Teaching industrial ecology is essential for educating the next generation of sustainability leaders. At the ISIE Singapore conference, members shared new ideas and developments in teaching the methods and concepts in our field. In a series of 12 lightning talks, the audience was informed about new textbooks, games, pedagogies, and more. To help ISIE members follow up with the speakers and their projects, we provide a summary here.
The session was organized by the ISIE Education Committee, whose mission is to support educators in our community and beyond. The committee has various activities, including the maintenance of an educational resource list on the website, and a newly approved grant program to help educators purchase textbooks. The committee (at the time of the conference) consists of Lynette Cheah (chair), Ramzy Kahhat, Heather Logan, Reed Miller, and Stijn van Ewijk (who moderated the session).
1. Industrial Ecology and Sustainability Textbooks
Matt Eckelman (Northeastern University) presented the textbook Industrial Ecology and Sustainability (2023) as well as an abridged version (2025) for students, co-authored with Tom Graedel (Yale University), both of which may be used for teaching industrial ecology.
Chris Kennedy (University of Victoria) presented his upcoming book Advanced Introduction to Industrial Ecology (due November 2025), which is ideal for postgraduate students seeking to familiarize themselves with the field.
Stijn van Ewijk (University College London) shared the Open Access textbook An Introduction to Waste Management and Circular Economy (2023), which is freely available in PDF to educators and students in industrial ecology and related fields.
2. MilkCo.: Gamifying Life Cycle Thinking
Meike Sauerwein (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) gave a preview of the upcoming game MilkCo., which offers a playful introduction into Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) by putting participants in the role of milk producers seeking to minimize the life cycle impacts of their products. If this game is relevant to you, please register your interest here.
3. An Educational Resources Platform
Lynette Cheah (University of the Sunshine Coast), who also chairs the education committee, described plans to create a single resource platform to make industrial ecology educational materials more readily accessible to educators. If you are interested in helping out with this initiative or would like to know more, please check out the platform and reach out to Lynette.
4. Form Follows Function
Stefano Cucurachi (Leiden University) shared a journey he undertook with colleagues, revisiting fundamental questions of pedagogy and drawing on the insights of leading thinkers on the subject. He revised his approach to teaching, asking students to engage actively using traditional materials such as pen and paper, and take ownership of the learning process. Students and teachers co-create content. His approach calls for not only providing a platform to share content with IE peers, but also new ways of teaching IE. For more information, contact Stefano.
5. Environmental Ethics in Agroecology and Industrial Ecology
Christine Costello (Penn State University) presented various initiatives, including a review, seminar and lectures, to ensure sustainability students are taught ethics, which is often missing from their programs, despite the critical role of ethical considerations in sustainability work. She encouraged industrial ecology educators to take up the challenge and integrate ethical considerations in their teaching. You can access course contents here.
6. Constructivist Pedagogy to Foster Deeper Learning
Maud Lanau (Chalmers University of Technology) presented the design of the new course in Sustainability Analytics and Visualization (SAVi), part of the Chalmers' Industrial Ecology program. In the course, students develop SAVi skills by integrating existing IE skills to new ones on analytics and visualisation. Students must therefore take a deliberate approach to the course to reach high levels of learning (as per the SOLO taxonomy). To facilitate this, the course design combines active learning techniques (incl. workshops, group project, reflective journaling, peer-to-peer feedback) with a flipped classroom that allows high transparency and teacher availability. For more information, contact Maud here.
7. Community Based Learning in Industrial Ecology
Andrea Hicks (University of Wisconsin-Madison) talked about community-based learning, which combines project-based learning with learning from service in the form of sustainability work with and for real people. As such, students learn about real-world challenges and uncertainties. For more information, you can consult this peer-reviewed article about community-based learning in industrial ecology and sustainability.
8. The Industrial Ecology open online course (IEooc)
Johan Andrés Vélez-Henao (University of Freiburg) shared the Industrial Ecology open online course (IEooc), which was developed at the University of Freiburg, and made available for free through their website to support educators. The course provides online material on core industrial ecology concepts, methods, data, and applications, including more than 50 exercises and tutorials, all of which can be accessed here. The creators, led by Stefan Pauliuk, welcome feedback and suggestions.
9. Teaching through Theatre of the Oppressed
Diana Ita (Pontifical Catholic University of Peru) made the case for using theatre of the oppressed in teaching industrial ecology. This theatrical form, developed by Augusto Boal in the 1970s, invites students to not just be observers but to talk, reflect, and act. In the context of industrial ecology, it can be used to help students realize and reflect on the social structures and tensions hidden under the surface of environmental issues. For more information, contact Diana Ita.
10. Teaching Innovation in the Brightway Software Framework for LCA
Michael Weinold (Paul Scherrer Institute and ETH Zurich) showed recent work on the Brightway Life Cycle Assessment framework. The first innovation consisted of a browser-based environment that requires no server, but can still run any LCA calculation with Brightway. The second innovation was a complex dashboard to provide more insights into LCA results - also running without a server. These innovations can help researchers make their results available dynamically and without expensive servers. To learn more about Brightway and to start using it in your research, visit the documentation page.
11. Fostering Inclusive and Experiential Learning
Qingshi Tu (University of British Columbia) reflected on strategies for facilitating learning of students from diverse educational and cultural backgrounds, leveraging online tools and interactivity. He also discussed the use of AI as an educator, such as for the creation of syllabi or lecture contents, or to provide students with an artificial tutor. Related resources can be found on this blog.
12. Broadening LCA Education in India via TV Broadcast
Shweta Singh (Purdue University) shared her experience using TV broadcast to reach new audiences in rural India, where access to quality education and internet is often limited. Since sustainability education was found lacking in particular, the broadcast focused on life cycle assessment. Organized by the Indian government and the IIT, learners could tune in to 137 hours of lectures. The content is also available on YouTube.
The lightning talks captured only a small part of the many educational initiatives undertaken by members of the industrial ecology community. With its planned educational resources platform, the committee hopes to promote a much wider range of activities and facilitate connections between all industrial ecologists with an interest in teaching and learning. The committee welcomes members to reach out and help us achieve this goal!
