Study of Environmental Performance Index for Eco-industrial Park development in China

Abstract

This study establishes the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) for eco鄄industrial park development in China by applying multi鄄criteria ranking method. First, an indicator system is established by referring to the Standard for Sector鄄 integrate Eco鄄industrial Park. The indicator system includes eight indicators, which are classified into three categories, the indicators of economic development, resource and energy consumption, and pollution discharge. Second, a two鄄step normalization method is used to transform the original values of different indicators. Third, an equal weight method is applied for aggregation. The EPIs of the 24 national demonstration eco鄄industrial parks are analyzed and ranked with 2010 as the reference year. We suppose a standard eco鄄industrial park by referring to the Standard for Sector鄄integrate Eco鄄industrial Park. The key factors crucial to EPI are investigated, which include industrial structure, development stage of the eco鄄 industrial park, and the type of the eco鄄industrial parks. The industrial structure of the eco鄄industrial park, moreover, the pillar industries of the park usually play a significant role on the EPI. The development stage of the eco鄄industrial park is the second key factor for the EPI. The accredited national demonstration eco鄄industrial parks generally have better EPIs than the eco鄄industrial parks on trial. The third important factor crucial to the EPI is the type of the industrial park. Overall, the EPI of the eco鄄industrial parks retrofitted from high鄄tech industrial development zone is better than those retrofitted from economic and technological development zone. At last, the policy implication based on ranking the EPI of the 24 eco鄄 industrial parks is discussed. The standard eco鄄industrial park supposed above, which is designated an EPI of 60, is ranked http: / / www.ecologica.cn along with the 24 eco鄄industrial parks by comparing the EPI respectively. We find that 23 of the 24 eco鄄industrial parks have better EPI than that of the standard eco鄄industrial park. The Standard for Sector鄄integrate Eco鄄industrial Park is still at a low level compared with most national high鄄tech industrial development zones and national economic and technological development zones that have accredited as the national demonstration eco鄄industrial parks. In addition, some industrial parks that have homed to the industries having intensive energy and water consumption, such as steel, chemical industry, and textile dyeing and finishing, do not achieve the same good EPI as the high鄄tech industrial development zones or economic and technological development zones. However, they have greatly improved technologies of cleaner production and are devoted to pollution control, and thus should also be encouraged and honored for eco鄄industrial park development. The management of the eco鄄industrial parks should be classified carefully according to the categories and stage of development thereof. The indicator system underling the EPI of eco鄄industrial park in this study is open, and new indi...

Enhancing the sustainability of Chinese production : going beyond individual firms by green supply chain and eco-industrial parks

“…This has led to a redefining of the industrial ecosystem in the industrialized countries (Lambert and Boons, 2002) into a model of the Eco-Industrial Park (EIP). This was strategy and tool to reduce environmental pollution from industrial clusters, minimize energy consumption and waste generation, and foster resource exchange to achieve sustainable industrial development (Chertow and Ehrenfeld, 2012;Lai, 2013;Song and Shen, 2015), thereby improving the level of sustainable development performance for the economy, environment and society (Tian et al, 2014;Valenzuela-Venegas et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2010). EIPs have since become a global feature with sustainable practices achieving varying degrees of success (Gibbs and Deutz, 2007;Sakr et al, 2011).…”