The Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI) is convening a one-day workshop in Bregenz, Austria on May 1, 2012. The event will take place just prior to the 2012 conference of the European Roundtable on Sustainable Consumption and Production (ERSCP). Participants are invited to submit research and strategy papers, Submission ends 16 January 2012.

European knowledge brokerage consortium launches a series of “Policy meets Research” workshops on sustainable housing, starting in Helsinki/Finland on 23-25 November 2011

The Annual Report for 2010/11 presents the Institute’s current projects and publications dealing with seven issues. Under the banner of “Research for a Sustainable Economy”, the IÖW develops scientifically sound studies and concepts that are intended for practical application, and supports their implementation at the corporate and political level as well as in NGOs.

European consumption experts today called for a new research policy on sustainable food consumption. Facing recent food crises around the globe, European food research should set new priorities, advocated researchers and policy makers from all over Europe. More than 100 experts have jointly developed a “Research Agenda for Sustainable Food Consumption in Europe”, which sets the stage for pressing challenges to be addressed in coming years.

A guiding principle of product-related environmental protection is to promote those products on the market which are the best in ecological terms and the most efficient with regard to the consumption of energy and resources. The so-called “Top Runner” approach, developed in Japan, promotes the eco-design and dissimination of products. Although increasing energy and resource efficiency is considered extremely important for ecological modernisation, there has so far been no concept that specifies implementation of the Top Runner model in the EU and takes account of existing promotion instruments. A study conducted by Ökopol, the IÖW and the Leuphana University in Lüneburg and commissioned by the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) now contributes towards closing this gap.

The future development of mobility faces fundamental environmental, social and economic challenges. To support the transition towards a more sustainable mobility system, the European consortium CORPUS has now launched a workshop series on mobility, which aims to enhance evidence-based policy-making in this domain.

The International Conference taking place on September 15th-16th 2011 in Freiburg aims to attract scientists from a wide variety of disciplines who share an interest in studying the change of the energy system to a system based on renewable energies. The conference is hosted by the EE-Regionen (Renewable Energy Regions) project in cooperation with the Centre for Renewable Energy (ZEE, University of Freiburg), the University of Hohenheim and the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW, Berlin).