OBJECTIVES

Three fields of science (natural, engineering and social sciences) provide the basic concepts and theories for the Industrial Ecology programme, as well as determining the programme? structure. The three dimensions of sustainable development (people, planet, and profit) and the three disciplinary approaches are clearly reflected in how the programme is organised. The Industrial Ecology programme trains students in analysis, methodology, design, and implementation of societal activities, with the aim of minimising the environmental impact of these activities while maintaining their functionality.

Industrial Ecology encompasses the study of: 

• Natural resources, their renewal, their abundance and the environmental impacts of their cradle-to-grave chains;
• technologies and systems for transforming these resources into goods and services;
• consumption patterns of these goods and services;
• organisation of these processes along the entire life-cycle;
• processes of technological change;
• processes of social political change.