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Welcome to The Center for Industrial Ecology


Yale University's School of Forestry & Environmental Studies' Center for Industrial Ecology was established in September 1998 to provide an organizational focus for research in industrial ecology. The Center brings together Yale staff, students, visiting scholars, and practitioners to develop new knowledge at the forefront of the field. Research is carried out in collaboration with other segments of the Yale community, other academic institutions, and  international partners. Faculty research interests include, among others, the theoretical basis of industrial ecology, the cycles of materials, technological change and the environment, eco-industrial urban development, industrial symbiosis, and product and producer policy issues.

What is Industrial Ecology?

Industrial Ecology is an emerging field that focuses on the twin goals of economic development and environmental quality. The concept requires that an industrial system be viewed not in isolation from its surrounding systems, but in concert with them. It is a systems view in which one seeks to optimize the total materials cycle from virgin material, to finished material, to component, to product, to obsolete product, and to ultimate disposal. Factors to be optimized include resources, energy, and capital.
 

Stocks and Flows Project

Sustainability, no matter how one defines it,requires clear understanding of our society's environmental impacts. Therefore, research quantifying how society meets its material needs, depending on its socioeconomic and technological contexts, provides critical information to aid sustainability efforts worldwide. Once these aspects of society are reasonably understood in relation to the past, further analysis can model future supplies and demands. read more...

Research Projects in Hawai'i

The Hawai’i project was started in 2006 to apply the industrial ecology systems perspective to understanding resource flows there, thus expanding our experience with industrial read...



NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

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Marian Chertow, Ph.D

Professor Chertow was recently featured in the Yale Daily News for her research in Hawai'i. Read the full article  here.