Industrial ecology gets down to Earth

The author discusses the framework within which firms, and governments, can begin to manage the integration of technology and environment. Industrial ecology, a developing multidisciplinary field, provides the theoretical framework. The Design for Environment (DFE) infrastructure, at the national and international levels, integrates social value judgments and multisectoral information into tools and systems that enable the private sector´s implementation of environmentally preferable technologies and methodologies. Generic and specific DFE, at the level of the individual firm, are the means by which the environmental objectives and constraints are internalized into organizations and operations, from product and process design, to material and technology choice, to product takeback and reintroduction into commerce.<>