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About Us!The natural resource and its related processing industries
- forest, pulp & paper, chemicals, energy, pharmaceutical and the major utility
sectors (electricity, gas, water) - all interact with the environment in dynamic ways. This affects everything starting from
extraction of primary resources (cradle) to eventual disposal of wastes and residuals (grave). However, these interactions
are affected by a set of societal concerns or demands.
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.
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Our Partners
We
are working with various partners nationally and internationally. Here is a selection of our research partners.
Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative (FBRI), University of Maine, USA
Advanced Structures and Composites Center (AEWC), University of Maine, USA
Environmental Research Group, University of New Hampshire, USA
Sustainable Technology Office, National Research Council, Canada
Research Network for Business Sustainability,
Canada
Institute for Industrial Production, University of Karlsruhe, Germany
Institute for Environmental Research, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
FONA (Research for Sustainability), Germany
Research Center for Life Cycle Assessment, National Institute of Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology, Japan
Environment and Sustainable Development Program, United Nations University, Japan
Faculty of Science, Makere University, Uganda
Forest Products Research and Development Institute, Philippines
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