Learning before Doing: Simulation and Modeling in Industrial Ecology

Over the past decade, advances in computing, combined with new techniques for virtual prototyping and simulation, have altered our approach to the areas of training, design, and product and process development. Taken collectively these capabilities represent one of the most significant changes in the production paradigm since the beginning of mass production and one with important implications for the environment. These advances need to be viewed as more than just a new set of tools in the industrial ecology tool box They provide the basis for a fundamental shift in how we learn and solve environmental problems‐an opportunity to move from learning too late to learning before doing. Industrial ecology can embrace and articulate this new framework for learning and apply it broadly to the challenge of facilitating social and technological change and innovation in an increasingly complex world.