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International Society for the Advancement of Emergy
Research
(ISAER)

The Emergy Society

Emergy Research

Emergy research is expanding and evolving rapidly. There is wide

interest in

applying these concepts in the analysis of landscapes,

wetland ecosystems, states,

regions, and nations along with systems

and processes in many fields and on many

scales of hierarchical

organization. Despite this surge of interest in applying these

methods, basic research on the methods of Emergy

Analysis/Synthesis and

environmental accounting using emergy

continues and a rigorous mathematical

basis for its concepts has

been and is being formulated. H.T.would be excited by

this beautiful

process of self-design, but we are missing the high quality control on

the evolutionary process that he exerted. Now control will be

provided by the

process of information generation and testing in the

self-design process. We

believe that together the community of

emergy scientists holds the experience

needed to accomplish this

task, but the task is still on-going. This should be no

surprise given

that our teacher was expanding the frontiers of his understanding

throughout his life. This process can be frustrating for managers and

scientists that

simply want quick answers or a simple tool that they

can apply with confidence.

To be successful we need to do both of

these things, i.e., provide simple and

straightforward tools, but not be

afraid to let them grow and develop.

Go Forth and Self-Organize

Dave Tilley wrote "One of the surest ways emergy can survive in the

future is to

train new, young researchers continuously so they can be

the experts on emergy in

20 years. In the short-term, current

researchers must keep chugging away at

improving emergy’s

transparency, ease-of-use, applicability, and theoretical

foundation.

To meet the coming demand for ‘Low Energy Prosperity’, emergy

researchers need to be prepared to answer the questions that

society and

governments will be asking more often shortly. Peak oil

production is upon us. We

need to be the intellectual society that

thinks ahead 10 to 50 to 100 years…very

few others are.”

Tilley also provides a model for our efforts “H.T.’s last words to me in

August of

2002 were, ‘Go forth and self-organize’.”

Self-Organization of the Emergy Society

The Emergy Society was authorized by H.T. Odum in August 2002 in

response to

a question asked by Dan Campbell. It has been

structured to closely follow his

vision of a society dedicated to the

theoretical advance and application of the linked

concepts of emergy

and transformity, which arise from the operation of the 4th law

thermodynamics, i.e., the maximum empower principle. The idea of a

society

began to develop at the Third Emergy Research Conference

held in 2004. At this

conference a committee was empowered to

study the feasibility of forming an

Emergy Society. This committee

reported to the delegates assembled for the

Fourth Emergy

Conference, where a general vote authorized the formation of the

Society by the time of the next meeting to be held in January of 2008.

During

2007, a group of founding members read and approved by-

laws for the Society

and an application for incorporation of a

nonprofit corporation was submitted to

the State of Rhode Island.

Four trustees signed the application for incorporation

and carried out

all work necessary to obtain provisional tax-exempt status with the

S. Internal Revenue Service. The Emergy Society became

incorporated in Rhode

Island on July 28, 2007 and it received tax-

exempt status from the Federal

government on December 17, 2007.

The official name of the Emergy Society is the

International Society

for the Advancement of Emergy Research (ISAER), which is a

variation of the name first suggested by Ben Fusaro.

About Emergy Research