What has modern ecosystem theory to offer to cleaner production, industrial ecology and society? The views of an ecologist

Ecosystem theory has been developed during recent decades, thereby a series of concepts are hypothesized to describe principles inherent to the natural function of biological systems at various levels of hierarchy. It seems that a universal trend exists, through evolutionary time and space that allows us to establish indicators that may be used to observe patterns in evolution, even at high levels of hierarchy such as the ecosystem level. The functional principles of ecosystems have evolved over a period of time corresponding to the existence of life on earth say 3-4 billion years. The obvious question immediately arises whether we could team something from observing these principles. Could we possibly improve our existence by living in accordance with these principles practiced in nature, as exemplified by ecosystems? In this paper, a comparison between natural systems on the one side and industrial-societal systems on the other side is made using 10 target areas as entrance points. It turns out that even though industrial ecologists are aware of and are practicing some points in ecosystem theory, far from all principles, have been exploited. It is suggested that society should increase attention to some of the features where natural systems and societal systems differ greatly. It is hypothesized that industry and society, both in terms of economy and sustainability, would benefit from exploiting these natural principles, even more. This would lead to an intended and deliberate development of the industrial sectors and society in general accordance with the natural ecosystem principles. This led the author to propose the eco-mimetic development of our society. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.