GC: n

CT: Industrial Ecology is an emerging interdisciplinary field combining natural, technical and social sciences in a systems view at scale levels from the global to the local. Its core concept is the analogy between processes in nature (biosphere) and processes in society (techno-sphere). Evolution has resulted in a highly efficient use of materials and energy in biosphere systems: waste from one process is a resource for another. In today’s society, resources are exploited, producing unusable waste streams and release of pollutants to soil, water, and air, leading to complex sustainability problems. Society might take lessons from the biosphere to solve these problems.

S: http://www.emmind.eu/ (last access: 13 February 2015)

N: 1. industrial (adj): 1774, from French industriel, from Medieval Latin industrialis, from Latin industria (see industry). Earlier the word had been used in English in a sense “resulting from labor” (1580s); the modern use is considered a reborrowing. Meaning “suitable for industrial use” is from 1904. As a style of dance music, attested from 1988. Industrial revolution was in use by 1840 to refer to recent developments and changes in England and elsewhere.
ecology (n): 1873, oecology, “branch of science dealing with the relationship of living things to their environments,” coined in German by German zoologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) as Ökologie, from Greek oikos “house, dwelling place, habitation” + -logia “study of”. In use with reference to anti-pollution activities from 1960s.
2. Industrial ecology conceptualises industry as a man-made ecosystem that operates in a similar way to natural ecosystems, where the waste or by product of one process is used as an input into another process. Industrial ecology interacts with natural ecosystems and attempts to move from a linear to cyclical or closed loop system. Like natural ecosystems, industrial ecology is in a continual state of flux.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=industrial+ecology&searchmode=none (last access: 13 February 2015). 2. http://www.gdrc.org/sustdev/concepts/16-l-eco.html (last access: 13 February 2015).

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CR: ecology