Challenges for Industrial Ecology in Practice and Theory

This special feature on visions for industrial ecology originates from the Third International Conference on Eco-Efficiency, held in the Netherlands, 9–11 June 2010. For the final day of the conference, a number of people were invited to contribute a vision on key directions for the development of the domain of industrial ecology in general and on the role of eco-efficiency in particular. The results—not all presented at the conference but prepared for it—together form a special section of this issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology, diverse and, we hope, inspiring. The subject of eco-efficiency may be seen as a technical one—as a goal in itself. It is not. It is one key to improved environmental performance of society. Combined with improved economic performance in the form of productivity growth, it may tell in which direction we are going, or might, or should go. If absolute decoupling of environmental impact from economic growth is the goal, we should know whether policies and innovations are getting us on the right track. Will unleashing resource productivity get us on the right track and avoid the Jevons paradox? Should we focus on fiscal reform to get us there? Is the innovation entry to sustainable development powerful enough, and what is driving innovations and their implementation? If degrowth, for increased happiness and environmental quality, is the goal and we wish to deviate from the unsustainable route of ever-expanding production and consumption, the same question has to be answered: Are we on the right track? “We” here refers to society at large, from a global perspective, in principle. And we know that not just marginal, small improvements are to be realized. We need more