We define key research questions as a stimulus to research in the area of industrial ecology. The first group of questions addresses analytical support for green engineering and environmental policy. They relate to (i) tools for green engineering, (ii) improvements in life cycle assessment, (iii) aggregation of environmental impacts, and (iv) effectiveness of a range of innovative policy approa...

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a cornerstone of current practice in industrial ecology, linking the product life cycle, from design to disposition, with the environmental impacts generated at each stage. It is one of the ways that industrial ecology brings a systems approach to environmental analysis. LCA aids environmental improvement by revealing the complete impact of a product, rather than ...

Industrial ecology is the network of all industrial processes as they may interact with each other and live off each other, not only in the economic sense, but also in the sense of direct use of each other's material and energy wastes and products. This paper, which reflects upon the papers and discussions at the National Academy ofSciences Colloquium on Industrial Ecology on May 20-21, 1991, i...

(2014) " Industrial ecology as a source of competitive advantage, " Journal of Industrial Ecology, 18(5): 597-602. " We see this special feature as a call to arms; the first spark in igniting work at the interface of business management and IE. Its contribution may lie, not just in the specific set of papers in this special feature, but also in starting a discussion about the root cause of this...

A linear model of consumption − produce-use-dispose − has constantly increased the pressure on the environment in recent decades. There has been a great belief that technology will solve the problem, but in many cases it is only partly contributing to the solution. For a full solution, the root causes of problems need to be identified. The drivers-pressures-state-impact-response (DPSIR) framewo...