Governance

As a non-profit society, the International Society for Industrial Ecology is  a membership organization where most of the final decision-taking power rests with its members. However, in order to operate the day-to-day activities, the members elect a board to represent the membership to help run the society. The board leadership (represented by the President, Treasurer and Secretary) along with the ISIE's Executive Director and the Administrative Assistant form the society's executive team.

The following operational activities are undertaken at the ISIE. The executive team meets on a fortnightly basis and is the primary team in charge of running the ISIE. The ISIE board meets on a quarterly basis and reviews and discussed work by the executive team. Every board member furthermore holds a longer-term portfolio on which to report every board meeting. During the annual general meetings, the board and executive team report on the achievements, plans, and challenges to the membership. Members have the opportunity to vote on key issues during these meetings. In addition to these governance structures, there are also a variety of committees in place, which also engage with the board and executive team.

The ISIE aims to embrace transparency and to welcome its members in its governance activities. The operating rules are governed by our published bylaws, and more practical rules are documented in our housekeeping rules. Every year the ISIE publishes a public annual report documenting our achievements, finances, and plans. In addition to these annual reports, meeting minutes from our board meetings are also made available. All these documents can be found in our Resources section. Through our announcements (as well as membership-wide mailings) we invite members to nominate people to run as a board member, to vote in our elections, to join our committees, or to attend our annual general meetings.

Note: up until 2018, our society ran as a project out of Yale University. Since then, we have been registered as a non-profit society in The Netherlands. Reporting (including our annual reports and board meeting minutes) is more readily available since our independence.