David B. Lipsky
Professor and Dean
Cornell University

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For the past 50 years, Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) has served as a catalyst for creating work environments that enhance America's competitive position in the global marketplace. Its mission, "to lead the way in educating employers and employees to deal with the volatile issues of the changing American workplace," is particularly appropriate in an era characterized by free-trade agreements, growing internationalization of the workplace, a transformation in the nature, gender, and ethnic composition of the workforce, and by the dramatic transformation of the world of work itself.

Fifty years ago the School centered its attention on the urgent need to mitigate the labor turmoil and conflict that arose soon after the close of World War II. However, in subsequent years its programs have been broadened substantially to address an increasingly wide array of industrial relations and human resource issues that have become key to our nation's quest for a productive economy and an equitable society. Over the past fifty years, the School has become the preeminent institution of its kind in the United States, with a reputation for expertise and excellence that is acknowledged throughout the world.

With over 8,000 degree-holding alumni, many of whom hold the senior-most positions in our field, and almost 750,000 extension alumni, the ILR School has successfully fulfilled its mission for both labor and management. As one measure of the value of the ILR School to both employers and employees, the nation's largest businesses and trade unions, working side by side with the School's alumni, recently raised over $23-million dollars for ILR's capital campaign.

Today, the need for information and skills in the workplace is, by virtually every measure, far greater than was the case fifty years ago. None of the School's founders could have imagined, back in 1945, the dynamic changes that are now occurring. No longer can the knowledge acquired during the years of formal education be considered sufficient for life, as emerging technologies and new workplace requirements create a need for ongoing, lifelong learning. There is a simultaneous need for greater stability and flexibility on the part of both labor and management. In short, the educational, research, and outreach missions of the ILR School have been elevated to an even more important role than was the case when the School was founded.

The Cornell Work and Environment Initiative (WEI)

Among the more important issues to be addressed by the School in the last decade is the concern over sustainable development of our cities. One program, the Cornell Work and Environment Initiative (WEI), has taken the lead in this important arena.

Around the world, there is an explosion of interest in the connection between the environment and the economy. How can we have sustainable development? How can the workplace contribute to environmental improvements? How does environmental action affect jobs? In both industrial and developing countries, these are front-burner agenda items. The WEI is exploring the cutting edge of these concerns in positive ways that bring together management, union, environmental and governmental leaders.

The WEI is a program of the Cornell Center for the Environment. Drawing substantially on the ILR School, WEI combines expertise in labor-management relations, human resource management and industrial hygiene.

The goal of the Cornell WEI is to examine new ways to improve environmental performance at work and to increase green employment opportunities.

WEI was established in 1992 to address environmental issues connected to the worksite, affecting employers, workers and their communities. The program involves management, trade unions and government as well as environmental and community organizations to achieve creative solutions. Too often these groups are opponents in the debate rather than partners in creating solutions.

Encouraging Collaboration

WEI assists collaborative activity on six levels by:

Providing a forum for policy discussion among environmentalists, trade unionists, managers, policy makers, community leaders and academics to develop an understanding of ecological issues as well as a practical means to connect workers and the workplace to the global environment.

Encouraging labor-management cooperation on environmental issues to improve ecological and economic performance, workplace health and safety, and community environmental standards. WEI focuses on ecology of the total product life-cycle including extraction or input resources, production and service delivery, transportation and end-use or re-use to identify both problems and potential solutions.

Developing an ecological understanding of the workplace that empowers managers and workers to identify, analyze and correct environmental risks and waste. This can be accomplished in larger work processes, product design and individual work responsibilities.

Providing effective methods for scientists and engineers to work together with labor and management in adopting environmental technologies in the workplace.

Exploring the need for skill development and certification requirements to promote competence on ecological matters. In addition, WEI promotes human resource systems that support environmental awareness and skills development.

Cultivating employment opportunities in new environmental technologies and "green" markets as well as facilitating mechanisms for economic conversion for workers in polluting industries or wasteful parts of the production process.

WEI assists companies, government agencies, unions, environmental groups and communities to accomplish these goals through research, educational programs and technical assistance.

Meeting the environmental challenge requires broad involvement of all stakeholders and creative new approaches. A growing list of over 500 managers, union leaders, environmentalists and government officials from over 45 countries have signed up to participate in the WEI Network. This Network serves as an information sharing tool to examine best practices inside work organizations. In a survey returned by over 80 Network members, the greatest issues of concern were the environment-economy connection, building awareness of environmental issues for employees and of workplace issues for environmental groups, and the development of corporate and union policies. For developing countries, highest on the agenda was access to technical assistance. Network members are connected through meetings, publications and a list server.

Development of new green opportunities are reflected in several projects. With an initial pilot in Baltimore, Maryland, WEI is developing an Ecological Industrial Park that marries high business and environmental performance through design of closed loop systems, manufacturing networks and high performance workplaces. The Wind Hydrogen Project aims to generate a locally based industry to produce hydrogen fuel cells including use of windpower.

Research activities have included conducting an extensive analysis of Toxic Release Inventory data to demonstrate the effect of various organizational strategies for source reduction. The WEI report found that programs with employee participation were over three times more effective than those relying solely on external or technical expertise. WEI has developed means for labor-management cooperation and worker-based environmental audits to increase involvement. WEI has investigated for the ILO followup on Agenda 21 and environmental education for workers. WEI maintains an extensive annotated bibliography of books related to this area.

Discussion of these issues is accomplished by working with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Dialogue on Jobs and the Environment that involves a broad range of stakeholders. Sessions have also been held for union leaders on environmental action. Internationally, WEI has conducted seminars in the Czech Republic, Australia and India and is working directly with the Czech miners union in pollution prevention. The International Symposium on Work and the Environment brought together representatives from twelve countries to examine related issues.

The Eco-Industrial Park: A New Approach to Sustainable Development

Old style manufacturing, embodied in industrial parks that litter the landscape with advertisements to build to suit, may soon become dinosaurs of industrial development. Sharing a common highway exit and often a sewer line, these "Jurassic Parks" of the past will be replaced by new Eco-Industrial Parks (EIP) that link manufacturers more closely together into an industrial eco-system for business and environmental excellence. Companies have always depended on a larger ecology of suppliers, customers, geography and market to be successful but a popular mythology perceived that each company was an island. Abandoning this fantasy by consciously integrating into a larger industrial ecology is smart business that draws on the overall system of interactions to nourish corporate success. It is also much better for the environment.

WEI is working at the cutting edge of these developments with the initial research and development being done in Baltimore, Maryland, and proposed work in Rochester, New York, and elsewhere. Eco-Industrial Parks are gaining new attention nationally and internationally. The President's Council for Sustainable Development has created an Eco-Industrial Park Demonstration Team to examine new possibilities. Connected with an Empowerment Zone, WEI's Baltimore project is one of four national demonstration sites along with Chattanooga, Brownsville and the Tidewater of Virginia. International attention is also growing. For the past twenty years in Kalundborg, Denmark, a web of industries have worked together in a symbiotic way linking a utility, a chemical plant, wallboard manufacturer, trout farms and local farmers. This symbiosis has been good for the companies involved and for the environmental health of their community. In Japan, Zero Emissions Facilities and Parks are on the drawing boards.

WEI's Vision for a New Industrial America

While EIPs will create new jobs and generate business opportunities for particular communities, WEI's interest is in creating a new proving ground for a rapprochement between the environment and the economy. The vision for a new industrial America espoused by WEI is characterized as:

Economic and environmental performance are considered on the same plane, complement each other and lead to mutual success. For return on high performance, environmental networks is an excellent investment. Resources are used to the maximum extent possible. Raw material and other input resources are used frugally, wastes are minimized throughout the production/service process and byproducts are recycled through the company and to other companies in the area while any lingering residual wastes are managed in a safe manner. Resource stewardship is assured by each user passing on all products and byproducts to the next recipient in a safe and usable manner. Municipal waste treatment becomes the instrument of last resort with industry taking maximum responsibility for the reduction, sale or recovery of byproducts. Municipal waste authorities become primarily instruments of resource connection, not waste collection. Employers and employees act in environmentally responsible ways that increase health and safety and employment security while contributing to improving community environmental health and conditions. Working in environmentally responsible companies means high wage, high skill, high quality jobs built on labor- management cooperation. Valuing natural resources means also valuing human resources. Governmental authorities work cooperatively to assure the attraction and retention of environmentally and economically successful employers.

Our overarching goal is sustainable development by creating high quality jobs in environmentally sound industries. Essentially, an Ecological Industrial Park is based on two principles: drive down pollution and waste and simultaneously increase business success. WEI's approach links them together through several proven powerful systems for improvement.

Closed loop production systems linked to resource recovery technology that maximizes resource use. Based on the principles of industrial ecology, the Ecological Industrial Park will demonstrate the maximum degree of closed loop production and operation, to reduce waste and environmental degradation. The design of the Ecological Industrial Park will emphasize waste minimization, conservation of energy, and maximum use of the most environmentally friendly materials in the construction and operation of the facilities. Internal engineering and operational standards will demonstrate best environmental practice in energy use, solid waste reduction and water management. Resource and energy use will be mapped. By examining industrial "foodchains," efficient direct and indirect connections can be made including alternative uses of byproducts and reduction of toxic materials. Elimination of wasted processes, energy, and materials, reuse and recycling of materials and energy, and actions to minimize packaging and transportation will all lead to cost savings. In a traditional real estate deal the key criteria are location, location and location; in an eco-industrial park the keys are fit, fit and fit. Additional savings will be realized through use of waste/product exchanges both with companies within the Park and with regional waste exchange networks.

Linked to the Cornell parks are various means of resource recovery that cycle materials and energy back into the production web. In line with product stewardship notions, we intend to promote recovery of end products and recycling of base materials back into the production process or to the resource recovery unit for re-processing through product take back and disassembly capability in addition to recycling of industrial wastes. Cornell's approach utilizes a network model of economic and industrial development to create additional business and environmental efficiencies. In various parts of the world, a network model has been used to create viable small and medium- sized enterprises in a region. Simply put, a network provides a greater range of resources to smaller enterprises than they could obtain alone. Networks have been established in Denmark, Italy, Australia and in part of the United States. These have led to high quality, cost-competitive industrial development.

A networked model provides additional benefits that go beyond the advantages of waste exchanges. To the degree that companies participating in the network can share services then they can lower their overall costs of production and increase flexibility of response. A network is the organizational analog of an ecology within an organism. Individual parts have discrete integrity while operating more effectively and with less waste as an integrated whole. Some of the services that can be shared are hardware, technology and/or equipment capabilities such as computers, transportation equipment and specialized tools. In addition, human resource sharing that seeks common recruitment, environmental management, training, maintenance, commuting, etc. can be arranged among various collections of participating companies. Through cooperative purchasing and setting requirements for suppliers, costs can be contained and environmental standards can be raised. These can lower overall costs, increase efficiency of resource use, raise quality, provide greater flexibility and enhance environmental performance. The companies can also cooperate on marketing and product development that capitalizes on the green consumer market.

High Performance, Ecologically Based Work Systems

Demonstrating that organizations can operate better environmentally is a task that can be accomplished, technically. But for this concept to have greater applicability, it must be shown that participants in EIPs can operate at comparable or lower costs than traditional enterprises. New environmental technology girded in old management systems is like running with weights on. We must incorporate high performance work systems to assure a competitive advantage in these new enterprises. Contiguous location and new technology are insufficient to assure cost competitiveness. Competitiveness will be achieved through actively providing high quality workplaces that reduce waste and increase performance in all the company's operations. Cooperative labor relations will be a hallmark of the EIP especially in places where there is union representation and/or union equity financing. They will work together ahead of time to assure a high quality, high skill, well-paid workforce with broad flexibility to meet organizational challenges. Unions will have a respected role in helping create good green jobs. Superior human resource use and excellence in health and safety performance should mirror excellence in environmental performance.

The network model will encourage companies to share ideas and approaches for organizational development and growth that assure high levels of customer satisfaction and quality. Quality service mentality will be a part of both internal customer- supplier relationships within the EIP as well as with external customers. A focus on participation permeates the philosophy of the EIP. The businesses themselves form a cooperative agreement and seek mutually beneficial connections. All of the stakeholders in the community help to define the vision of parameters of the park through a Search Conference. Ongoing community involvement is integral to the process. The WEI process is based on continuous improvement where environmental and business achievements are constantly challenged for improvement. One of the key factors is linking workplace practices to research and learning at Cornell and local schools and colleges and thereby educating the workforce and preparing students for the next generation of manufacturing practice.

The Cornell EIP organizational development model is based on the application of ecological principles to work design. Every aspect of work will be based on principles such as waste minimization, closed loop systems, whole system thinking, diversity, creativity and multi-functionality. Our belief is that alignment of organizational philosophy with the mission of the Ecological Industrial Park will increase both environmental and economic success.

Advantages of the Cornell Model

What are the advantages for the companies and communities involved? For the companies, participation in an Eco-Industrial Park provides an opportunity to significantly improve operational performance and market presence. The goal of the Cornell WEI project is an excellent return on assets (ROA) of at least 30-50% above the industry average. We see superior performance in operations as the best way to encourage companies to adopt new green approaches to manufacturing. Rather than chase regulatory relief for lower performance, enhanced profitability through aggressive waste reduction and market growth can be the engine of change. Through dramatically less waste, high performance work organizations and closer supplier-customer relations, participation within EIP can pay off handsomely. Since no projection of the future sees a diminished demand for environmental performance, positioning within a green manufacturing strategy enhances market access and acceptability.

But for communities the results can be even more important. By looking to sustainable industries, high quality sustainable jobs can be created. An eco-system view that looks for profitable niches in the current production web can absorb sinkholes that currently exist in the local eco-system and thus improve overall eco-system health. By building a more regional resource economy that cycles resources back to industries, there is less dependence on "imported" resources, less landfill demand, and greater local job generation. The Ecological Industrial Park offers entry into a new kind of industrial development that seeks synergy between business and environmental performance. Without doubt, the future demands greater attention to costs of doing business (including raw materials), reducing environmental impact, creating higher quality performance and forging closer links between suppliers, producers and customers. This is a pioneering development that can create excellent business conditions, good jobs, better communities and a healthier environment. It is an opportunity to shape the future.

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