Society merges technology and ecology

A new association, the International Society of Industrial Ecology (ISIS), has been established to promote industrial ecology as a way of finding innovative solutions to complicated environmental problems and to facilitate communication among scientists, engineers, policy makers, managers, and others

who are interested in how environmental concerns and economic activities can be better integrated. According to former U.S. National Academy of Engineering president Robert White, "Industrial ecology is the study of the flows of materials and energy in industrial and consumer activities, of the effects of these flows on the environment, and of the influences of economic, political, regulatory, and social factors on the flow, use, and transformation of resources." The School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale Univ. (New Haven, CT) will serve as ISIE's temporary international secretariat. The group's inaugural meeting, "The Science and Culture of Industrial Ecology," will be held in the Netherlands in November. More information can be found at www.yale.edu/is4ie.