From Analysis to Design

The 2010 Gordon Research Conference on Industrial Ecology will examine environmental challenges and remedies at various scales through the lens of design. Industrial ecology is an emerging field that examines local, regional and global uses and flows of materials and energy in products, processes, industrial sectors and economies. The field has primarily focused in the past decade on environmental assessment. Industrial ecology, however, includes an interest in design both as a route to environmental improvement and as a vehicle for realizing the opportunities arising from technological innovation. The conference will therefore examine solutions in the various domains - including products, supply chains, information technology, cities, infrastructure and very large scale systems - that are central to industrial ecology, exploring the relationship between the field’s well developed capabilities for environmental assessment and the opportunities and constraints arising from a design orientation including how emergent phenomena and complexity theory relate to a design perspective.

Invited speakers represent a variety of disciplines and have expertise in design and the rigorous analysis that is the hallmark of the field. The conference will bring together researchers who are at the forefront of their fields and will provide opportunities for junior scientists and graduate students to present their work in poster format and exchange ideas with leaders in the field. Gordon Research Conferences (GRCs) are unique among scientific meetings for their prestige, quality of content, small size, the diversity of participants, research at the frontiers of science often still unpublished, and a schedule allowing for extended discussion and informal interactions.