INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY - INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES AND CHALLENGES Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences (NTVA) International Seminar on Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Product Design NTNU, Trondheim 1-2 February 1996.

INTRODUCTION Industrial Ecology (IE) has developed rapidly during a period of few years only. It is today a concept which is well recognised by industry, but the need for including IE thinking and methodology in university engineering programmes is urgent. A part of this NTVA seminar is a workshop on Critical Industrial Ecology Aspects related to such university programmes, with an emphasis on IE and sustainable product design and internal development strategies at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU. The workshop specifically aims to focus the interdisciplinary perspectives and challenges of such programmes. Critical aspects will be discussed along four lines: IE as a concept in teaching; how to operationalise IE in engineering design and management teaching; the use of cases across disciplines and faculties; and how to organise the IE teaching at NTNU. This paper is written as an introduction to the workshop.