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Weslynne S. Ashton
Stuart School of Business Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago Illinois USA

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Journal article
Published: 25 April 2021 in Journal of Industrial Ecology
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Industrial symbiosis (IS) promotes collaboration among traditionally unrelated industries, finding ways to use waste from one as a raw material for another. To enhance IS sustainability, it is essential that involved firms are aware of potential costs and benefits of new exchanges to make informed decisions. Previous assessments have primarily focused on environmental and financial implications of potenial IS synergies, but social implications are rarely addressed. Even when considered, only a limited set of social indicators, such as job creation, development of social ties, and trust among partners, are used. Such an unbalanced focus on sustainability aspects may contribute to problem shifting and suboptimal selection of new synergies. A comprehensive life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) of IS, covering all three dimensions is clearly lacking. Conventionally, a triple bottom line (TBL) approach is used to evaluate sustainability; however, we explore the concept of capitals and develop a capital‐based LCSA framework as a means to evaluate sustainability of IS by examining the stocks and flows of eight different types of capital, or resources creating value, in a system. Measuring stocks and flows is conceptually much closer to the actual definition of sustainability (meeting the needs of the present by maintaining the available stocks without compromising the future needs), when compared to the TBL approach of simply aggregating environmental, social, and economic impact assessment results. This novel LCSA approach is tested at a facility with active IS, The Plant in Chicago, considering three alternative fuel usage scenarios for baking bread at an on‐site bakery.

ACS Style

Karpagam Subramanian; Shauhrat S. Chopra; Weslynne S. Ashton. Capital‐based life cycle sustainability assessment: Evaluation of potential industrial symbiosis synergies. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2021, 1 .

AMA Style

Karpagam Subramanian, Shauhrat S. Chopra, Weslynne S. Ashton. Capital‐based life cycle sustainability assessment: Evaluation of potential industrial symbiosis synergies. Journal of Industrial Ecology. 2021; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Karpagam Subramanian; Shauhrat S. Chopra; Weslynne S. Ashton. 2021. "Capital‐based life cycle sustainability assessment: Evaluation of potential industrial symbiosis synergies." Journal of Industrial Ecology , no. : 1.

Full paper
Published: 02 March 2021 in Circular Economy and Sustainability
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A growing interest in the circular economy concept has pushed the discourse in various management-related disciplines beyond established boundaries, with calls to better address how such a model may be developed in a world of global value chains. Still, the conventional linear economy model continues to dominate business, society, and research. While the concept of better connecting physical output and input flows at multiple production or consumption levels is becoming more accepted, it remains unclear how to make this happen while ensuring that sustainability targets are met or exceeded. Multiple scientific communities contribute different perspectives to this discourse, with promising opportunities for research. Circular economy and sustainability from business and economics perspectives are multifaceted. The existing body of knowledge needs to be advanced to assist private individuals, business managers, investors, or policymakers in making informed decisions. In this article for the inaugural issue, we provide a snapshot of the discourses among those who have studied the circular economy and its related topics. We outline conceptual inroads and potential research questions to encourage further circular economy and sustainability research and discourse from business or economics perspectives as well as from the broader transdisciplinary angle. We propose three research pathways: (1) connecting output with input needs in a global circular economy; (2) beyond today’s business logic for a global circular economy; and (3) inclusion of the Global South in North-dominated circular economies. For each, we propose concepts, theories, or methodological approaches and offer various perspectives from the micro, macro, and meso levels.

ACS Style

Joerg S. Hofstetter; Valentina De Marchi; Joseph Sarkis; Kannan Govindan; Robert Klassen; Aldo R. Ometto; Katharina S. Spraul; Nancy Bocken; Weslynne S. Ashton; Sanjay Sharma; Melanie Jaeger-Erben; Charlotte Jensen; Paul Dewick; Patrick Schröder; Noemi Sinkovics; Sherwat E. Ibrahim; Luke Fiske; Anthony Goerzen; Diego Vazquez-Brust. From Sustainable Global Value Chains to Circular Economy—Different Silos, Different Perspectives, but Many Opportunities to Build Bridges. Circular Economy and Sustainability 2021, 1 -27.

AMA Style

Joerg S. Hofstetter, Valentina De Marchi, Joseph Sarkis, Kannan Govindan, Robert Klassen, Aldo R. Ometto, Katharina S. Spraul, Nancy Bocken, Weslynne S. Ashton, Sanjay Sharma, Melanie Jaeger-Erben, Charlotte Jensen, Paul Dewick, Patrick Schröder, Noemi Sinkovics, Sherwat E. Ibrahim, Luke Fiske, Anthony Goerzen, Diego Vazquez-Brust. From Sustainable Global Value Chains to Circular Economy—Different Silos, Different Perspectives, but Many Opportunities to Build Bridges. Circular Economy and Sustainability. 2021; ():1-27.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Joerg S. Hofstetter; Valentina De Marchi; Joseph Sarkis; Kannan Govindan; Robert Klassen; Aldo R. Ometto; Katharina S. Spraul; Nancy Bocken; Weslynne S. Ashton; Sanjay Sharma; Melanie Jaeger-Erben; Charlotte Jensen; Paul Dewick; Patrick Schröder; Noemi Sinkovics; Sherwat E. Ibrahim; Luke Fiske; Anthony Goerzen; Diego Vazquez-Brust. 2021. "From Sustainable Global Value Chains to Circular Economy—Different Silos, Different Perspectives, but Many Opportunities to Build Bridges." Circular Economy and Sustainability , no. : 1-27.

Journal article
Published: 16 July 2020 in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
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This perspective calls for building greater understanding of the role that entrepreneurship plays in addressing the challenges to resource and waste management imposed by COVID-19. We contend that researchers and practitioners need to recognize that entrepreneurs are important change agents who can help in the transition to a more sustainable and circular economy. We present challenges as well as opportunities to address this gap with the goal to foster future research.

ACS Style

Xaver Neumeyer; Weslynne S. Ashton; Nikolay Dentchev. Addressing resource and waste management challenges imposed by COVID-19: An entrepreneurship perspective. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2020, 162, 105058 -105058.

AMA Style

Xaver Neumeyer, Weslynne S. Ashton, Nikolay Dentchev. Addressing resource and waste management challenges imposed by COVID-19: An entrepreneurship perspective. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2020; 162 ():105058-105058.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Xaver Neumeyer; Weslynne S. Ashton; Nikolay Dentchev. 2020. "Addressing resource and waste management challenges imposed by COVID-19: An entrepreneurship perspective." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 162, no. : 105058-105058.

Journal article
Published: 08 April 2020 in Energies
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The circular economy (CE), and its focus on the cycling and regeneration of resources, necessitates both a reconfiguration of existing infrastructures and the creation of new infrastructures to facilitate these flows. In urban settings, CE is being realized at multiple levels, from within individual organizations to across peri-urban landscapes. While most attention in CE research and practice focuses on organizations, the scale and impact of many such efforts are limited because they fail to account for the diversity of resources, needs, and power structures across cities, consequently missing opportunities for adopting a more effective and inclusive CE. Reconfiguring hard infrastructures is necessary for material resource cycling, but intervening in soft infrastructures is also needed to enable more inclusive decision-making processes to activate these flows. Utilizing participatory action research methods at the intersection of industrial ecology and design, we developed a new framework and a model for considering and allocating the variety of resources that organizations utilize when creating value for themselves, society, and the planet. We use design prototyping methods to synthesize distributed knowledge and co-create hard and soft infrastructures in a multi-level case study focused on urban food producers and farmers markets from the City of Chicago. We discuss generalized lessons for “infrastructuring” the circular economy to bridge niche-level successes with larger system-level changes in cities.

ACS Style

André Nogueira; Weslynne Ashton; Carlos Teixeira; Elizabeth Lyon; Jonathan Pereira. Infrastructuring the Circular Economy. Energies 2020, 13, 1805 .

AMA Style

André Nogueira, Weslynne Ashton, Carlos Teixeira, Elizabeth Lyon, Jonathan Pereira. Infrastructuring the Circular Economy. Energies. 2020; 13 (7):1805.

Chicago/Turabian Style

André Nogueira; Weslynne Ashton; Carlos Teixeira; Elizabeth Lyon; Jonathan Pereira. 2020. "Infrastructuring the Circular Economy." Energies 13, no. 7: 1805.

Journal article
Published: 04 July 2019 in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
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We widely recognize that systems approaches are necessary to tackle the complex and urgent challenges of the unsustainability of human actions on the planet. However, how we perceive systems is largely framed by who is in included in the discussion and the experiences and interests that they bring to bear. Efforts to create the circular economy aim at closing material loops, but these efforts are limited because they only consider the flows of a few types of capital - natural, manufactured and financial, and are based on specific interests of a few actors. Other types of capital - human, social, political, cultural and digital - are often ignored, and as such the full scope of dynamics in a system is missed. Even though there will always be a discrepancy between what is perceived, and the actual system in operation, there are greater opportunities to expand such perception by drawing more deeply on systems thinking and the concept of capitals. This involves expanding not only the notion of the system itself, but also acknowledging different actors and their interests, types of capital in the system, and interactions between the actors and capital stocks and flows. We develop a systems thinking framework using eight capitals, and apply it in multi-level contexts in the Chicago region to demonstrate how they provide new insights and critical pathways for the transition to the circular economy.

ACS Style

André Nogueira; Weslynne S. Ashton; Carlos Teixeira. Expanding perceptions of the circular economy through design: Eight capitals as innovation lenses. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2019, 149, 566 -576.

AMA Style

André Nogueira, Weslynne S. Ashton, Carlos Teixeira. Expanding perceptions of the circular economy through design: Eight capitals as innovation lenses. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2019; 149 ():566-576.

Chicago/Turabian Style

André Nogueira; Weslynne S. Ashton; Carlos Teixeira. 2019. "Expanding perceptions of the circular economy through design: Eight capitals as innovation lenses." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 149, no. : 566-576.

Editorial
Published: 21 March 2019 in Resources, Conservation and Recycling
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ACS Style

Ming Lang Tseng; Anthony S.F. Chiu; Weslynne Ashton; Vincent Moreau. Sustainable management of natural resources toward sustainable development goals. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 2019, 145, 419 -421.

AMA Style

Ming Lang Tseng, Anthony S.F. Chiu, Weslynne Ashton, Vincent Moreau. Sustainable management of natural resources toward sustainable development goals. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2019; 145 ():419-421.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ming Lang Tseng; Anthony S.F. Chiu; Weslynne Ashton; Vincent Moreau. 2019. "Sustainable management of natural resources toward sustainable development goals." Resources, Conservation and Recycling 145, no. : 419-421.

Original paper
Published: 06 November 2017 in Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy
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Resource efficiency, including cleaner production and energy efficiency (CP/EE), is an important strategy for developing countries to grow their economies in a sustainable manner. However, informational, technical and economic barriers often limit the implementation of such strategies in the private sector, particularly among smaller enterprises. Since the 1990s, international aid agencies, governments, banks and non-governmental organizations have supplied financial incentives to encourage enterprises to adopt resource efficient practices in Latin America. “Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas” (PCPA) was a 3-year multinational project focused on promoting cleaner production practices in micro, small and medium size enterprises (MSMEs) through collaboration with academia. In this paper, we examine the availability and utilization of different types of financing instruments for CP/EE in MSMEs in Central America. We survey nineteen programs across five countries to examine how effectively these instruments are utilized, barriers that hinder their adoption, and best practices for increasing their uptake. We also incorporate the experience of 39 MSMEs that participated in PCPA, with respect to their demand for CP/EE and external financing options. We find a mismatch between MSMEs’ demands and expectations with the supply and interest of financing programs, leading to the underutilization of the funds.

ACS Style

Weslynne S. Ashton; Marta Panero; Christian Izquierdo Cruz; Marta Hurtado Martin. Financing resource efficiency and cleaner production in Central America. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy 2017, 20, 53 -63.

AMA Style

Weslynne S. Ashton, Marta Panero, Christian Izquierdo Cruz, Marta Hurtado Martin. Financing resource efficiency and cleaner production in Central America. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy. 2017; 20 (1):53-63.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Weslynne S. Ashton; Marta Panero; Christian Izquierdo Cruz; Marta Hurtado Martin. 2017. "Financing resource efficiency and cleaner production in Central America." Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy 20, no. 1: 53-63.

Article
Published: 22 August 2017 in Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy
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Indoor farming and food production systems present a unique opportunity for altering the sustainability of the urban food landscape through innovations in food, energy, and water (FEW) flows. Compared to traditional farming, growing indoors has been shown to be significantly more efficient with water usage and can reduce the amount of organic waste in runoff. However, indoor farming requires large amounts of energy for lighting and climate control, which can in turn exacerbate environmental impacts. Many experiments in indoor farming are taking place in cities across the world. This article presents a case study of The Plant, a renovated former meat-packing facility in Chicago's South Side, which is being repurposed into a collaborative community of food businesses committed to reducing waste. We utilize a Material Flow Analysis (MFA) framework to gather and analyze the FEW flows, but we also illustrate the social impacts, which are important as part of the broader sustainability impacts of the facility. Furthermore, we discuss the challenges in assessing the flow of FEW resources in experimental facilities such as The Plant, and we emphasize the need for ongoing study of such systems in order to determine a path towards sustainable management of food, energy, water, and waste in cities. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2017

ACS Style

Eva Chance; Weslynne Ashton; Jonathan Pereira; John Mulrow; Julia Norberto; Sybil Derrible; Stephane Guilbert. The Plant-An experiment in urban food sustainability. Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy 2017, 37, 82 -90.

AMA Style

Eva Chance, Weslynne Ashton, Jonathan Pereira, John Mulrow, Julia Norberto, Sybil Derrible, Stephane Guilbert. The Plant-An experiment in urban food sustainability. Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy. 2017; 37 (1):82-90.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Eva Chance; Weslynne Ashton; Jonathan Pereira; John Mulrow; Julia Norberto; Sybil Derrible; Stephane Guilbert. 2017. "The Plant-An experiment in urban food sustainability." Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy 37, no. 1: 82-90.

Journal article
Published: 04 May 2017 in Journal of Industrial Ecology
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Industrial symbiosis (IS), as a subfield of industrial ecology, is concerned with cooperation among industrial firms in managing resources, particularly by-products, such that the waste of one firm becomes the input of another. This “closed-loop” pattern also lies at the heart of the concept of the circular economy (CE). Both concepts are typically considered at scales ranging from industrial parks to global supply chains, but rarely at the scale of a single facility housing multiple firms. Moreover, both concepts have requirements and implications that reach beyond the tracking and coordination of material flows. These additional requirements include the cultivation of new business models and political support, as well as engagement of local communities and cultures. Thus, both IS and the CE face the challenge of bridging the gap between the technical and sociocultural aspects of industrial development and adapting to the facility scale. We address this challenge by proposing a framework for the development of facility-scale industrial symbiosis (Facility-IS). Facility-IS accounts for the presence of symbiotic interfirm relationships—including, but not limited to, material and knowledge exchange—within a single physical facility. The conditions for planning, facilitating, and growing Facility-IS are outlined, as well as three approaches to implement such projects. Overall, this research forms a Facility-IS framework rooted in existing best practices for understanding the CE at the local scale, tracking business sustainability factors and assessing viable strategies that facilitate IS.

ACS Style

John S. Mulrow; Sybil Derrible; Weslynne S. Ashton; Shauhrat S. Chopra. Industrial Symbiosis at the Facility Scale. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2017, 21, 559 -571.

AMA Style

John S. Mulrow, Sybil Derrible, Weslynne S. Ashton, Shauhrat S. Chopra. Industrial Symbiosis at the Facility Scale. Journal of Industrial Ecology. 2017; 21 (3):559-571.

Chicago/Turabian Style

John S. Mulrow; Sybil Derrible; Weslynne S. Ashton; Shauhrat S. Chopra. 2017. "Industrial Symbiosis at the Facility Scale." Journal of Industrial Ecology 21, no. 3: 559-571.

Journal article
Published: 13 April 2017 in Sustainability
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Self-organized industrial ecosystems (SOIEs) refer to communities of firms in diverse industries that spontaneously engage in Industrial Symbiosis (IS); that is, firms independently develop bilateral and multi-lateral interactions involving material, energy, and knowledge sharing for individual and collective benefit. Like biological ecosystems, self-organized industrial ecosystems must constantly respond to external perturbations. Resilience of SOIEs, or the ability of systems to maintain structure and function in response to perturbations, has been the focus of a few recent studies. However, these studies have only examined the network characteristics for resilience of IS in a static manner. The current study contributes to this emerging literature by examining the dynamics associated with growth (life) and demise (death) of self-organized industrial ecosystems in light of changing network dynamics and external perturbations, with emphasis on material and socio-economic aspects of connectivity between firms. This research is grounded in real world cases, but expands beyond these through hypothetical network models in order to ascertain the network characteristics that lead to more resilient structures and outcomes. A key distinction is made between SOIEs that include an anchor firm versus scavenger firms. The former typically involve a scale-free network structure where new member firms preferentially connect to actors with the most connections, while the latter involve more random, fully-connected networks where new member firms connect with multiple existing actors. The results imply that resilience of SOIEs do not arise from intrinsic properties of the system alone, but from the interplay of network topology with external social and ecological constraints.

ACS Style

Weslynne S. Ashton; Shauhrat S. Chopra; And Rahul Kashyap. Life and Death of Industrial Ecosystems. Sustainability 2017, 9, 605 .

AMA Style

Weslynne S. Ashton, Shauhrat S. Chopra, And Rahul Kashyap. Life and Death of Industrial Ecosystems. Sustainability. 2017; 9 (4):605.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Weslynne S. Ashton; Shauhrat S. Chopra; And Rahul Kashyap. 2017. "Life and Death of Industrial Ecosystems." Sustainability 9, no. 4: 605.

Research article
Published: 20 February 2017 in Journal of Environmental Planning and Management
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Manufacturers around the world green their businesses for a variety of reasons, including competitiveness, social responsibility, and external stakeholder pressure. However, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are thought to lag behind larger ones in the adoption of green business practices. This paper explores the motivations for US Midwestern SMEs adopting a variety of green business practices, using a survey of 59 SMEs in the tool and die manufacturing industry. The majority of firms appear to be internally motivated to implement green practices – driven primarily by cost and competitiveness concerns, more than by social responsibility concerns. External coercive pressure from government or customers does not appear to be a significant motivation for these SMEs. However, informal pressure through government incentives and support programs, as well as mimetic pressure through peer learning via industry associations, appear to be more effective in helping these SMEs to further ‘go green.’

ACS Style

Weslynne Ashton; Suzana Russell; Elizabeth Futch. The adoption of green business practices among small US Midwestern manufacturing enterprises. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 2017, 60, 2133 -2149.

AMA Style

Weslynne Ashton, Suzana Russell, Elizabeth Futch. The adoption of green business practices among small US Midwestern manufacturing enterprises. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. 2017; 60 (12):2133-2149.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Weslynne Ashton; Suzana Russell; Elizabeth Futch. 2017. "The adoption of green business practices among small US Midwestern manufacturing enterprises." Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 60, no. 12: 2133-2149.

Journal article
Published: 01 November 2016 in Journal of Cleaner Production
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Highlights•Experiential learning benefited students to have confidence of adequate technical competencies.•Students gained competencies in complex dynamics of interpersonal skills.•Students learned communication and collaboration when working as a team.•Students learned the complexity of technical issues related to decision-making.•Faculty found value in experiential learning as a real-life context working with businesses. AbstractA multinational partnership called Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas linked faculty from seven Latin American universities and two U.S. universities to facilitate the transition to sustainability in the Americas by strengthening higher education institutions' capacity for educating young professionals in cleaner production and sustainable development, and assisting micro, small, and medium enterprises in understanding and implementing cleaner production and sustainable development strategies in their respective organizations. The ultimate outcome was to develop a workforce armed with new knowledge, skills and attitudes toward sustainability through cleaner production. To achieve the twin goals of the project, an experiential learning approach was developed to provide students with opportunities for applying knowledge of cleaner production and developing workplace competencies by working directly with micro, small, and medium enterprises to identify opportunities for cleaner production, under the supervision of faculty and cleaner production consultants. This paper examines the competencies developed from experiential learning in practicum courses and internships using CareerOneStop, an Industry Competency Model, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration. Online surveys were developed and administered to university students to understand whether they had mastered various competencies and comparisons were made across the seven partner institutions.

ACS Style

Sarah McPherson; Nada M. Anid; Weslynne S. Ashton; Marta Hurtado-Martín; Nasrin Khalili; Marta Panero. Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas II: Application of a competency model to experiential learning for sustainability education. Journal of Cleaner Production 2016, 135, 907 -918.

AMA Style

Sarah McPherson, Nada M. Anid, Weslynne S. Ashton, Marta Hurtado-Martín, Nasrin Khalili, Marta Panero. Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas II: Application of a competency model to experiential learning for sustainability education. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2016; 135 ():907-918.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sarah McPherson; Nada M. Anid; Weslynne S. Ashton; Marta Hurtado-Martín; Nasrin Khalili; Marta Panero. 2016. "Pathways to Cleaner Production in the Americas II: Application of a competency model to experiential learning for sustainability education." Journal of Cleaner Production 135, no. : 907-918.

Book chapter
Published: 25 September 2013 in The Social Embeddedness of Industrial Ecology
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ACS Style

Marian R. Chertow; Weslynne S. Ashton; Frank Boons; Jennifer Howard-Grenville. The Social Embeddedness of Industrial Symbiosis Linkages in Puerto Rican Industrial Regions. The Social Embeddedness of Industrial Ecology 2013, 1 .

AMA Style

Marian R. Chertow, Weslynne S. Ashton, Frank Boons, Jennifer Howard-Grenville. The Social Embeddedness of Industrial Symbiosis Linkages in Puerto Rican Industrial Regions. The Social Embeddedness of Industrial Ecology. 2013; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marian R. Chertow; Weslynne S. Ashton; Frank Boons; Jennifer Howard-Grenville. 2013. "The Social Embeddedness of Industrial Symbiosis Linkages in Puerto Rican Industrial Regions." The Social Embeddedness of Industrial Ecology , no. : 1.

Book chapter
Published: 12 September 2012 in Long Term Socio-Ecological Research
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Islands provide a place to conceptualise human-nature interactions in socio-ecological systems and to explore how such phenomena occur within decisive boundaries. Isolation, vulnerability to disruption, and constraints on the availability of natural resources add urgency to island sustainability questions with limited solution sets. This chapter presents findings that contribute to the larger issues of resiliency and vulnerability on islands. Cross-cutting reflections are offered based on studies conducted over the last 10 years at the Yale Center for Industrial Ecology of four diverse islands: Singapore, a highly developed island city-state; Puerto Rico, an island rich with nature and industry; O’ahu, a high density, tourism-dependent island, home to Honolulu, Hawai’i; and Hawai’i Island, also known as “The Big Island”, with a larger land area and a lower population density than O’ahu. Over the course of the twentieth century, each of these islands became heavily dependent on imports such as water, food, or fuel to sustain basic human needs and modern economic functions. Within the last decade, each has consciously sought to restructure its socio-ecological configurations by using more locally available resources in one or more of its metabolic linkages. This pattern has the potential to reconnect island economies with their natural systems while simultaneously enhancing relationships and increasing resilience.

ACS Style

Marian Chertow; Ezekiel Fugate; Weslynne Ashton. The Intimacy of Human-Nature Interactions on Islands. Long Term Socio-Ecological Research 2012, 315 -337.

AMA Style

Marian Chertow, Ezekiel Fugate, Weslynne Ashton. The Intimacy of Human-Nature Interactions on Islands. Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. 2012; ():315-337.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Marian Chertow; Ezekiel Fugate; Weslynne Ashton. 2012. "The Intimacy of Human-Nature Interactions on Islands." Long Term Socio-Ecological Research , no. : 315-337.

Journal article
Published: 23 February 2012 in Journal of Industrial Ecology
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Like many economic exchanges, industrial symbiosis (IS) is thought to be influenced by social relationships and shared norms among actors in a network. While many implicit references to social characteristics exist throughout the literature, there have been few explicit attempts to operationalize and measure the concepts. The “short mental distance,”“trust,”“openness,” and “communication” recorded among managers in Kalundborg, Denmark, set a precedent for examining and encouraging social interactions among key personnel in the dozens of eco‐industrial networks around the world. In this article we explore the relationships among various aspects of social embeddedness, social capital, and IS. We develop a conceptual framework and an approach using quantitative and qualitative methods to identify and measure these social characteristics, including social network structure, communication, and similarities in norms and conceptions of waste, and apply them in an industrial network in Nanjangud, South India. The findings suggest that there is a fairly high level of shared norms about dealing with waste—the “short mental distance”—in this network, but by‐product transactions are only weakly correlated with the structure and content of communication among managers. Replication of this approach can increase the understanding and comparability of the role of social characteristics in eco‐industrial activities around the world.

ACS Style

Weslynne S. Ashton; Ariana C. Bain. Assessing the “Short Mental Distance” in Eco-Industrial Networks. Journal of Industrial Ecology 2012, 16, 70 -82.

AMA Style

Weslynne S. Ashton, Ariana C. Bain. Assessing the “Short Mental Distance” in Eco-Industrial Networks. Journal of Industrial Ecology. 2012; 16 (1):70-82.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Weslynne S. Ashton; Ariana C. Bain. 2012. "Assessing the “Short Mental Distance” in Eco-Industrial Networks." Journal of Industrial Ecology 16, no. 1: 70-82.

Journal article
Published: 01 September 2010 in Business Strategy and the Environment
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ACS Style

Weslynne S. Ashton. Managing Performance Expectations of Industrial Symbiosis. Business Strategy and the Environment 2010, 20, 297 -309.

AMA Style

Weslynne S. Ashton. Managing Performance Expectations of Industrial Symbiosis. Business Strategy and the Environment. 2010; 20 (5):297-309.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Weslynne S. Ashton. 2010. "Managing Performance Expectations of Industrial Symbiosis." Business Strategy and the Environment 20, no. 5: 297-309.