The Cornell University Work and Environment Initiative and the town of Londonderry, N.H., are conducting a national design competition for a site design of an eco-industrial park and its 25,000-square-foot flexible industrial building.

Londonderry has posted $10,000 in prize money for winning entries. Both a professional and a student competition will be held. A collection of the best entries will be exhibited in May at the National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America in Detroit, sponsored by the President's Council for Sustainable Development, and also in Cornell galleries. Jurors include Cornell architecture faculty, noted design professionals, other eco-park planners, developers, government representatives and community participants.

"Eco-industrial parks, or EIPs, aim to increase business success while reducing pollution and waste by better design and mirroring natural systems," explains Ed Cohen-Rosenthal, director of the Cornell Work and Environment Initiative. "Individual enterprises can organize into complex interconnected systems where the physical design and management of systems can be realized by increasing resiliency, flexibility and resource conservation. In the end, this improves business and the environment."

A program of the Cornell Center for the Environment, the Work and Environment Initiative assists communities from Baltimore, Cape Charles, Va., Trenton, N.J, and Minneapolis, Minn., to Chattanooga, Tenn., Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Albuquerque, N.M., in seeking practical solutions to the challenges of eco-industrial development. Londonderry is regarded as a pioneer in eco-industrial development and already has commitments from major companies such as Stoneyfield Yogurt and AES Inc. to be part of its new approach to economic

development. While the competition will provide specific ideas for the Londonderry Park, it is expected to stimulate and give public exposure to creative design alternatives that can be applied in many other locations.

"In North America, there is growing excitement about the possibilities reflected in EIPs," Cohen-Rosenthal said. "This competition challenges the design community to identify images and practices that bring eco-industrial activity alive. By rooting the competition in Londonderry's actual setting, it will show concretely how new notions of industrial development can occur."

According to Cohen-Rosenthal, the President's Council on Sustainable Development has formed an active task force on EIPs as one element of building a sustainable economy. "The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy have been exploring the possibilities for EIPs to follow on these recommendations," he said, noting that more than 25 communities are committed to these ideals and to incorporating sustainability principles into their economic development strategies. Cornell hosts the Eco-Industrial Development Program that works with most of the major projects in the United States to advance awareness and implementation of eco-industrial development strategies.