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.

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.