After studying Humanities (Philosophy) and Science (Biology) at the University of Geneva, Suren Erkman trained as an economic and scientific journalist at the magazine L’Hebdo. He then created the science section for the Journal de Genève and Gazette de Lausanne, subsequently collaborating with various media outlets in Switzerland and abroad. From the early 1990s, as an independent researcher and consultant, he contributed to the development of the emerging field of industrial ecology—a conceptual and operational approach aimed at transforming the entire industrial system to make it compatible with the Biosphere. He developed one of the first courses on industrial ecology, initially at EPFL and later at various universities in Switzerland and abroad.
In 2005, he joined the University of Lausanne as a professor in the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment. In parallel, he continued his entrepreneurial activities, notably as a co-founder, in 2008, of the consulting firm SOFIES Group, which operates in Geneva, Zurich, Paris, London, and Bangalore.
