What is an eco-town ?

Eco-towns are urban planning and environmental management efforts where industries located in the designated 'eco-town' area pursue synergies in resource utilization, waste management, environmental preservation, and promotion of industrial & economic development. They practice resource recycling within their manufacturing process and in between the industries.

The eco-town concept takes into consideration the nature of the existing industries in an industrial area as well as nearby commercial and residential areas. The main objective is to reduce the environmental impacts of human and industrial activities so that the ecological sustainability of the area within the eco-town is increased.

The eco-town concept adopts an ecological focus to industrial production. This is also known as industrial ecology – an example of this is the use of by-products exchange between factories. The wastes or by- products of one industry can be used as the raw materials of another.

The eco-town approach enhances productivity and simultaneously reduces the negative impacts on the environment through tools, techniques and technologies adopted for the specific purpose. It recognizes the fundamental need for businesses to incorporate not just environmental concerns, but economic performance and quality improvements in the production process. From experiences of the implementation of such approaches in the more advanced countries of Asia such as Japan, it fosters the change process to help businesses cater to customer requirements for more environmentally sound technologies, services and products. At the same time the need for a healthy and safe work environment and a solid bottom line is also ensured.

The eco-town approach encompasses an integrated people-centered approach, via worker involvement and team-building, resulting primarily in industrial production and consumption processes that have minimum impact on the environment. Initial investigations and discussions on the eco-town concept has also highlighted a number of other socio-economic benefits: an improved working environment, worker health and safety, non-discrimination and related social welfare issues, increased trust between workers and management; productivity improvement involving the condition of continuous improvement including environmental improvement; information-driven improvement drawn from management systems that exist for quality and the environment and environmental compliance through environmental protection and legal compliance through the use of tools and techniques for pollution prevention and source reduction.