IÖW: Projects

Peer Innovation – Sustainable household sector innovations in collaborative networks New data sources and methods for collecting the contributions of online communities to innovation and sustainability

In the PeerInnovation project, the Institute for Ecological Economy Research and the Technical University of Berlin investigated how people work together on innovative solutions to sustainability problems in their spare time [...] More

DiTex – Digital Technologies as Enabler of a Resource-efficient Circular Economy: Pilot Test in the B2B Textile Industry

Whether in health care, gastronomy or police: Workwear leads to enormous quantities of identical textiles – with serious consequences for the environment. One possible solution is a closed-loop textile industry with [...] More

Climate Protection Potential of Digitalization Potentials of digitalization for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector

Digitalization is a future trend of our society – also in the energy sector. Driven by political goals and processes, legal foundations and market players, a lot of digital innovations from electricity meters, to controlling [...] More

Consumer Role New Consumption Practices and Changes in the Consumer Role

In recent years, collaborative economy practices have been boosted substantially by the advent of the Internet and the proliferation of digital networks. As collaboration between strangers has been greatly facilitated by the [...] More

Ranking of sustainability-related product information in E-Commerce (Top100 Online Shops)

Product information serves to provide consumers with information and guidance about the sustainability of goods. Thus, product information works as a decision-making aid between more or less sustainable products. Given the [...] More

Mobility Transition – The German Automotive Industry in Upheaval

On behalf of the think tank Denkwerk Demokratie, IÖW has examined the conditions for a mobility transition as well as its implications for the German automotive industry. Denkwerk Demokratie is financed by trade unions and [...] More

Platform Organizations in the Digital Sharing Economy Organizational Forms, Effects, and Socio-Ecological Transformation Paths

How can the digital platform economy be put on a sustainable development path? As part of the project, the IÖW examines political and civil society-oriented counter-movements to the centralized platform economy and shows [...] More

Energy storage services for smart neighbourhoods (Esquire)

For the energy transition, it becomes more and more important to storage power decentralized. This way, local produced renewable energy can be consumed flexible while reliving the power grid. An important component are [...] More

Designetz: A Modular Concept for the Energy Transition From Isolated Solutions to an Efficient Energy System of the Future

The ‘Designetz’ showcase spans North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and the Saarland. It aims to supply solar and wind energy to urban and industrial consumers. For this purpose numerous demonstration projects are [...] More

Digitalization and social-ecological transformation Rebound Risks and Sufficiency Opportunities of Digital Services

Economy and society are facing fundamental structural change that is largely driven by the digitalization of production and consumption. Concepts such as the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) or (in Germany) ‘Industry 4.0’ are [...] More

Approaches to Resource Conservation in the Context of Post-Growth Concepts

The recent institutions of society and economy are mainly focused on economic growth, measured in Gross National Product (GDP). This enhances a consumption of resources that is incompatible with planetary boundaries. Current [...] More

IT and Electrical Power Supply: Potentials and Risks of Coupling Regarding Vulnerability and Resilience

With the Energiewende Germany has to arrange a fundamental transformation of the energy system, which will be characterized by a high content of volatile renewable energies. The accompanying fluctuations of the energy supply [...] More

PeerSharing

The project “Peer-Sharing” focuses on innovative online-platforms, which act as an intermediary for peer-to-peer (consumer to consumer) lending, buying or swapping of products or services. At this point digital peer-to-peer [...] More

Commons-based Peer Production in Open Labs (COWERK)

The project COWERK intends to examine the adoption of cooperative ways of organizing the economy by using the example of open-access labs. The project has the aim of analyzing the adoption of new technological methods in the [...] More

Participatory Design of consumer-oriented Innovations for Smart Grids (InnoSmart)

Due to the energy transition, all stakeholders in the energy industry are facing fundamental challenges. They have to realign and coordinate their positions, strategies, decisions and actions. This also applies to private [...] More

Resilient Design of the Energy System Exemplified by Options of Transformation in the EE-Methane-System and Regional Self-Suffciency (RESYSTRA)

The German „Energiewende“ is understood as a project of societal transformation with the goal to create a resilient energy system. Due to path-dependency, such transformation cannot be achieved by public regulation only, but [...] More

Private Households as New Key Actors in the Energy System's Transformation Process

Private households are increasingly in the spotlight not only as consumers but also as a provider of innovative generated power. The applications of renewable generated power become even more diverse and engage in the classic [...] More

Analysis of Economic, Technical and Environmental Benefits of Energy Storage Systems in Grid-connected Photovoltaic Systems

This project analysed the potential economic, technical and environmental benefits of energy storage systems in grid-connected photovoltaic systems in domestic households by investigating the following questions: In [...] More

The Potential of Advanced Technological, Decentralised and Personalised Production against the Background of a Low Carbon Economy

Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the project aims to identify the most relevant manufacturing and consumption patterns of the future. Therefore technological and organizational concepts will be [...] More

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