In Section 14.3 there is a list of six specific ways that the industrial system should attempt to imitate nature If this is what it would take to learn from nature do you think it will be rather too far-fetched to expect that nature can actually be used as a "prototype" for the designs of industrial process? In other words, is biomimicry a grand vision with little or no practical value? Explain.

Data from Section 14.3

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Eco-effectiveness is a radically different strategy that companies may employ to guide their business activities in a direction consistent with practices that contribute to the long-term quality of the environment. Eco-effectiveness operates on a core principle that an industrial system is considered to be most effective when production activities are organized in a cycli- cal system, where the by-products and wastes are reused and/or recycled as raw materials for another product or process, with an ultimate goal to eliminate waste. The practical applications of this core principle require knowledge of many factors that are found at the intersections between industrial and ecological systems. A relatively new field of study that attempts to provide the conceptual framework, methodological tools, and the visions for dealing with resource management problems that involve both industry and the natural environment is called industrial ecology. One of the early proponents of this field of study, Hardin Tibbs (1992), defined industrial ecology this way: Industrial ecology involves designing industrial infrastructures as if they were a series of interlocking manmade ecosystems interfacing with the natural global ecosystem. Industrial ecology takes the pattern of the natural environment as a model for solving environmental problems, creating a new paradigm for the industrial system in the process.... The aim of industrial ecology is to interpret and adapt an understanding of the natural system and apply it to the design of the manmade system, in order to achieve a pattern of industrialization that is not only more efficient, but that is intrinsically adjusted to the tolerance and characteristics of the natural system. The emphasis is on forms of technology that work with natural systems, not against them.