Eco-industrial parks in the United States: Do practical examples exist and can they serve as models for brownfield redevelopment

A review of the literature concerning eco-industrial development makes it abundantly clear that the concept has been broadly interpreted to cover a wide range of functions and situations. Many of these situations have been addressed in the form of eco-industrial parks (EIPs). While conducting an investigation into the applicability of eco-industrial development models to the revitalization of urban brownfields, it became apparent that a large percentage of such projects in the United States had either never progressed beyond the conceptual stage or had stalled very early in the development process, resulting in a weakening---if not outright abandonment---of the eco-industrial mission. Enthusiasm for eco-industrial parks (EIPs) appears to have peaked near the advent of the new millennium and its subsequent decline has raised questions of whether the EIP was merely the latest in a continuous string of management "flavor-of-the-month" innovations, or whether the concept's moribund state is a result of its very nature being in conflict with the prevailing trends and theories regarding reindustrialization, reurbanization, or industrial organization in the U.S.; Several eco-industrial projects involve the added component---as well as the environmental and regulatory burden---of brownfield redevelopment. While this is a burden not to be taken lightly, some municipal redevelopment incentives may actually assist or complement an eco-industrial plan.; The expanding field of industrial ecology has in recent years greatly enriched the technical, theoretical and methodological basis through which to study and evaluate eco-industrial development. Through the evaluation and comparison of case studies of several eco-industrial park projects, a clearer image of the current status of organized industrial ecology is revealed as well as information to support speculation about the potential future of the eco-industrial park as a development model in the U.S.