Network dynamics of an energy supply chain: Applicability of the network approach to analysing the industrial ecology practices of companies

Abstract

Currently firms face environmental challenges, which require more emphasis on inter-organisational environmental improvement efforts. A field of study of industrial ecology offers some novel approaches for inter-organisational environmental management. It emphasises symbiotic linkages between firms or other organisations in which waste of one actor is used as raw material by others. The industrial network approach has been suggested as a possible framework for developing managerial implications for industrial ecology. This study analyses an example of an industrial ecosystem with notions of the network theory, and concludes that the industrial network approach is useful in analysing and describing the development of eco-industrial relationships even though it is not highly suitable for explaining the reasons behind the development. On the basis of the network approach, some implications for the management of industrial ecosystems are also proposed in this study. © 2006 Springer-Verlag London Limited.