Our Story
In April 2014, the first European Network for Industrial Ecologists (ENIE) conference took place at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The event gathered more than 120 enthusiasts with similar backgrounds and a common passion for sustainability. After this promising start, the interim board continued working on the organization.
The first interim board identified the key issues for IE professionals: a lack of professional support, a lack of professional experience, a need for professional networking, and industry’s lack of understanding of the IE field. Therefore, what was originally known as ENIE has been registered as an association as IIEP, or the International Industrial Ecology Professionals in 2015. The key reason for the name change was to include the whole IE professional community around the world, and not solely the European IE’ers.
New Name, Same Motives…
In 2020, a group of students gathered together to bring new life into IIEP. These students were studying the MSc Industrial Ecology at TU Delft/Leiden in the Netherlands, NTNU from Norway, University of Graz in Austria and Chalmers University in Sweden, as well as the from the Erasmus Mundus International Master’s Program on Circular Economy (CIRCLE). For us to mark a new era for this organization and to be inclusive of our Circular Economy friends we decided to go for a rebranding or IIEP. Starting April 2021 we are called IECEP which stands for Industrial Ecology and Circular Economy Professionals. Marking our new efforts into this organization we have created a logo which stands for collaboration and connection. We hope to continue the networks between the four universities and alumni, and hope to one day include all IE/CE programs!
The Organization
At present IECEP consists of four different teams managing various tasks ranging from content creation to events. If you are interested in working with any of the teams, or want to collaborate on something please don’t hesitate to reach out through our email mail.iecep@gmail.com
Events
“We are a diverse group of people who enjoy organizing events. We are open to all suggestions and look forward to new ideas. Whether it’s a panel discussion, a lecture, a movie night or a games evening – with us you have the opportunity to realize many ideas. Besides that, you can also expect a lot of fun while working together with us.”
Content
“Our goal is to create a knowledge hub for and about IE & CE. This team handles all IE-related content – sharing experiences, interviews of alumni, new articles or documentaries through blog, videos, or podcasts, plus anything similar you can think of! We’ll also be working up updating the website.”
Outreach
“We go beyond the ordinary to make connections. Our goal is to make connections with professionals, students, industries or researchers to ultimately form a growing community for IE/CE. We work with social media, create professional connections via email, writing caption, marketing, graphic designing and much more.”
Administration
“We are responsible for shaping IECEP together with and creating a common space amongst IECEP members. Our goal is to act as facilitators and as coordinators among the teams to support them in realizing IECEP’s missions. We are eager to make IECEP a platform to connect ideas, and to make it a regenerative environment to ensure creativity and mutual learning.”