International Industrial Ecology Day 2022

Registration for ISIE Members and Non-Members

Join the session by clicking on the zoom link here.

On International Industrial Ecology Day, the "Island Industrial Ecology" section of ISIE is co-hosting a symposium together with the University of Aruba, & the Metabolism of Islands (MoI).

Small island states are characterized by a strong dependency on external resources to meet their basic needs which highly contributes to the vulnerability of these territories. The approaches to increase resource security and self-reliance in small island states need to be carefully redesigned considering context-specific challenges and opportunities. At the same time, in order to achieve sustainability and build system resilience, holistic approaches need to be favored over narrow agendas. Several research collaborations are ongoing to address these challenges, such as the Sustainable Island Solutions through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (SISSTEM) program at the University of Aruba, the Islands section of ISIE, and the Metabolism of Islands (MoI) research program. These bring together researchers from a dozen universities that are concerned about sustainable futures for small islands throughout the world. This multidisciplinary symposium aims to bring together emerging scholars to exchange ideas and approaches for a sustainability transformation in small island states and to foster interdisciplinary and interinstitutional collaboration.

If you are an ISIE member, you can register for the event by clicking on the REGISTER button at the bottom of this page once you are logged in. If you are not an ISIE member, please register via this google form managed by University of Aruba. A zoom link will be sent to registered individuals one day before the event.

Event date: Wednesday, November 30, 2022
5:00  - 8:00      PST
8:00  - 11:00    EST
9:00  - 12:00    AST
13:00 - 16:00  UTC
14:00 - 17:00  CET

PROGRAM (the first part, before the break, is officially part of the IE Day, but you are welcome to stay on for the second part), Please see bios below.

8.05 – 8.35 EST: The sociometabolic transition of a small Greek island: Assessing stock dynamics, resource flows, and material circularity from 1929 to 2019

Dominik Noll, Christian Lauk, Willi Haas, Simron Jit Singh, Panos Petridis, Dominik Wiedenhofer

Abstract

Their geomorphological characteristics make island systems special focal points for sustainability challenges. In this contribution we address the question of how islands can achieve more sustainable resource use by utilizing the socioeconomic metabolism framework to assess and explore Circular Economy (CE) strategies for the Greek island of Samothraki. We derive a complete time series from 1929 to 2019 for socioeconomic biophysical stocks and flows according to mass-balance principles. Results show that in the past 90 years Samothraki’s material stocks grew fivefold, domestic material consumption threefold, and solid waste generation fivefold. Samothraki transitioned from an almost entirely circular biophysical economy toward one in which 40% of input materials and 30% of output materials are estimated as non-circular. Samothraki serves as an ideal showcase regarding opportunities and challenges for achieving a CE on small islands and beyond.

8.35 – 9.05 EST: Can a Small Island Nation Build Resilience? The Significance of Resource-use Patterns and Socio-Metabolic Risks in The Bahamas

Resource-use patterns may entail systemic risks and cascade effects, which consequently inhibit the ability to deliver socioeconomic services. Identifying resource-use patterns exhibiting systemic risks and reshaping their combinations is a potential lever in realizing the transition to a sustainable, resilient, and resource-secure system. We employ the economy-wide Material Flow Accounting framework to map the material flow patterns for The Bahamas in 2018, to identify socio-metabolic risks (SMR) and cascade effects. SMR are systemic risks related to critical resource availability, material circulation integrity, and (in)equities in cost and benefit distributions. Due to its linear, undiversified metabolism, and heavy imports dependency, the system is susceptible to low resource self-sufficiency, high vulnerability to shocks, commodity price fluctuations, threats to sensitive ecosystems, health impacts, and economic losses, among others. A holistic resource management strategy and nature-based solutions that consider tradeoffs and synergies between different resource-use patterns are critical when exploring plans for SMR reduction.

Speaker Bios

Dominik Noll, University of Evora, Portugal

My career path has started from a practical technical background. I studied Biology in Vienna, Austria. For my master’s thesis I conducted a socio-metabolic study on the manufacturing of clay bricks burnt from fertile agricultural soil to be used for stock expansion in Mumbai, India. I completed my PhD at the Institute of Social Ecology in Vienna, in which I have been dealing with a sociometabolic long-term assessment for the Greek island of Samothraki. Since July 2021 I work at the University of Évora, Portugal, on sociometabolic implications of rapid land use intensification processes in the vicinity of hydrological megaprojects.

 Francisco Xavier Felix Martn del Campo, University of Waterloo, Canada

Francisco has a background in Civil Engineering specialized in Resources Management. He received his Master’s degree in Project Management for Environmental and Energy Engineering from IMT Atlantique, and has more than six years of experience in the construction and engineering sector. He is currently at the end of his doctoral studies in Sustainability Management from the University of Waterloo. His research interests are on defining the relation society-environment to achieve society's sustainable development, particularly in small island states. He strives to accomplish this through analyzing their resource-use dynamics from a socio-metabolic research perspective.