Prof. Dr. Marian R. Chertow

Marian Chertow is a professor of industrial environmental management at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and is also appointed at the Yale School of Management and the National University of Singapore, School of Design and Environment. Her research and teaching focus on industrial ecology, business/environment issues, and circular economy. Primary research interests are: (1) the study of industrial symbiosis involving geographically based exchanges of materials, energy, water and wastes within networks of businesses globally; (2) the potential of industrial ecology in China and other emerging market countries; (3) measurement of the “urban metabolism” of cities by studying the flows of material and energy into and out of urban regions.

For the last five years Prof. Chertow has been funded by the National Science Foundation to study sustainable and low carbon cities in China, India and the U.S. with several other universities and NGOs. This team published a paper in the Journal Nature Climate Change in October 2017 titled: "Urban Cross-Sector Actions for Carbon Mitigation with Local Health Co- Benefits in China.” Professor Chertow also teaches “Business and Environment” every year at the National University of Singapore. She is the Founder and Convener of The Industrial Symbiosis Research Seminar, an annual meeting initiated at Yale in 2004, and held all over the world including four times in the Asia-Pacific region.

Prior to Yale, Professor Chertow spent ten years in environmental business and state and local government including service as President of a bonding authority that built $1 billion worth of waste-to-energy power plants and other waste infrastructure. She is a frequent international lecturer, serves on the External Advisory Board of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability at Ingersoll Rand; the Board of the Alliance for Research in Corporate Sustainability (ARCS); and the Board of TerraCycle America. Professor Chertow was President of the International Society for Industrial Ecology from 2013-2015. She holds a BA in Religion and Literature from Barnard College, Columbia University, as well as a Masters of Public and Private Management (MPPM), and a PhD in environmental studies from Yale University.