The IECO Institute aspires to be an internationally visible, German-Chilean institute for the design and implementation of eco-industrial development strategies in Chile and Latin America. IECO is an academic institute, but also a policy consulting institute and a promoter of eco-industrial strategies in the private sector. Hence, IECO aims at shaping the transformation towards a sustainable industry by advising academic, policy and market actors.

IECO aims to establish a long-term collaboration structure among its implementing partners in the form of a bi-national and multilateral institute for the study, research and innovation in the field industrial ecology and sustainable development. IECO is built on three pillars which constitute its three fundamental three action fields: Higher Education, Science and Research, and Innovation. IECO partners contribute to the development of these action fields through key research lines for Germany and Chile in the field of eco-industrial development: