EIP Design Principles

Design principles

The Ontario East Wood Centre & Eco-Industrial Park recognizes the following Eco-Industrial Park (EIP) design principles, and plans to employ them to inspire but not restrict participants:

  • Resource conservation: reduced resource consumption during project planning, design and implementation, for example by integrating passive energy conservation with energy systems
  • Renewable technologies: increased use of renewable materials and energy technologies, for example by reusing water on-site
  • Demand management: reduced demand for materials and energy, for example by choosing landscaping that does not require irrigation with potable water
  • Light and sound pollution: use of healthy light and sound conditions, for example by integrating indirect lighting for general interior illumination with task lighting
  • Health for project workers and users: promotion of healthy interiors and exteriors, for example through design choices that encourage employees and visitors to walk
  • Offset opportunities: development of ways to minimize the effects of environmental burdens, for example employing renewable and alternate energy sources to help a project become a net energy generator

Develop the local economy

EIP's can choose design principles that develop a sustainable community. Additional design principles of interest to the Ontario East Wood Centre & Eco-Industrial Park include:

  • Local value-adds: the choice of services, products or technologies that enrich the local economy
  • Local materials: the choice of readily available or locally produced materials
  • Local trades: the choice of project methods or systems that take advantage of local trades
  • Local jobs: the choice of methods or systems that create new employment opportunities

Diversify the local economy

An EIP can richly diversify an economy. The Ontario East Wood Centre & Eco-Industrial Park aims to:

  • Promote renewable materials and energy systems, to encourage their local use
  • Create industries based on waste streams, to develop local recycling skills and initiatives
  • Make waste from some projects the feedstock of others, to foster local waste-management planning and projects
  • Employ local renewable energy resources in a project, to build local service capabilities

Support the economy of Eastern Ontario

An EIP's economic effects can extend far beyond its boundaries. The Ontario East Wood Centre & Eco-Industrial Park recognizes the economic dependence on the forest industry of many communities of the 15 Community Futures Development Corporations of Eastern Ontario. It will act as an anchoring cluster for regional wood-based enterprise by:

  • Focusing on the region's wood and wood-based products
  • Helping with the marketing of the region's raw and finished wood products
  • Showcasing finished wood products made in the region
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