Key Concepts
• System analysis
Critical to industrial ecology is the systems view of the relationship between human activities and environmental problems.
• Material and energy Flow and Transformations
A primary concept of industrial ecology is the study of material and energy flows and their transformation into products, byproducts, and wastes throughout industrial systems
• Multidiciplinary approach
The complexity of most environmental problems requires expertise from
a variety of fields — law, economics, business, public health, natural resources, ecology, engineering — to contribute to the development of industrial ecology and the resolution of environmental problems caused by industry
• Analogies to Natural Systems
Industrial ecology draws the analogy between industrial and natural systems and suggests that a goal is to stimulate the evolution of the industrial system so that it shares the same characteristics as described above concerning natural systems.
• Linear (open) Versus Cyclical (closed) loop Systems
The evolution of the industrial system from a linear system, where resources are consumed and damaging wastes are dissipated into the environment, to a more closed system, like that of ecological systems