Strategic Plan

ISIE Strategy 2025-2035

 

Introduction

The International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE) is a scientific membership society focusing on Advancing the science of circular, resource-efficient and sustainable socio-economic systems.  

ISIE now exists over 20 years. It sets here its strategy for the next decade. It is done in the form of a few figures and tables to ensure easy and broad communication to ISIE’s membership and beyond. We refrain from extensive text.

ISIE is a membership driven organization with limited financial resources and is fortunate to have a very active membership. ISIE hosts a flagship journal published with Springer Nature, supported by active Editors-in-Chief and Associate Editors. We have many sections fostering sub-fields of IE. We have a vibrant community of PhD candidates. We have individuals trying to foster IE in regions where ISIE is under-represented, such as the Global South. We have people trying to provide educational material and ‘data commons’ online. In some cases, ISIE can provide modest support funding (e.g. via membership proposals, typically 5000 Euro per project). This strategic plan aims to provide guidance for such bottom-up initiatives and provides a framework to stimulate them.

Strategic goals

ISIE is currently a medium-sized scientific society, with some 1200 members. In comparison, even relatively small countries like the Netherlands have statistical offices studying the financial functioning of the economy with 2000 employees.
ISIE’s physical economic analyses are in many ways of equal societal and policy importance as work done by economists. These count in the tens of thousands globally and have huge policy impact. IE has traditionally focused on understanding and optimizing the resources use in socio-economic systems across different scales from factories, industrial parks, cities, to the globe, based on which policy makers can find ways to promoting resources efficiency and circularity, as well as supporting the realization of climate targets. Recently, IE studies also help see more and more that access to resources and interdependencies in global supply chains impacts the economic and sustainability performance of countries. Therefore, IE studies can also make major contributions in assessing resource criticality, economic systems resilience, and so on.

Against this background, ISIE wants to broaden its influence and visibility by

1) expanding the number of IE scientists/members;
2) pushing IE’s scientific boundaries;
3) engaging in strategic partnerships;
4) showing its societal/policy relevance (‘policy think tank function’);
5) facilitating education and outreach programs

This has to be supported by:

6) a financially healthy and sound organizational structure

 

Operationalisation and realization of strategic goals

The Table attached makes the strategic goals more concrete. It gives an overview of existing activities to be continued, new priority activities, and suggested other priorities, including how we execute them. We summarize them below, with any relevant deadline between brackets. Actions with * may be financially supported by ISIE upon approval of the Board.

A: Expanding membership

1. We continue with the existing successful conference structure: the biennial global conference in uneven years, the bi-annual Gordon Research Conference in even years (both typically in June/July), and the annual IE-day virtual conference (November).
2. For even years, we encourage structural organization of ISIE workshops/conferences related to sections or regions (like now already done by the Socio-Economic Metabolism section and like in the past was occasionally done for the Asia-Pacific or Latin America regions). We rely on members initiating such meetings. They will be supported by the ISIE Executive Team, and possibly via a guarantee fund*. We strive for one additional sectoral/regional conference/workshop series every 2 years. Latin America, Africa, India and SE Asia are priority regions.
3. Following the former point, ISIE will encourage setting up formal regional chapters in regions with sufficient levels of membership
4. The Executive Team sets up an ISIE alumni network via e.g. LinkedIn to understand needs of past members and use this to encourage re-registering as ISIE member. With PhDs the largest member group, we work on this with a.o. the PhD section (2026.10).

B: Pushing scientific boundaries

1. ISIE sections are encouraged to identify and develop an overview of critical research directions to keep the IE field vibrant and at the forefront.
2. After the successful transition of JIE from Wiley to Springer Nature per 1-1-2026, the JIE editorial board will develop a strategy for user friendly handling of manuscripts, enhance JIE’s impact factor, and raise the number of papers published (continuously).
3. ISIE will set up a Senior support committee to assist young and mid-career researchers in applying for prestigious personal grants (2026.10).
4. ISIE will encourage members to donate and provide limited funding* for expanding an open source ‘Industrial Ecology Data Commons’*
5. ISIE will encourage setting up new sections in IE-relevant frontiers with sufficient levels of membership

C: Strategic partnerships

1. ISIE sections / chapters and conference organisers are encouraged to actively pursue engagement of industry, NGO and policy stakeholders at events.
2. In relation to B.1, ISIE sections are encouraged to focus on research challenges relevant for industry, NGO and policy stakeholders

D: Policy think tank

1. ISIE sections and the (to be established) Senior support committee are encouraged to develop position papers and policy statements to influence key policy debates (with some financial support for editing/layout) *
2. The (to be established) Senior support board next to individual members are encouraged to participate in high-level platforms and strengthen connections with formal institutions (e.g. IMF, OECD, EU DG JRC, UNEP etc.)

E: Education and outreach

1. The ISIE Education committee will collect MOOCs and other virtual courses on IE tools and case studies and make them available on the IS4IE website (2026.12)
2. ISIE will promote Summer and Winter schools for PhDs and similar organised by members via its website, mailings, and allowing to add an ISIE label on advertising materials, after approval of the Executive Team (continuous).
3. In exceptional cases, ISIE may support / advise on the development of new IE MSc and BSc programs via volunteer input of senior members

F: Financially healthy and sound organisational structure

1. The Executive Team and Board will consolidate the secure banking arrangements and solid financial position ISIE has realised in the last years.
2. The Executive Team and Board will professionalise contracting service suppliers in view of legal requirements, if need be, by engaging with an external bookkeeper (2026.10).
3. The Board in consultation with the Executive Team will decide on expansion of support staff commensurable with growth of ISIE (continuous).
4. The Executive Team and Board will propose a more practical decision mechanism for membership initiatives, that now need approval of 10% of the full membership (2026.10).

As approved by the ISIE Board on 11 December 2025, with minor edits to improve of layout and correct text errors.

Implementation overview

ISIE Strategic Plan 2025–2035 – PDF version: https://is4ie.org/resources/documents/142