Industrial Ecology discoveries in Pescara

I have just spent a week as a guest lecturer at a business school, Italy, teaching about Populated life cycle approaches, i.e. life cycle methods that include actors, organization, and social issues.

Teaching was productive, meeting the 48 students was delightful, being called professoressa was enchanting, but it was the educational institution that piqued my interest. The business school, I was told, at the Università degli Studi "G. d'Annunzio" a Chieti - Pescara used to have a Master's program in Industrial Ecology 10 years ago.

Pescara, inAbruzzo, on the Adriatic sea.

 It was during a lunch with my host prof. Luigia Petti and the dean prof Anna Morgante that I started to piece together the intriguing IE story at the Economics and Commerce School in Pescara. They explained: Student enrollment had gone down, and they had become obliged by Italian law to close the Master's program on Industrial Ecology. I wasn't sure if they meant Industrial Ecology in the same sense as I. I've seen some lateral uses of these words, so I didn't follow up. I knew that my host was active in the field of social LCA and that she devoted a sizable chunk of her course on Theories and Methods of Quality to it. The dean herself told me she taught Production Management and did research in Industrial Symbiosis. Google Scholar confirmed it that evening with listing her articles in journals such as Journal of Cleaner Production and Ecological Economics. Later, I found a poster presenting the Master's program on a door in the corridor of the economics department. There, in the eco-management profile of business administration, was indeed a course on Industrial Ecology, taught by prof Raggi. And another one on Energy Technologies.

The place for my lectures.

On the fourth day, I thought I would start by saying a few encouraging words to the business about having an alien engineering teacher. I showed them a recent article on the World Economic Forum's site asking 'How can business schools remain relevant?' after the many financial and economic crises of late. The proposed answer was for business schools to offer science and technology education, but also to improve the links between business and the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) sectors. The arguments were that science and technology were developing so rapidly, transforming both economies and the ways we learn and that engineers need help with management in technical industries. I said that the socio-materiality of life cycles and their management was an exemplification of business and STEM integration, and me coming from a technical university visiting a business school provided a link that could be developed.

Or so I thought until Andrea put me right. Business schools in Italy had always maintained a more industrial and commercial interest, and not specialized into theoretical management and finances like many other European business schools. Courses such as his on Energy Technologies were, in fact, something of a matter of course. We continued over to the matter of Industrial Ecology. According to him, the program had had to close after students having difficulties finding jobs that suited their IE and business degree. But that had not been the end of it. The program had disappeared, but many courses had remained. They were now thinking of offering an Industrial Ecology profile within the Master's program, thereby avoiding the problem of the title on the degree, while ensuring the subject is being taught.

It certainly makes sense to teach IE in a business school to me. The job of managing and re-directing the energy and materials flow of society requires more than engineering skills. Business development, cost control, industrial relations… etc. are all staple subjects that can be put to use for more industrial ecology in society. When carefully probing students about their view on the practical use of the populated life cycle methodologies, the reply I got was, 'Oh, I see many uses! Strategic management, risk analysis for bank and insurance industries, industrial policy, …! '. What impressed me was the tone of certainty and the lack of ambiguity in their answers. And, who knows, engineering industrial ecologists may have to pay attention to the business industrial ecologists in the future?!

Are there any other business schools teach an Industrial Ecology program? If you know of any, please drop me a line!

Pescara beach

Me enjoying the sand

Arctic cruising with less impact — how?

I am on a quest, looking for positive environmental impacts, and I am to meet Ko de Korte, the mind behind the Cleaning the shores trip to Svalbard by Oceanwide Expeditions. Ko is a 72-year old biologist, who stayed a Winter studying polar bears on Edgeøya 1968-69 and guided around the Galapagos. He now lives in an apartment block made to look like a container ship. It stands on pillars in the water and I access it via a windy pier.

Almost immediately, Ko puts me on the spot, asking me how they can do it better next time. Before answering, thoughts like 'What do I know about arctic tourism' but I collect myself and blurt what I thought before going on the Cleaning trip:

– I would like to do something in relation plastic microbeads. At least see how much there is up there. The 5gyres.org has a special trawler net in a suitcase for volunteers who want to trawl the seas for microbeads, so maybe it could be borrowed for the next trip. I was about to contact them before going, but didn't, not knowing what the customs people would say about it…

Well, that's how it goes. One has to offer something to get something. I had thought I could share my findings with the trip organizers, but Ko asked for something more, something concrete.

We talk at length about the designing of trips and what they try to do to reduce the environmental impact. "Often passengers ask, 'can we not go a little faster?, to make up for weather delays, to see more, to get there quicker… What they don't understand is that going a little faster than optimum speed, let's say 12 knots instead of 9 knots or so, is that this doubles the fuel usage. People don't really know this." He gazes straight ahead, out the window into the grey skies, sighs lightly and continues. "It's a lot about traveling shorter distances with the ship. That's how we introduced the 'base camp' where you stay for a longer time in one place, exploring it in more depth, thereby saving substantially on fuel." 

– So, what about the Cleaning the shores trip. Was that an average or a fuel-consuming trip?

– Average. His answer is brief and concise.

He expresses skepticism about tree-planting compensation schemes and prefers to involve the travelers in direct action, however small. "So there is now at least 13 cubic meters less on beaches that have not been cleaned before. And maybe we saved the life of one bird, thus giving it a chance to reproduce. In an evolutionary perspective…  in the long run, this can of course have a huge importance."

He turns his head and looks straight at me. "Would you go again?"

"Yes, I probably would."

"End of June, next year, on the West coast of Svalbard. That's the most snow-free part then. Will you come?"