INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY-THE POTENTIAL TO APPLY IN VIET NAM

Abstract

Choosing industrialisation as a key development strategy, Viet Nam is now facing with environmental challenges. Our generation has no right to get short term economic benefits, leaving long term environmental disasters to future generations. Measures to compromise economic and environmental goals should be considered. One among these measures is to organise industrial systems based on an industrial ecology approach. The main idea of Industrial Ecology is that for sustainable development, industrial systems should mimic natural ecosystems. In other words, the material cycles in industrial systems should be closed, similar to material cycles in natural ecosystems. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the advantages and constraints to apply the concept of industrial ecology, and to suggest some ideas to promote industrial ecology in Viet Nam.