Description
Apply ecosystem principles to design and optimize industrial systems. Integrate physical and social science to maximize sustainable resource use across product life cycles. Analyze how societal issues intersect with technical systems and the environment.
- • Investigate environmental accidents to assess ecological impact.
- • Assess how plant and animal species adapt to changed environmental conditions.
- • Review industrial methods and materials to identify liabilities and environmental hazards.
- • Research pollution sources to determine impacts and develop abatement or control methods.
- • Provide managers with technical materials on environmental issues, regulations, and compliance actions.
- • Plan or conduct studies on ecological implications of historic or projected changes in industrial processes or development.
- • Plan or conduct field research on industrial production, industrial ecology, population ecology, and sustainability.
- • Monitor environmental impacts of development activities, pollution, and land degradation.
- • Identify or develop strategies to minimize impacts of industrial production processes.
- • Investigate impacts of changed land management or land-use practices on ecosystems.
- • Develop or test protocols to monitor ecosystem components and processes.
- • Create dynamic mathematical models of population, community, or ecological systems.
- • Lead protection, mitigation, or restoration projects to maintain critical habitats and reduce human impacts.
- • Conduct environmental assessments in accordance with applicable standards, regulations, and laws.
- • Build and maintain databases on energy alternatives, pollutants, natural environments, industrial processes, and other ecological-change data.
- • Forecast ecosystem conditions based on changing industrial practices or environmental drivers.
- • Conduct applied research on effects of industrial processes on species protection, restoration, inventory, monitoring, or reintroduction.
- • Recommend methods to protect the environment and reduce damage from industrial production practices.
- • Develop alternative energy investment scenarios comparing economic and environmental costs and benefits.
- • Analyze changes aimed at improving environmental performance of complex systems and avoiding unintended consequences.
- • Apply ecosystem research to understand economic and industrial systems in environmental context.
- • Conduct exergy or energy efficiency analyses to determine maximum work achievable in industrial and waste treatment systems.
- • Conduct sustainability assessments using material flow analysis (MFA) or substance flow analysis (SFA).
- • Evaluate industrial ecology programs using statistical analysis and tools.
- • Examine local, regional, and global material and energy flows in industrial production.
- • Examine societal issues and their relationship with technical systems and the environment.
- • Identify environmental impacts caused by products, systems, or projects.
- • Map and compare component parts and relationships across industrial, social, and natural systems.
- • Identify sustainable alternatives to industrial or waste-management practices.
- • Analyze how human behavior affects and is affected by environmental change.
- • Perform environmentally extended input-output (EEIO) analyses.
- • Prepare plans to manage renewable resources.
- • Prepare technical and research reports (e.g., environmental impact reports) and communicate results to industry, government, and the public.
- • Promote environmental management systems (EMS) to reduce waste and improve resource stewardship.
- • Redesign linear (open-loop) systems into cyclical (closed-loop) systems so wastes become inputs for new processes.
- • Research effects of land and water use to improve environmental conditions or increase outputs, such as crop yields.
- • Review research literature to maintain knowledge of industrial ecology, physical science, technology, economics, and public policy.
- • Translate industrial ecology theory into eco-industrial practices.
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
