New paper discusses how Industrial Ecology can deal with tipping points

Industrial Ecology is a growing international research field focused on material stocks and flows associated with production and consumption. Its methods are primarily descriptive, structural or - if dynamic at all - linear. This paper emerged from a successful workshop at the Industrial Ecology conference in Leiden, Netherlands, in 2023.

It discusses several examples of tipping phenomena analyzed in past research, and discusses ways in which Industrial Ecologists could engage more with tipping points in future research activities. Overcoming limitations of current Industrial Ecology methods - for example by merging complexity science and socio-metabolic research, as planned in REMASS - will be a prerequisite for meeting those challenges.