Book excerpt: The contributors to this volume draw on their experience in a variety of disciplines to explore the origins, promise, and relevance of the emerging field of industrial ecology. They situate industrial ecology within the broader range of environmental management strategies and concepts, from the practices of pollution prevention through life cycle management, to the more fundamental shift toward dematerialization and ecological design. Their work not only affirms what has been learned to date in this nascent field but also provides new insight by demonstrating that technologies are socially and politically embedded. This book makes a compelling argument for the need to think ecologically to develop innovative and competitive industrial policy.