Industrial ecology and input-output economics: an introduction

Industrial ecology aims at closing material cycles within industrial systems by developing symbiotic functions among system components. How industrial systems are structured and how they transform, use and discard natural resources is, therefore, the key focus of industrial ecology. As an introduction to this issue of Economic Systems Research, which is themed around industrial ecology, the current paper aims to provide a background on industrial ecology, highlighting the role of and contributions from input–output economics. A brief history of industrial ecology and input–output economics is presented, focusing on a number of specific areas where the two disciplines overlap. The role of input–output economics in industrial ecology is discussed in terms of how input–output economics has been, and is being, utilized in industrial ecology. Finally the papers that are presented in this issue are briefly introduced.