Industrial Ecology lays stress on a systemic approach. This means that instead of considering individual elements of a system in isolation, the entire system is viewed as a whole. For example, if we were to consider the environmental impact of an automobile, instead of just considering the pollution from an automobile plant, we study the entire automobile system involving, the production of the automobile, emissions from them, the impact of the road system (construction, maintenance etc), the recycling of components and their ultimate disposal. And of course, the kind of fuel the automobile uses (as this is by far the main impact of the automobile in its present form)

To make this simple, we could take another example. Here we take the most common problem from day to day life; pollution from vehicles on the roads. If we were to take a system view, we would consider many other issues other than the obvious methods, like installing catalytic converters. We would attempt to understand why people travel and consider solutions to minimize this need to travel – by planning towns better, bringing services closer to people so that people do not have to travel, by improving public transport to reduce the number of vehicles on the road etc. Of course, any such systemic solutions cannot be immediate and in the short term, the conventional solutions are essential. But the systemic solution is more lasting and creates a clear road map for the future.

It is left to the user to define “the system” for study. The system could be geographical such as a city or a region. Else, one could define the “system” as the jute industry in Bangla Desh. The definition of the “system” depends on the researcher's perspective as well as the purpose for which the research is being done.