The Research Group for Industrial Ecology, LCA and Systems Sustainability (IELCASS) at the University of Maine undertakes multidisciplinary, integrative, innovative research to develop sustainable products from biomass resources and processes  which maximize resource and energy efficiency and minimize life cycle environmental impacts. We focus on understanding the dynamic interactions fundamentally and holistically, drawing on elements of systems analysis, process simulation and optimization, network and complexity methods and models.

Previous research has focused on technology development, development of methodologies for the analysis of environmental performance of industrial sectors with specific considerations of the uncertainty aspects involved. A suite of tools is developed to assist in environmental decision making under uncertainty in complex situations with multiple stakeholders. The analysis and design of industrial networks takes place using a suite of sophisticated tools such as Life Cycle Assessment, Industrial Ecology, Agent-Based Modeling and System Dynamics.

Our research emphasizes the development and application of quantitative methods that utilize variety of analytical and system modeling platforms such as Powersim, STELLA, Matlab, ArcGIS, REPAST to study the sustainability impacts of product life cycles including development of LCI data. We work with people from various disciplines including natural resources, environmental sciences, engineering, business and economics, social science, wood science and technology, computing, management science and operations research.

Please refer to our research pages for more information. We are interested to work with industries.