Opportunities in industrial ecology in the Philippines

Industrial ecology, a system oriented interdisciplinary field of study has grown very fast in the last 10 years. It is a unifying concept for sustainable industrial development. The Philippine government, business, industries, and academe are interested on the application of industrial ecology approaches to environmental management of the industries and other production systems as a profit center even though it is at its early stage in our country. The adoption by Philippine government of industrial ecology principles and practices in its environmental management program for sustainable development under scores the need for the institution of industrial ecology as a growth point of the environmental science program at UP Los Banos. The development of research program in industrial ecology would strengthen the scientific basis not only for the course offering as well as to provide answer to the key research and development issues in its application to the agro-industrialization program of the country. The need of the local government of Lipa City to adopt industrial park approach to integrate swine and poultry production and feed milling facilities in its designated agricultural areas, and the DTI-BOI industrial ecology project provide opportunities for cooperative research. Institutional linkages among the local government units, national agencies, business and industrial sectors, academe, professional association on environment and industry would enhance the benefits from the opportunities of industrial ecology. Strengthening of the support systems like acquisition of recent library materials on industrial ecology, both from abroad and local sources of upgrading the research laboratory facilities are necessary. The initial success of the partnership of the government and the industrial and business sectors on various segments of industrial ecology as exemplified by the waste exchange and waste minimization projects of the Industrial Environmental Management Project of the DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Quezon City, Philippines] and Waste Reduction Assessment of the ASEAN Environment Improvement Project, would serve as the stepping stone to closing the loop of the industrial metabolism. Similar experiences occur in some agricultural and heavy industries with private owners' initiatives