IÖW: Projects

Meta study “Sustainability Effects from Digitalization” Overview on available studies and critical assessment of the state of research, structured by topics, sectors and fields of application

The green and digital transformation of the economy, the so-called twin transition, has advanced in recent years to become a central political priority for the future. The digital transformation has the potential to save [...] More

Effects of digitalisation on society and the protection of biological diversity

The preservation of our natural resources and biological diversity is one of the generational tasks of the coming decades. Considering increasing social tensions, socio-technical change processes, social pluralization and [...] More

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

Analysis of the EU policy mixes supporting transformation of European production-consumption systems

The EU and other regions of the world face tremendous social, economic and environmental challenges. Current production and consumption systems are highly unsustainable, but are deeply embedded in current ways of life, [...] More

Bits & Bäume – Conference 2022 The conference for digitalisation and sustainability

Bits & Bäume is the largest German civil society alliance at the nexus of sustainability and digitalisation. It tackles issues such as the raw material and electricity needs of digital devices, data sufficiency, cooperative [...] More

Opportunities and Risks of Digitization in Agriculture from the Perspective of Natural and Environmental Protection

Agriculture is facing immense ecological challenges such as the loss of biodiversity loss and climate change. Is the use of digital technologies in crop production a solution to these challenges? These have long been used in [...] More

Indirect positive contributions from renewable energies to nature conservation InPositive

Renewable energies contribute to climate protection and thus to the preservation of ecosystems by saving fossil fuels. In addition, their use has direct and indirect consequences on ecosystems and ecosystem services in the [...] More

Digitalization for Sustainability: Science in Dialogue

The dialogue project “Digitalization for Sustainability: Science in Dialogue” aims at systematically connecting expert researchers from European academia and think tanks in order to co-create interdisciplinary approaches [...] More

Business models for reducing plastic waste along the value chain: Towards innovative trends in retailing Innoredux

The idea and aim of the Innoredux project is to avoid or reduce plastic waste along the value chain in both distance selling and stationary trade. As part of this, the project partners cooperate with a number of industrial [...] 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

Development and revision of award criteria for the German Ecolabel ‘Blue Angel for textiles

In this research project the research team from the Oeko-Institute, Hydrotox and IÖW is revising the criteria of the Blue Angel eco-label for textiles (DE-UZ 154). One novelty is a thorough ecological assessment of the range [...] More

Analysis of specific measures to increase demand for recycled plastics and products containing recycled plastics

The recycling of plastics has two components: The recycling of plastic waste and the use of recycled plastics in new products. To further expand recycling, the existence of a stable market for recycling products is required. [...] More

Electricity neighbours: social-ecological self-sufficiency through renewable energies and sector coupling? A project of the joint program ‘Knowledge. Transformation. Berlin.’ by the research partnership Ecornet Berlin

Solar energy and tenants‘ electricity are a focus of Berlin's Energy and Climate Protection Program (BEK 2030), because the technology is central to climate protection and for social participation in the transformation [...] More

Alternative Economies in and for Berlin A project of the joint program ‘Knowledge. Transformation. Berlin’ by the research partnership Ecornet Berlin

The project examines the transformative potential of concepts and concrete practical examples of alternative economies for a social and ecological development of Berlin. It develops suggestions how this potential can be [...] More

Change in perspective Bioeconomy – for more sustainability A dialogue project in the science year 2020/2021

With the bioeconomy topic, the German science year 2020/2021 was dedicated to the transformation from an oil-based to a bio-based form of economy. In times of a rapidly growing world population, dwindling biodiversity and [...] More

Suburban Heat Shift Innovation district heating in agglomeration belts using the example of of the existing quarter “Leeste”: Project phase 1

A third of the final energy consumption in Germany is used for heating and hot water. Thus, heat consumption is an important factor when it comes to tackling global challenges such as climate change, energy efficiency and [...] More

ReCap – Capping Macro Rebounds Reconsidering the Role of Energy and Resource Productivity for Economic Growth, and Developing Policy Options for Capping Macro-Level Rebound Effects

For more than 30 years, economic science has dealt with the emergence of rebound effects in the context of resource efficiency improvements both theoretically and empirically. Based on this research and diverse growth [...] 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

ProPower: System Analysis Power2Products Economic and socio-ecological implications of a cross-sectoral power utilisation

Achieving climate protection targets requires defossilisation in all sectors and thus a comprehensive transformation of the energy system and industry. Power-to-X technologies use electricity to supply products and provide [...] More

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