The 7th International Conference of the International Society for Industrial Ecology (ISIE) was held in Ulsan, Korea, from June 25 to 28.

The theme of this conference was “Industrial Ecology: Strategy for Green Economy”. Experts from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea and Harvard University, etc, were invited to give speeches. The topics included industrial symbiosis, eco-industrial parks, urban metabolism, life cycle analysis, physical input output analysis and complex systems modelling. More than 400 researchers from 37 countries attended the conference.

This was the first time that ISIE held the international conference in Asia. This conference was co-hosted by the University of Ulsan, Korea, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan, and THU, China. Prof. Qian Yi, Member of Chinese Academy of Engineering from THU, and Prof. Lu Zhongwu, Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering from Northeast University, were invited to be members of the Advisory Board for this conference.

Industrial Ecology originated in the 1990s. It studies industrial systems in view of ecosystems and encourages industries to develop in a more ecological way. ISIE was launched in 2000 and holds an international conference every two years. The 8th international conference of ISIE will be held in the University of Surrey.