Industrial ecology

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While materials and energy are fundamental to building and operating cities, industries and infrastructure, their extraction and use are among the main drivers of global environmental disruptions, such as global warming and biodiversity loss. Ensuring a sustainable supply and use of resources and energy is essential to balancing human needs with the Earth's carrying capacity, To achieve this, it is crucial to understand the conditions under which materials and energy can be used sustainably across different levels of economic development and lifestyles. This also requires the identification of the most effective strategies for sustainable production and consumption, enabling society to thrive while remaining within planetary boundaries.

Mission

The Industrial Ecology research group aims to develop and apply cutting-edge methods to quantify, model and optimize material and energy flows to support a sustainable industrial transformation. The group provides decision-making support to policy makers, industry stakeholders, and researchers by delivering actionable insights into resource use efficiency, circularity, and environmental impacts across scales ranging from individual products to urban systems and global supply chains.

With the aims of optimizing resource efficiency, minimizing material and energy waste, as well as promoting circular economies, research activities focus on modelling interaction between socio-techno-economic systems and the environment. Computational tools – based on artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as agent-based models – integrate a variety of scientific methods, including Material and Energy Flow Analysis (MEFA), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Input-Output Analysis (IO) and quantitative scenario analysis.

This interdisciplinary approach, combining expertise in engineering, environmental science, computer science and economics, enables the high-resolution analysis of complex sustainability challenges.

Scope of expertise

The Industrial Ecology research group brings comprehensive expertise and provides computational tools across the following areas:

The group uses hybrid LCA models coupled with optimization, economic models, agent-based models, etc. Applications span multiple sectors, including:

Circular economy in the construction sector, with digital tools to map material stocks in buildings and infrastructure and assess their deconstruction potential. The Digital DeConstruction platform, for instance, supports decision-making during the building deconstruction process through 3D scanning and BIM, and future extension to GIS-based urban mining tools.
- Sustainable urban climate adaptation and mitigation scenarios and their prospective LCA;
- Simulation of the diffusion of sustainable practices and the implementation of sustainability scenarios in agriculture, food production systems, mobility and supply chains using Agent‑Based Modelling;
- Assessment of consumption-based policies to reach climate mitigation targets using Environmentally Extended Input Output Analysis;
- Uncertainty analysis of early-stage technologies using advanced probabilistic and fuzzy methodologies and scenario-based analysis.

Post-Occupancy Evaluation of new or renovated buildings, supported by the POESY platform sentence.

The group uses deep learning and Large Language Models (LLMs) to enhance the quality of LCA while automating repetitive tasks. These methods address data gaps in both life cycle inventories and impact assessments using advanced machine-learning techniques.

This involves integrated assessments and the optimization of energy and material flows (circular economy, heat recovery, pinch analysis, exergy assessment). Custom-developed tools support industry in optimizing the use of materials and energy (e.g. heat recovery for steam and electricity production) via process integration and mathematical optimization.

A key example is the REFUND tool, which assesses the environmental performance of financial products and projects. It combines hybrid Environmentally Extended Input-Output analysis with LCA and leverages data-driven analytics.

At the international level, the group contributes to the IPCC Assessment Reports and participates in various working groups, such as the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on AgriFood Systems Assessment, Time for the Planet and the Solar Impulse Foundation of Bertrand Piccard.