access to deposits of lignite, a low grade of coal, located in the northeast corner of the state. The plant will burn the lignite

with minimal emissions using Clean Coal technology. As plans progressed, the developers and

government officials started to evaluate the environmental impact of the project. At the same

time, they considered what other types of facilities might have synergies with all the waste

streams from the power plant operation. This coincided with plans to reduce costs by selling

the byproducts of the power plant, among them clay, fly ash, and waste heat.

The clay from the lignite mining operation will be used by a brick manufacturer and the fly

ash from the lignite-burning will be used for manufacturing cement or wallboard. The waste

heat will be used in a greenhouse nursery which, in turn, exchanges wastes with a nearby

fish farm. Any waste water will be filtered through an artificial marsh and returned to the

environment.

Project coordinators are ensuring that the Ecoplex businesses do not compete directly with

existing businesses in Mississippi. Forsythe added that they will plan and implement the

project using EPA's Designing Industrial Ecosystems Tool (DIET), a software application

designed to aid decision-makers and planners in identifying combinations of industrial

facilities that exhibit economic and environmental potential for an eco-industrial park at a

given site. For more information about the Red Hills Ecoplex, contact Ron Forsythe at 

601 359-6600. For more information on EPA's DIET software, visit

<www.smartgrowth.org/library/DIET.html>.

underground pipes. Homeowners pay for the piping, but

receive inexpensive, reliable heat in return. Local fish

ponds also receive heat from the power plant, thereby

increasing the growth rate of fish due to warmer water. In

turn, these fish ponds provide sludge as a fertilizer for local

agriculture. The power plant also delivers process steam to

the biotechnology company and oil refinery, provides a

gypsum-containing feedstock to the plasterboard plant,

and sells fly ash for road building and cement production.

The oil refinery supplies the plasterboard plant with all of

its gas, eliminating the need to flare waste gases. The

biotechnology company provides a nutrient rich sludge

from harvesting crops for insulin, enzymes, and penicillin

to local farmers for use as fertilizer. 

The Kalundborg industrial ecosystem is a goo

of how industrial ecology and the development 

nologies that eliminate waste and maximize reso

ciency will be critical to achieving material and 

reductions that help attain a sustainable future.

Kalundborg’s gradual development of a systema

mental way of thinking is applicable to many ot

tries and might prove particularly beneficial wh

future industrial complexes in the United States 

WasteWise partners should take a close look at 

because this may be the face of the future.

For more information on eco-industrial parks, 

projects currently under way in the United States 

<http://www.smartgrowth.org/library/eco_ind_case_
1EPA

United States

Environmental Protection Agency

(5306W)

Washington, DC 20460

Official Business

Penalty for Private Use

$300

y jy

new MRF would be

developed by retrofitting

an underutilized industrial facility. 

This effort is important because it sets the

stage for more ambitious byproduct and

resource sharing initiatives. Presently, intermittent waste trading

is occurring between

WMSBF members

for such materials as

enterprise development would be concentrated in 

income industrial areas called “Michigan renaissan

supporting sustainable economic development go

According to Gillespie, “Herman Miller’s mem

the WMBSF and actively participating in its effor

critical to helping the company move forward on 

sustainability.”

For more information on Herman Miller’s susta

business initiatives, please contact James Gillespie 

5020 or send e-mail to <Jim_Gillespie@hermanm

For more information about WMSBF, visit 

<www.sustainable-busforum.org> or contact Willi

at 616 459-3737 or <bstough@bldi.com>.

network, SC Johnso

Inc., has saved more than

$120 million annually and

reduced more than 200,000

tons of waste from its products

since 1992 through eco-efficient design and operations. 

For more examples of how

WasteWise partners have

reduced waste by working with

their suppliers and customers,

see the WasteWise Update:

Building Supplier Partnerships.

(April 1998).

<www.epa.gov/wastewise>

If you have received this publication in error or want to be removed from the WasteWise Update

mailing list, please call the WasteWise Helpline at 800 EPA-WISE (372-9473) or send a copy of

this page, with the mailing label, back to WasteWise at the address below. Many WasteWise

publications, including the WasteWise Update, are available electronically on the WasteWise

Web site at <www.epa.gov/wastewise>.
▼

The Ecology of Commerce:

A Declaration of

Sustainability

Paul Hawken

HarperBusiness, 1994.

Provides a blueprint for a marketplace where businesses and environmentalists work together, showing companies how to redesign and

manufacture products in innovative

ways, reeducate customers, and

work closely with government

toward a profitable, productive, and

ecologically sound future.

▼

Industrial Ecology: 

An Introduction

University of Michigan’s

National Pollution Prevention

Center for Higher Education

This publication describes the

background of industrial ecology,

defines its main attributes, and

provides an overview of the topic

as an academic discipline. It covers goals, key concepts, sustainable development, system tools

(such as life cycle assessment),

and future needs.

<www.umich.edu/~nppcpub/

resources/compendia/ind.ecol.html>

Futures quarterly newsletter

argues that markets need to be

fundamentally restructured so that

prices reflect the full costs of social

production. This, combined with

proper incentives such as emissions and effluent fees, will persuade more firms to act in environmentally beneficial ways.

<www.rff.org/resources_archive/

1998.htm>

▼

Journal of Industrial

Ecology

The MIT Press

This international, multi-disciplinary quarterly journal is designed

to foster both understanding and

practice in the emerging field of

industrial ecology. 

<mitpress.mit.edu/JIE>

▼

Mid-Course Correction:

Toward a Sustainable

Enterprise: The Interface

Model

Ray Anderson

Chelsea Green Publishing

Company

Ray Anderson, Founder,

Chairman, and CEO of a large

interior furnishings company,

recounts his awakening to the

importance of environmental

issues and outlines the steps his

company, Atlanta-based Interface,

Inc., is taking in its quest to

become a sustainable enterprise.

and L. Hunter Lovins

Rocky Mountain Institute

The authors describe th

principles of a new busi

model in which busines

properly account for “na

ital” (natural resources 

ecological systems that 

life) while increasing pro

duction, and employme

<www.naturalcapitalism

▼

The Next Bottom Li

Making Sustainable

Development Tangi

World Resources Insti

This publication defines 

cept of sustainable deve

in a business context an

describes the ways busi

put sustainability into pr

<www.igc.org/wri/meb/se

▼

“The NEXT Industri

Revolution”

The Atlantic Monthly

October 1998

In this article, William Mc

and Michael Braungart a

eco-efficiency slows—but 

stop—an already environ

destructive industrial syste

instead explain that it is p

businesses to be “eco-eff

changing processes and 

that they have no advers

on the environment.

<www.theatlantic.com/

98oct/industry.htm>
Sustainable Development

<www.sustainable.doe.gov>

This U.S. Department of Energy

Web site is a gateway to the latest news, information, research,

and resources on sustainable

development for businesses and

communities.

▼

Cornell University’s Work

and Environment Initiative:

Eco-Industrial Parks

<www.cfe.cornell.edu/wei/

EIDP/eid.html>

Hosted by Cornell University’s

Center for the Environment, this

Web site provides the latest information on industrial ecology in

practice. It includes updates and

case studies on eco-industrial

park projects in the United States.

▼

Guide to Sustainable

Design, Development, and

Policy on the Web

<www.lib.virginia.edu/

fine-arts/sustain.html>

Supports the University of

Virginia’s Institute for Sustainable

Design by organizing resources

on sustainability, including organizations, publications, and Web

links, into various categories.

pg

is a comprehensive source on

sustainable development for the

private sector.

▼

President’s Council for

Sustainable Development

<www.whitehouse.gov/PCSD>

President Clinton formed this

council in 1993 to advise him on

sustainable development and to

develop bold, new approaches to

achieve the country’s economic,

environmental, and equity goals. 

▼

SustainableBusiness.com

<www.sustainablebusiness.com>

This business-oriented Web site

provides the latest news and

research on sustainable business

practices. The online magazine

Sustainable Business Insider features in-depth articles, “experts”

columns, and case studies. 

▼

Sustainable Business

Network

<sbn.envirolink.org>

Promotes the growth and development of environmentally and

socially responsible businesses,

providing the tools and information necessary to make sustainable business a prominent global

economic force. 

▼

SUNetwork 

<www.sustainableusa.co

default.cfm>

This Web site was develope

the May 1999 National Tow

Meeting for a Sustainable

America and continues to p

valuable information on sus

ability. It contains the meeti

proceedings and listings of 

tainability news and events.

Visitors also can view sustai

ty commitments made by o

organizations across the co

▼

United Nations Commi

on Sustainable

Development

<www.un.org/esa/sustde

index.html>

This Web site includes a ful

sion of Agenda 21, the env

mental action plan adopted 

1992 United Nations Confe

on Environment and Develo

in Rio de Janeiro, as well a

cal summaries and a linked 

to the document. The site a

includes other United Natio

Commission on Sustainable

Development publications a

information.