Natural capital is the world's stock of natural resources, which includes geology, soils, air, water and all living organisms. Some natural capital assets provide people with free goods and services, often called ecosystem services. All of these underpin our economy and society, and thus make human life possible.
Human ecology is an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the relationship between humans and their natural, social, and built environments. The philosophy and study of human ecology has a diffuse history with advancements in ecology, geography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, zoology, epidemiology, public health, and home economics, among others.
Ecological economics, bioeconomics, ecolonomy, eco-economics, or ecol-econ is both a transdisciplinary and an interdisciplinary field of academic research addressing the interdependence and coevolution of human economies and natural ecosystems, both intertemporally and spatially. By treating the economy as a subsystem of Earth's larger ecosystem, and by emphasizing the preservation of natural capital, the field of ecological economics is differentiated from environmental economics, which is the mainstream economic analysis of the environment. One survey of German economists found that ecological and environmental economics are different schools of economic thought, with ecological economists emphasizing strong sustainability and rejecting the proposition that physical (human-made) capital can substitute for natural capital.
Artificial Intelligence for Environment & Sustainability (ARIES) is an international non-profit research project hosted by the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) headquartered in Bilbao, Spain. It was created to integrate scientific computational models for environmental sustainability assessment and policy-making, through ecoinformatics.
The University of Vermont (UVM), officially titled as University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. Founded in 1791, the university is the oldest in Vermont and the fifth-oldest in New England, making it among the oldest in the United States. It is one of the original eight Public Ivies.
Howard Thomas Odum, usually cited as H. T. Odum, was an American ecologist. He is known for his pioneering work on ecosystem ecology, and for his provocative proposals for additional laws of thermodynamics, informed by his work on general systems theory.
Systems ecology is an interdisciplinary field of ecology, a subset of Earth system science, that takes a holistic approach to the study of ecological systems, especially ecosystems. Systems ecology can be seen as an application of general systems theory to ecology. Central to the systems ecology approach is the idea that an ecosystem is a complex system exhibiting emergent properties. Systems ecology focuses on interactions and transactions within and between biological and ecological systems, and is especially concerned with the way the functioning of ecosystems can be influenced by human interventions. It uses and extends concepts from thermodynamics and develops other macroscopic descriptions of complex systems.
Robert Costanza is an American/Australian ecological economist and Professor at the UCL Institute for Global Prosperity, University College London. He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and a Full Member of the Club of Rome.
Roelof (Roefie) Hueting was a Dutch economist, former Head of the Department for Environmental Statistics of Statistics Netherlands, pianist and leader of the Down Town Jazz Band, and known for the development of the concept of Sustainable National Income (SNI).
The Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources (RSENR) is the University of Vermont's natural resources college. The University of Vermont recognized the importance of providing educational opportunities in this field of study, initiating forestry courses in 1888. The first school, originally called The School of Natural Resources was established in 1973. The main home of the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, the George D. Aiken Center opened in 1982. The building's name honors Vermont's distinguished late senator and governor.
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) was a study led by Pavan Sukhdev from 2007 to 2011. It is an international initiative to draw attention to the global economic benefits of biodiversity. Its objective is to highlight the growing cost of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation and to draw together expertise from the fields of science, economics and policy to enable practical actions. TEEB aims to assess, communicate and mainstream the urgency of actions through its five deliverables—D0: science and economic foundations, policy costs and costs of inaction, D1: policy opportunities for national and international policy-makers, D2: decision support for local administrators, D3: business risks, opportunities and metrics and D4: citizen and consumer ownership.
Earth Economics is a 501(c)(3) non-profit formally established in 2006 and headquartered in Tacoma, Washington, United States. The organization uses natural capital valuation to help decision makers and local stakeholders to understand the value of natural capital assets. By identifying, monetizing, and valuing natural capital and ecosystem services.
The Institute for Environmental Diplomacy and Security(IEDS) is a transdisciplinary research center, based at the University of Vermont (UVM), aimed at the study and practice of techniques that resolve destructive environmental conflicts, and to using ecological processes as tools of peace-building. IEDs was founded under the auspices of the James M. Jeffords Center at UVM in 2010, which is named in honor of former US Senator Jim Jeffords. The founding director of the Institute was Professor Saleem Ali (Academic), who is now a member of the United Nations International Resource Panel and the Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel of the Global Environment Facility
Jon D. Erickson is an American ecological economist, professor of sustainability science and policy at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources of the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont, United States, and fellow of the Gund Institute for Environment.
Ecological Economics. The Transdisciplinary Journal of the International Society for Ecological Economics is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Elsevier on behalf of the International Society for Ecological Economics. It covers research on ecological economics. The journal was established in 1989 by founding editor-in-chief Robert Costanza. The current editors-in-chief are Begum Özkaynak and Stefan Baumgärtner. The journal is concerned with "extending and integrating the understanding of the interfaces and interplay between 'nature's household' (ecosystems) and 'humanity's household' ". The journal is transdisciplinary in spirit and emphasizes work that draws on and integrates insights from natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities. Related to economics, the journal includes contributions drawing on both neoclassical and a broad variety of heterodox approaches, which has given rise to lively discussions among the membership over the years.
The Mesoamerican Society for Ecological Economics (SMEE) is a regional chapter of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE). After its foundation in 2008 at Guatemala City, the organization has already celebrated its first International Conference in 2010 at Mexico City and will carry out the second International Conference, EcoEco Alternatives, between March 4 and 8 2014 at the main campus of the University of Costa Rica.
Richard B. Norgaard is a professor emeritus of ecological economics in the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, the first chair and a continuing member of the independent science board of CALFED, and a founding member and former president of the International Society for Ecological Economics. He received the Kenneth E. Boulding Memorial Award in 2006 for recognition of advancements in research combining social theory and the natural sciences. He is considered one of the founders of and a continuing leader in the field of ecological economics.
Johnson House is a campus building of the University of Vermont (UVM), which is located at 617 Main Street, on the southwestern corner of the intersection of University Heights in Burlington, Vermont.
Aimée Classen is an American ecologist who studies the impact of global changes on a diverse array of terrestrial ecosystems. Her work is notable for its span across ecological scales and concepts, and the diversity of terrestrial ecosystems that it encompasses, including forests, meadows, bogs, and tropics in temperate and boreal climates.
Taylor Henry Ricketts is an American ecologist. He is the director of the University of Vermont's Gund Institute for Environment and Gund Professor at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Ricketts is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Ecological Society of America. In 2015, Thompson-Reuters named him as one of the world's most cited and influential scientists.
