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Sabrina Schmidt receives GAIA Masters Student Paper Award 2020

For her entry “How does a future-fit economy take root? An analysis of diffusion and adoption of future-fit business practices” IÖW scientist Sabrina Schmidt receives the GAIA Masters Student Paper Award 2020. In her thesis, Sabrina Schmidt examines pioneering companies which deploy sustainable production and business practices. She asks how these future-fit approaches spread within the economy. She showed that a successful diffusion of these approaches may be more complex than commonly assumed. For example, conventional companies tend not to adopt sustainable business practices just because there are some future-fit small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that promote them.

Rather, the contribution of specific sustainable corporate practices as solutions must be articulated and additionally these practices must align to the dominant problem perception already existing in the company. Schmidts results stress that future-fit companies cannot be sole drivers of change; rather they need the support of science, politics, and society.

„We congratulate Sabrina Schmidt on this impressive achievement“, said the GAIA Editorial Team as announcing the award. In addition to a certificate and a year's subscription to GAIA, Sabrina Schmidt will be awarded a 1,500 EUR prize, donated by the Selbach Environmental Foundation and the Dialogik gGmbH.

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About the GAIA Masters Student Paper

The international journal GAIA – Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society invites Masters students to participate in the GAIA Masters Student Paper Award. Masters students are encouraged to submit their results from research-based courses or Masters theses in the field of transdisciplinary environmental and sustainability science. Every year, a jury selects one article as the winner of the award.

The award is meant to honor research that holds relevance for important societal transformations and/or which has discovered new paths of inter- and transdisciplinary environmental or sustainability research.

More information on the award