Title: <i>Handbook of Input-Output Economics in Industrial Ecology</i>edited by Sangwon Suh
Abstract: Handbook of Input-Output Economics in Industrial Ecology , edited by Suh, Sangwon . Dordrecht/Heidelberg/NewYork : Springer , 2009 . 884 pages, ISBN 97801-4020-5737-3 , $269.00 ( cloth ) In the early 2000s, the industrial ecology community developed a growing interest in applying the tools of economic input–output (I-O) analysis to the environmental field. This, as such, was not a novel idea. Leontief, founder of I-O economics and Nobel prize laureate, set the stage with his seminal article “Environmental repercussions and the economic structure” (1970), where he proposed an I-O model dealing with the generation and abatement of pollution by industries. In the wake of the energy crisis in the 1970s, Bullard and Herendeen (1975) applied this tool to assess energy embodied in final consumption. And since then environmental input-output analysis has become a large field of inquiry. Interest in the use of I-O analysis for the biophysical domain of production and consumption processes gained momentum in the field of industrial ecology, which seriously moved I-O analysis beyond its traditional focus on energy and pollution. Various scholars in the life cycle community (LCA), the I-O community, and the industrial ecology community, started to recognize the potential for closer collaboration. Among them was a scholar from CML Leiden University, named Sangwon Suh. It was he who took the initiative to bring a large group of scholars in this field together during the Ann Arbor ISIE conference in 2003 where the foundation for Handbook of Input-Output Economics in Industrial Ecology was laid. The handbook was eventually accepted as part of the Springer book series on Eco-efficiency in Science and Industry which one of us (Arnold Tukker) edits. The group decided that under the leadership of Suh, they would produce a Handbook of Input-Output Economics in Industrial Ecology. A staggering 38 chapters were written covering the different areas in the field, resulting in a book of almost 900 pages, to which about 60 coauthors contributed. It is obvious that a book review such as this cannot reflect in detail on all 38 chapters in the book. Our reflection of the book's content thus necessarily remains selective and exemplary. Part 1 offers an introduction of three chapters. Lifset's brief review of industrial ecology, which opens the book, carefully takes the heterogeneity and rapid dynamic that is apparent in industrial ecology into account. He confronts the different elements and themes that are dominant in industrial ecology and asks to what extent I-O analysis can provide new insights and inspire future research. The review by Suh and Kagawa focuses more on I-O economics and asks where I-O techniques and models have already been applied fruitfully to industrial ecology issues. The authors point to fundamental communalities that exist between industrial ecology and I-O economics, including a systems view, a strong empirical grounding, and the potential to facilitate interdisciplinary work. Finally, they stress that the large variety of models and data that have been developed in the I-O field provide a huge potential source of information that industrial ecologists only have begun to explore. In a similar vein, but much more specifically and more didactically, Duchin demonstrates how an I-O framework can provide guidance for analyzing questions that are relevant in industrial ecology and eventually lead to the development of new models to analyze new problems. After dispelling three main misconceptions about I-O economics that could restrict its application to industrial ecology, Duchin provides a very readable overview of various I-O models, including some numerical examples. Finally, she demonstrates her main plea with three examples. All three introductory chapters provide excellent introductions to the topic in their own way. The following eight parts of the handbook are structured along various issues, starting with applications and extensions of I-O models to the two main industrial ecology tools: material flow analysis (part 2) and life cycle assessment (part 3). Part 4 (sustainable consumption), part 6 (energy and climate change), and part 7 (waste management) are organized around broader issues rather than tools. Most of the chapters present case studies, and this sometimes but certainly not always implies a rather narrow scope. The chapters vary in the amount of detail in which the methods are described, the level of critical discussion about the limitations of the applied methods, reflections on the wider context, and presenting the state of the debate. But this is to be expected in a book of this size. Overall, though, the case study chapters, which make up most of the book, provide an impressively rich repository of I-O methods applicable to a large number of issues from which the industrial ecology practitioner can draw inspiration and guidance. The inclusion of so many articles dealing with the use of input-output models in energy and climate change analysis raises questions of the self identity of industrial ecology, for example, whether or not these issues should play a larger role in the future. If this was the implicit message here, one might ask what value could be added by an industrial ecology perspective, given that there are already established fields of energy analysis, climate science, and energy and climate economics. In a similar vein, part 5, policy applications, contains a number of chapters where the connection to industrial ecology remains vague. This is not necessarily a criticism. Being a new and dynamic field, the identity of industrial ecology ought to be continuously reconsidered. It would have been very useful if these meta-questions had been given more explicit attention in the book. Part 8 deals with the very important aspect of data generation. Although this is useful in itself, the more strategic issues of harmonization, compatibility between different accounting frameworks, and standardization are treated only marginally. Finally, part 9 deals with advances in modeling and theory. Some very well-written and innovative articles are presented here, including the excellent introduction to I-O approaches in ecology and how they can be useful with studying material flows in industrial systems (Bailey), or the chapter on I-O analysis and linear programming (Vogstad). The last chapter on the application of multiregional I-O analysis to industrial ecology (Peters and Hertwich) provides an excellent and reflective introduction into this increasingly important area. The relevance and importance of the book to the field is undisputed. Yet, it is impossible to make an opus of this size totally perfect, and we note a few aspects that could bear improvement. Because the preparation of a handbook is such a large task with many contributions to manage, it is difficult to ensure that the chapters are up to date. In this case, many of the chapters reflect research done prior to 2006. Also more updating of the chapters submitted early in the publication process, especially of the references, would have benefited the reader. Finally, more coverage of important recent advances in the field, for instance, in the area of multi-regional input-output analysis, in the methodological discussions on material flow analysis would have enhanced the value of the handbook. To conclude, praise for such an opus magnum must prevail. This is the first book of its kind. It provides a beacon relevant for any scholar interested in the application of I-O analysis in the industrial ecology field. The relevance of this book, however, is not only due to its timely topic or the breathtaking richness and diversity of the material presented, which provides guidance, inspiration, invaluable sources of reference, and also sources of—hopefully—fruitful dispute. Its importance lies also in the larger picture to which the book implicitly alludes. This volume demonstrates for the first time a broad perspective of the extraordinary power of I-O economics to deal with different units of measurement. By this, the huge potential that I-O economics holds for the further development of basic industrial ecology tools is demonstrated, in addition to integrating economic and engineering aspects in the analysis of industrial systems on a conceptual level. From a more strategic and self-reflective viewpoint, the book also raises serious and far-reaching questions about the self-identity of our field. This can be seen in two basic tensions that prevail throughout the book. One regards the relevance of energy and climate issues, as briefly discussed above. The second tension lies in the relative importance that I-O analysis could have for industrial ecology. Is it another tool for the industrial ecology toolkit, as many of the chapters suggest, or is it indeed an economic theory for industrial ecology, as some other chapters and, last but not least, the title of the book suggests? The answer to these questions will largely determine the future development and positioning of industrial ecology in the wider concert of sustainability science.