Growing up, I had never learned much about sustainability because I grew up in a town that was not necessarily moving towards being more sustainable, and my parents did not necessarily take special interest in it. However, I did learn about sustainability in the way that my dad had always taught me how important it is not to waste. Anytime I didn’t finish the food on my plate or use something I bought he told me about how the Native Americans who lived where I grew up would use every piece of the animal they had hunted due to respect for the animal. Although he is not necessarily very eco-conscious, he is the opposite of an over consumer which is a core concept of sustainability. He has made me aware of my waste growing up which I think is important, but this went a step further when I came to CofC. My roommate Rebecca, is an environmental geoscience major so sustainability is very important to her, so although it was never really at the front of my mind before, it has become very important to me because of her. 

     However, being in Greece has made me realize how much less emphasis there is in America in recycling as the system of recycling seems to be much more thorough in Greece in my experience so far. I have also found it interesting to be learning about the cradle to cradle concept in sustainability. I never have thought much about how recycling goes beyond me, and what the businesses I support do with their waste. I like the idea of businesses trying to develop products in a way so that the waste will be able to be reused to sell more products.  I intend to work in advertising for a business one day and I think that although the cradle to cradle concept is not supposed to be practiced solely for marketing purposes, if a company is able to reduce their waste by a high percentage this could easily give them an advantage over their competitor. 

     Although I am not necessarily a sustainability major or minor, I would like to work for a company that is more sustainable and practices recycling as this aligns with my personal values. Additionally I believe that soon companies that are known to generate excessive waste will become less lucrative as the consumer is beginning to care more about the environment, especially in Europe which seems to be ahead in this concept.

Industrial symbiosis is the process of a business forming relationships between two or more associates to exchange waste in order to reduce, reuse, and recycle the waste. This waste is used to create their products and when companies have this kind of relationship an industrial ecosystem is formed. Industrial ecosystems have two groups, an eco industrial park and an eco industrial network. This reading discusses multiple case studies concerning this in Greece. 445 case studies, both big and small businesses, were identified concerning industrial symbiosis in 16 eco industrial networks. A total of 45 waste types were discovered, which contained energy exchange and material resource exchange. All of these businesses were found throughout Greece, materials were transported by either trucks or ships if they were being shipped abroad. Waste is separated into thermal energy, fuels, metals, plastics, chemicals, minerals, and organics. Waste compatibility is a major factor that concerns the physical characteristics of waste which allows it to be used as it is. An example would be waste from agricultural activities that can be used in a variety of different other rural activities. This means agricultural wastes are very compatible and are often exchanged at the smaller spatial scale.  According to the research there are 30 established industrial parks in Greece while 24 are still under construction. Many of the cases are from smaller spatial scales, IP and locals. Waste has been shipped by boat to other countries including Italy, Spain, Russia and China. Transporting waste by boat is cheap, meaning that it is still profitable to transport. Econ industrial Network of aluminum is a spatial allocation of companies  at the Ip scale in Greece. Typically the alumina waste is exchanged on a national scale. However the end of life product is exchanged at a global scale.

Extensive research shows how recycling waste products through multilevel eco-industrial networks benefits physical, spatial, economic, and environmental conditions. Industrial Symbiosis is the relationship between two more firms that exchange their waste as feedstock for their production processes. Through studying various firms and industrial networks, researchers have concluded that recycling the materials used in the supply chain and production greatly affects the environment and the company itself. However, many eco-industrial limits prevent the use of certain materials in design and production. During the identification and documentation of case studies, a total of 45 waste types were identified, and the documents included both cases of energy exchange and cases of material resources exchange. Cases of industrial waste exchange were also identified through research as well as cases of end-of-life-cycle product exchange. However, the study only included end-of-life-cycle products if industrial waste was also exchanged within the same network. The businesses participating in industrial symbiosis are scattered throughout Greece, and trucks were primarily used for the production of waste within the country, whereas ships were primarily used for transportation abroad.

The transportation of waste across such large distances remains profitable due to the relatively low cost of transporting cargo in containers by sea, while the environmental benefit in these cases remains to be investigated. Regarding superheated water, the country aims to avoid heat loss, which increases with increasing transport distance. On the same note, Greece tries as best as it can to produce organic waste and residues to avoid high emissions of toxic waste. Organic waste can be easily used by other companies in the agriculture sector, and the nearest end user is generally found within the lowest spatial scale. Wastepaper, which are scraps from various metals and old. tires are collected and often refined and compressed before their transport to recycling companies on the local level to reduce transport costs. Carbon dioxide is also primarily transported at the lowest spatial scale, perhaps due to the difficulties and risks associated with the transport of compressed gasses over long distances. These gasses are either transported by pipes directly from the producer to a nearby receiver or by tank trucks, which should not travel long distances for safety reasons.

Waste compatibility can be considered a distinct factor that concerns the physical characteristics of waste that permit its direct use. This factor strongly affects the spatial allocation scale of the exchange networks for different types of waste.

The eco-innovation observatory is a much-needed information source for companies and innovation service providers, providing a solid decision-making basis for policy development. The observatory provides insight into how sustainable a company is and how much waste they emit into the environment.  The Environmental Performance Index ranks Greece as a stronger performer in the scheme of global rankings. Greece sits in 25th place as the country has an average performance in the areas of air quality, fish stocks, and GHG emissions intensity. However, the country struggles with many challenges, such as air emissions from transport. and electric power stations, overexploitation of its water resources, and loss of marine diversity in various ecosystems around the country. Greece remains to be one of the best countries that prioritize sustainable energy as they continue to be one of the most successful countries in the use of solar thermal energy. A great addition that the country has in mind it the Greek government is preparing a Master Plan for the gradual closure of lignite-burning energy plants in areas where the plants are located. As a result of this plan, the pressures from the generation and treatment of waste have been reduced greatly. As great as this is, the closure of illegal landfills. and illegal metal foundries continue to be a challenge for the country to overcome.

The eco-innovation input index is based on the national indicators of the government’s environmental and energy R&D appropriations and outlays. Greece scored only 79, with the European Union average being 100 in 2018. Compared to 2016, when the country increased its performance considerably, Greece’s performance was only slightly higher, 57. Aside from the more eco-innovation aspects, Greece continues to have one of the lowest performances in socio-economic outcomes. For reference, in 2016, eco-industry exports reached only EUR 56 million but then improved in 2016 when the exports counted to EUR 32 million. Additionally, there was a decrease in total employment from 2016 to 2018. But in 2018, the size of the eco-industry has decreased, with its revenue being 1.32%of total revenue across all companies.

As positive of an impact the eco-innovations have had on the country, the efforts to introduce them in the construction sector slowed down greatly. Due to the economic crisis, companies have sought to explore opportunities afforded by eco-innovations in terms of costs and cater to clients’ needs. As all of these socioeconomic issues have continued, Greece remains to lack a clear and cohesive framework for the support of eco-innovation and eco-industries despite the improvement through various innovations and research projects.

From the start of the article, the idea of a circular economy sounds promising, because as many of us well know, the solution to climate change can’t be a catch-all, and needs to be a major change. And not just in our every day habits, but we need to think bigger and get down to the root of the problem. So when the article compares the circular economy to a linear economy, it puts things in perspective, just like we talked about during lecture. I feel like waste is something that I can’t quite comprehend, just the shear quantity from the United states alone. From food being thrown out at grocery stores, to leftover clothing scraps at manufacturing plants, it seems almost intuitive that that waste should be used for a better purpose than to just be buried or burned. But with corporations worrying only about money, the environment hasn’t been a priority, which is why I’m hoping with a more circular economy, there will be an increased incentive to more sustainable business practices. 

I like the quote from the article “Nothing is lost, everything is transformed” because it represents a shifted perspective for products at the end of their life. I can relate this to my everyday life in that, I find myself not wanting to throw away nice packaging such as perfume bottles, even when I’ve used the product. I’m not super handy so I can’t think of new uses for everything, but I always with there was another option than just wasting the product, when the packing could obviously have more use. This to me feels like a real life example of something that could be transformed as opposed to just getting lost. So in the framework of cradle to cradle, if a perfume bottle was say designed with the intention of life beyond its intended use, the materials that went into that packaging could have a far longer lifecycle than in a linear economy. I feel like looking to earth and its systems itself, to come up for solutions for the changing planet is a really smart idea, that seems so simple, but has somehow been surpassed for too many years. 

Additionally, the circular economy seems really appealing to me because it goes beyond slowing down the changing of the environment, but even goes so far as to try and help the environment. Like the article explained, biodegradable consumable products will be put back into the earth, to create nutrients. In our current state of constant deforestation, nutrients seem more important than ever, and I hope to see more of these circular practices implemented in the future.

“Industrial symbiosis in Greece: A study of spatial allocation patterns,” introduced me to the concept of industrial symbiosis. Initially, the idea of industrial symbiosis seemed a little daunting and quite extensive, but once you realize that it’s just companies exchanging their waste to be used in their production processes, it becomes a lot easier to understand. Essentially, this study analyses the Eco-Industrial Networks in Greece and explores their limitations in a spatial capacity. The article taught me that there are five levels when looking at the spatial scale of waste: Global, National, Regional, Local, and Industrial Park. I also learned that when transporting waste between Greek companies that are participating in industrial symbiosis, trucks are mainly used when moving the waste within the country’s borders and ships are mainly used when moving the waste to another country. I found it amazing that industrial symbiosis can be so far-reaching as to actually include other countries, like Italy, or even countries in other continents, like China. Furthermore, I’d presume that transporting waste via ships would be far too costly and would far outweigh any benefits, but apparently, it is actually profitable because cargo ship containers aren’t too expensive. However, as the study suggests, the environmental implications of transporting waste in this way must be examined. When reading the study, I also thought that another note-worthy fact is that more industrial symbiosis business partnerships “might be possible within Greece’s existing IPs.” In addition, when the article discussed the correlation between the type of waste and the spatial scale, I was pleased to read that most of the results seemed to me to be common sense. I was able to understand why superheated water and yeast residues should be transported on the IP or Local level so as not to lose heat and because of high compatibility, respectively. When discussing the transportation of gases, it is clear to me that this particular type of waste should also be moved on an IP or Local level  because they are considerably high-risk and are usually moved via pipes or trucks. At the end of “Industrial symbiosis in Greece…,” there is a summary of the three primary factors limiting Eco-Industrial Networks in a spatial respect: economic, physical, and social. The economic factors include labor and transportation costs. The physical factors include the physical dimensions of the waste in question. The social factors might be behavioral such as companies’ usual tendencies. The study then concludes that as evidenced by the analysis, the applications of industrial symbiosis are in fact limited on a spatial level. 

Eco-innovation refers to any innovation that limits the use of natural resources and reduces the exposure of harmful substances into the environment within a whole life-cycle. Since Greece has multiple islands it is important to monitor climate changes and intensive ecosystem pollution because these environmental issues will have a greater impact. This is why Greece has focused on eco innovations and renewable energies. Solar, wind, and hydropower are a few renewable energies sources that have been implemented. While Greece does use these renewable energies, in 2018 it only scored 75 on a EU average of 100 in terms of eco-innovation performance. The country continues to reach the EU’s average for eco-innovation performances, which is a score of 82. I was quite surprised to learn this as I saw multiple solar panels on buildings as well as multiple wind turbines on different islands I traveled to in Greece. This made me think that they were a more renewable energy friendly country. However Greece was ranked 25th overall globally on the environmental performance index. The EPI states that the country’s air quality, fish stocks and GHG emissions intensity are all averagely ranked. Greece is faced with many challenges including destruction of coastal zones, loss of biodiversity in both terrestrial and marine ecosystems, transportation air emissions, electricity power stations, and overexploitation of its water resources. The region of Thessaly is the main area where overexploitation of groundwater resources occur. Within Thessaly region high levels of energy and water are used for agricultural irrigation. Although there are many groundwater irrigation systems that run illegally and are not accounted for. I was surprised to learn that the bathing water in Greece was assessed as excellent. I just assumed since you can’t drink the tap water there that meant the water quality was poor. Waste is a major issue for Greece, there are many illegal landfills as well as illegal metal foundries that can be found within the country. However by reducing the illegal landfills there are still no proper facilities to remove the hazardous wastes. Personally I was unaware of how big the waste issue was in Greece. I read about how hydra has a major problem with waste and how they do not properly dispose of it. They burn the waste which releases toxic fumes into the atmosphere, polluting it. However I thought this was an issue only Hydra was facing, not the entire country.

The main source of pollution prevention is the recycling and reuse of waste and end-of-life cycle products. Industrial Symbiosis is where at least two companies exchange their waste. They use this waste to create their product. Companies that have these relationships form an Industrial Ecosystem. Which have two categories: Eco-industrial Parks and Eco-Industrial Networks. There are many case studies regarding this in Greece. In the reading, they identified 455 case studies regarding industrial symbiosis in 16 Eco-Industrial networks. This included small and big businesses. It stated they tried to find case studies that covered a wide range of waste types. They found a total of 45 waste types. Within those types include energy exchange and material resource exchange. These businesses that participate in industrial symbiosis are throughout Greece. To transport materials within the country trucks were mainly used and if it was abroad ships were used.

Waste was separated into different categories including thermal energy, fuels, metals, plastics, chemicals, minerals, and organics. Some of these categories may overlap. Included in this were also tables. The first table was Industrial Parks currently in Greece. Apparently, 30 are established while 24 are either under construction or have not been established yet. The majority of the case studies are from smaller spatial scales, IP and local. As the spatial scale increases the number of cases decreases. Waste was also transported from other countries like Spain, Italy, Russia, China, etc. This is still profitable because shipping the waste across the tea does not cost very much, but it could not be great for the environment. The next table explained the case studies by spatial scale of transportation of waste.

The next table shows the spatial scale of EINs by category and type of waste exchanged. It was found that only certain types of waste were transported at a small spatial scale. Some of these types included: superheated water, malt residues, yeast residues, seed residues, wastepaper, old tires, carbon dioxide, industrial iron scrap, purified iron scrap, electrical furnace iron dross, spent catalysts, marble powder, and industrial polycarbonate waste. It then goes on to talk about certain types of waste and the characteristics of the locations and spatial areas it was transported to.

An example of spatial allocation of companies at the IP scale in Greece is the Eco-Industrial Network of aluminum industries. The aluminum waste is exchanged usually at a national scale, while the end-of-life product is exchanged at a global scale. The last table focuses on the “distribution of case studies by development (industrial) Centre by spatial scale” (6). They noticed out of the 455 case studies, 408 of them are located in the greater areas of Athens, Thessaloniki, Inofyta-Thiva, Volos-Larisa and Patra.

Overall, Greece has an average performance in air quality, fish stocks, and GHG emissions intensity. While on the other end, Greece suffers from air emissions from transportation, water resources, issues in biodiversity and marine life, and coastal zones.

Greece is getting closer to the EU average. There are five components to the Eco-IS composite index which include: eco-innovation inputs, eco-innovation activities, eco-innovation outputs, resource efficiency outcomes, and socio-economic outcomes. Greece is currently behind in eco-innovation inputs, resource efficiency outcomes, and socio-economic outputs.

Eco-innovation input for Greece is 79 where the average is 100. There are not very many R&D personnel and researchers working in Greece. Most of these workers are at universities or research centers. Greece once again scored below the EU average for eco-innovation activities. In 2017 Greece had fewer small and medium enterprises that has sustainable products than the EU average. Greece actually scored well for eco-innovation outputs. Apparently, Greece was one of Europe’s leaders in eco-innovation-related media coverage. The reading states, “The environmental outcome component is based on combined national statistics on domestic material productivity, domestic water productivity, inland energy productivity, and GHG emissions intensity”(11). Greece scored 53 outcomes out of 100. For energy productivity Greece was close to the EU average. For socioeconomic outcomes, Greece is one of the lowest-scoring countries.

There were efforts to input eco-innovations into the construction sector, but they were slowed down. Due to the economic issues in Greece, many companies focused and explored opportunities in fulfilling their customer’s needs focusing on solar cells that can be used in windows, and other products. This technology is being supported by the government because of its energy efficiency and saving energy. There has been growth in solar energy in Greece. Along with that, there have been several energy-related research programs. Funds are being used to focus on green growth and antipollution technology.

Greece has multiple barriers with politics, institutions, culture, society, and economy that are preventing them to develop with eco-innovation. Because of the economy companies have been focusing on low-risk investments with short-term returns rather than high-risk and high returns that have longer periods and are knowledge focused. Smaller companies can be more flexible and adapting innovation opportunities. Another barrier Greece faces is education. Their high school performance is considered weak. Because of this, there are not many people graduating with doctorates or going into research. Greece has to focus on external funding for research.

Greece keeps focusing on renewable energy and other aspects of energy. They’re also focusing on waste management. These things can promote eco-innovation.

Hydra is a tiny Greek Island with beautiful hillsides and a limestone paved port at the bottom. When we visited Hydra I was amazed at how small the Island was and not filled with as many tourists. It was a quiet town with a homey feeling and it was definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip. However after visiting I was left wondering how the island operates. Are there schools, is housing affordable and what is it like during the off season? Do people just live there during the summer and leave for the off season? Considering the island is so small it makes it difficult for them to obtain everyday essentials like electricity, transportation, ect. Transportation is limited at Hydra, there are no airports and the only way to get around is by donkey, mule, or water taxis. There are no cars that run on the island which was interesting to learn. I was able to ride a donkey with a few friends on our day trip, experiencing how the locals get around. Since everything is centered by the port it would seem excessive to have cars driving on the island. However I found out that having no cars run has led to a trash problem. There are only two trash trucks that take trash to be burned. The trash buildup is several months behind and the toxins from burning the trash are being released into the air. Since it can not be reached by car, everything is brought in my boat. Even their ice is brought in by boat which in reality running boats all the time is not sustainable. Along with this sewage water is being dumped into the ocean every night. Which freaks me out considering I was swimming all day in that water when we visited. All the power runs from an outside source which could result in a suffering shutdown for the whole island. There are no huge hotels and restaurants/bars are family run. This means that their economy is heavily reliant on tourism. However this leads me to wonder how they survive in the off seasons when tourism is low. Are they truly making enough during the summer to stay afloat? The breathtaking beaches and traditional feel to the island is distracting to how unsustainable the Island actually is.