ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the identified Design for the Environment, Life Cycle Design, and environmental accounting as tools for use in industrial ecology and includes aspects of law, economics, and public policy as related to industrial ecology, while building on the systems analysis methodology mentioned earlier. Industrial ecology also focuses on reducing the environmental impacts of goods and services using a systems-based approach and on innovations that can significantly improve environmental performance. Industrial ecology is the study of the interactions between industrial and ecological systems; consequently, it addresses the environmental effects on both the abiotic and biotic components of the ecosphere. Although the authors generated an original, although unintentional, industrial ecology concept, the idea was eventually forgotten and nothing tangible came of this research. Systems analysis of the interrelationship of human activities and negative environmental impacts is also a critical tool of industrial ecology.
