Project goal
Contents
Project goal#
TL;DR#
The central idea is to support the outreach of the International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE) by providing an online platform that features community-edited and curated material for various experience levels. This material covers industrial ecology theory and research insights. The structure of the website follows preferably what can be achieved with Jupyter Book (e.g. Brightway or The Turing Way) or GitBook (e.g. The Data Science Interview Book).
Project description#
Global change demands urgent action. Much of the required information and data does not leave science’s ivory tower, or only reaches policy makers. But there is a growing interest in the general public, particularly among younger folks, to better understand what kinds of transformations are needed and how these conclusions are drawn. In particular, many are interested in learning, among others, how footprints are calculated, how material flows are analysed, and what societal transformations are required – but not through a degree.
Industrial ecology provides a rich toolbox of methods and myriad insights whose accessibility to the general public has been, with few exceptions, limited so far; open access papers and data are not the issue, but rather the lack of entry-level information. The central idea of the project is therefore to open this box for everyone who wants to learn more while at the same time providing researchers an alternative opportunity to disseminate their own research.
This project’s aim is to realise this through a blend of online encyclopaedia, MOOC, and research blog, that provides community-edited material for various experience levels, e.g. beginner (general public), novice (students), professional, where selected sections might be even commercialised. We envisage this platform as a place:
where people from various educational backgrounds can find everything necessary for understanding our socio-economic metabolism, methods for analysing it, and pathways to a better future.
for continuous learning, updated consistently with new research insights.
where sustainability researchers find another medium for their research dissemination.
So far, only few notable exceptions are available that provide learning material on sustainability research online. Most of these resources, however, are either directed only at students enrolled in relevant degrees, are only focused on specific aspects of industrial ecology, or are visually and programmatically not compelling.
We see this project benefitting the ISIE in the following ways:
increased visibility.
driving change among the general public through improved environmental literacy.
an alternative form of research dissemination (where particularly early-stage researchers can practice their communication skills, in the form of texts or even videos).