36 running Projects // 387 Projects in total

• Report on the role of building efficiency in the heating transition

  For a long time, there was a scientific and political consensus that the goals of the heating transition in the building sector can only be achieved if a change of energy producer and ambitious efficiency measures on the [...] More

• SOILGUARD Sustainable soil management to unleash soil biodiversity potential and increase environmental, economic and social wellbeing

  

  SOILGUARD envisages a future where the conservation of soil biodiversity and the environmental, economic and social wellbeing of EU biogeographical regions is guaranteed. Unsustainable management and climate change are [...] More

• Study on mapping the alternative economy in the state of Bremen

  There are many alternative economy actors that primarily pursue socio-ecological or public welfare objectives. They include, for example, social enterprises, citizens' cooperatives, collective enterprises and organizations of [...] More

• Strengthening regional value creation through renewable energies

  What value creation and employment potential do renewable energies offer the regions in Germany? How can municipalities and citizens benefit from the regional economic effects and what opportunities are there to exploit the [...] More

• Monetization approaches for ecosystem services on federal waterways and integration options in benefit-cost analyses

  In contrast to other modes of transport such as roads or railways, federal waterways and their catchment areas are not only transport routes, but also ecosystems. They make a valuable contribution to biodiversity, the water [...] More

• Home-Office and energy transition: Implications of mobile working and opportunities for the transition of the energy system Electricity consumption, mobility behavior and rebound effects

  

  Due to the Corona pandemic, there has been movement in the perception and use of home office and teleremote working. In this joint project, the energetic and non-energetic implications of this change that are relevant for the [...] More

• PaDiSo Participation in digitalized energy systems: Investigating social innovation processes

  

  The longstanding centralized fossil fuel energy system is increasingly losing importance. It is being replaced by an energy system characterized by decarbonization, decentralization, and digitalization. Where large-scale, [...] More

• Environmental Awareness in Germany 2022 Study for the German Environmental Agency and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection

  The Environmental Awareness Study by the German Environment Agency (UBA) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) has been surveying environmental [...] More

• Climate and Water under Change CliWaC

  

  The Einstein Research Unit “Climate and Water under Change” (CliWaC) is a transdisciplinary research initiative of the Berlin University Alliance to investigate water-related risks under climate change. In an innovative [...] More

• REPAID - Reusable Solutions for Gastronomy Promotion of reusable solutions to reduce single-use plastic service packaging through automation of take-back, interventions at the point of sale and possibilities of digitalisation to support user behaviour

  

  Since January 2023, many to-go providers must offer reusable packaging: The Packaging Act requires restaurants, caterers and delivery services to provide a reusable option for plates, bowls and cups, for example. How can [...] More

• Digital Technologies and nature-based Climate Protection in Municipalities (DiNaKom)

  Cities and municipalities are feeling the effects of climate change, for example in the form of heat stress, water shortages and flooding. This damages buildings, infrastructure, health, and nature. Natural climate protection [...] More

• Thermal energy storage potential for the state of Berlin

  Around half of Berlin's CO2 emissions are attributable to the heating sector. Its sustainable transformation is therefore fundamental to the city's climate neutrality target by 2045. Heat storages are an important component [...] More

• Environmental economic report 2024 for the state North Rhine-Westphalia

  The Green Economy Report of North Rhine-Westphalia presents the economic and ecological significance of the state's Green Economy. It supports the Ministry for the Environment, Nature and Transport in implementing the [...] More

• Environmental sustainability in the neighbourhood Technical foundations for a municipal sustainability strategy and development of a communication concept

  

  Cities are a central starting point for solving environmental challenges, particularly with regard to the climate mitigation goals of the Paris Agreement. The mission of a socio-ecological transformation of urban spaces [...] More

• Carbon Dioxide Removal: Recommendations for biodiversity-friendly implementation in Germany

  According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), it will be necessary to actively remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere to effectively limit global warming to a maximum of 1,5 degrees. To this end, [...] More

• Holistic Biodiversity Management in Construction Materials Industry (GiBBS) Strategies and Measures for Biodiversity Protection in Context of Resource Extraction, project phase 2

  

  The project from the BMBF Research Initiative for the Conservation of Biodiversity (FEdA), which was preceded by a one-year conceptual phase, aimed to preserve and promote biodiversity in the quarrying sites of the building [...] More

• The Future of the Tidal Elbe in a Changing Climate – Climate Change and Flood Protection TideelbeKlima

  Which options are there for flood protection in the tidal area of the Elbe in light of the effects of climate change? The TideelbeKlima project aims to identify and analyse conceivable options and to evaluate them [...] More

• Analysis and use of climate services Capacity-building, education and networking for climate adaptation

  Education, knowledge transfer and capacity building on climate change impacts and adaptation options are key foundations for building a climate-resilient society, environment and economy. A lack of knowledge and a shortage of [...] More

• GartenLeistungen II Urban Gardens and Parcs: Implementation, stabilization and transfer of approaches for socially, ecologically and economically sustainable management of urban areas and flows of materials

  

  Urban gardens and public parks compete with other uses for scarce space. However, they play a central role in sustainable urban development. They increase the resource efficiency of urban districts and fulfill a variety of [...] More

• Bringing sustainable consumption into the mass market: Identifying and promoting green key products with high diffusion potential

  Sustainable consumption is an important task within the transformation to an economy and society following the sustainable development goals. In Germany, sustainable consumption has been systematically promoted through the [...] More

• Accompanying Scientific Research for Energiewendebauen Research Initiative – Digitization module

  Digitization is leading to profound changes in many sectors and in modern societies as a whole. The transformation is in full swing and offers many open questions and design options that need to be researched [...] More

• Accompanying Scientific Research for Energiewendebauen Research Initiative – Districts module

  Neighborhood energy concepts can enable new paths for higher energy efficiency and renewable energies at the local level by taking an integrated view of energy generation, consumption and decentralized infrastructure. For [...] More

• Landgewinn – Energy system analysis of decarbonization strategies in the agricultural sector Economic-ecological assessment of biochar and an additional agricultural decarbonization technology

  Many farms and the German agricultural sector as a whole face the challenge of bringing their energy supply and emissions into line with energy and climate targets in the medium and long term. For years, however, emissions [...] More

• Economic analyses of the benefits of restoring degraded ecosystems

  Natural and near-natural ecosystems, such as intact forests and peatlands, provide a variety of ecosystem services and render high value to society. Determining the economic value of such services is an important prerequisite [...] More

• Handbook Heat Transition in Communities Municipalities set the pace for the heating transition

  The heat transition has been omnipresent in public discourse since the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine and is receiving a great deal of political attention. With the “Gebäudeenergiegesetz” and the “Wärmeplanungsgesetz”, [...] More

• Methodological Convention 4.0. Basis for updating and extending the Methodological Convention for the Assessment of Environmental Costs – Part 2

  The Methodological Convention of the Federal Environment Agency is an internationally very recognized and almost unique basis and guidance for the determination of environmental costs. It contains data sets and methodological [...] More

• Mental Impacts of Climate Change Mental Impacts of Climate Change and motivation for climate change adaptation

  A growing number of international research results show not only that extreme weather events in particular lead to an increase in depression and post-traumatic stress disorders, but also that gradual changes in climatic [...] More

• Green City of the Future II - Climate-Resilient Neighborhoods in a Growing City Implementation and stabilization phase

  

  A result of the ongoing global urbanization process, cities are playing an increasingly important role in climate protection and adaptation. Urban and open space planning are crucial disciplines for developing [...] More

• Efficiency and cycle potentials of battery systems in e-mobility Comparative analysis of fully integrated and swappable battery systems

  E-mobility is a major trend in the mobility sector. Compared to the fossil combustion engine and other alternatives such as hydrogen or e-fuels, it offers significant ecological advantages. Therefore, it is – besides a [...] More

• Further development of European sustainability reporting stand-ards for companies

  Corporate reporting on sustainability issues is in transition. The standards and frameworks for reporting, most of which have been voluntary to date, are being developed at EU level to become more binding and standardized. [...] More

• Negotiating change, shaping the just transition New structures for socio-ecological policy-making bridging state and civil society

  Implementing a “Just Transition” is a complex task for society. The challenges are great: It is not just a matter of providing answers to the climate crisis, but of dealing with a multitude of crises that overlap or even [...] More

• Sustainable food and citizen participation Deliberative assessment and complementation of environmental policy intervention options in the food system

  The food system plays a central role in meeting sustainability goals, especially in the areas of climate and biodiversity protection. In particular, the consumption of animal products, especially dairy and meat, is associated [...] More

• Digitisation and sustainability at EU level Opportunities and risks of digitisation for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda at EU level

  Digitalisation is profoundly changing our society and economy, but its socio-ecological effects are double-edged. The Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) has clearly identified this ambivalence of digitalisation in its [...] More

• Priorities of a Bioeconomy Strategy for the Federal State of Brandenburg

  In the German National Bioeconomy Strategy from 2020, the federal government formulated guidelines for a sustainable and bio-based economy that relies on natural material flows. These guidelines offer the Federal State of [...] More

• Hydrogen as a panacea? Importance and construction of directional certainty for key decisions on alternative transformation paths – INSIGHTS for policy making

  The German government as well as a range of industry stakeholders are putting a major emphasis on the importance of green hydrogen as a pathway to decarbonization, as exemplified by the National Hydrogen Strategy of 2020. The [...] More

• Methodological Convention 4.0: Basis for updating and extending the Methodological Convention for the Assessment of Environmental Costs – Part 1

  The Methodological Convention of the Federal Environment Agency is a very internationally recognized and almost unique basis and guidance for the assessment of environmental costs. It provides cost rates and methodological [...] More

• Impact assessment and diffusion potentials of social innovations for sustainable consumption

  

  Capitalist production and consumption patterns are largely responsible for exceeding the planetary boundaries. In Germany, too, the negative consequences of this overstepping are becoming visible through increasing levels of [...] More

• Integrative urban-regional adaptation strategies in a polycentric growth region: Model region Stuttgart ISAP

  The effects of climate change are already visible in the densely populated Stuttgart Region, mainly in form of increasing heat stress and frequent heavy rainfall events. Adaptation to the effects of climate change is a [...] More

• SustAIn – Sustainability Index for Artificial Intelligence

  The expectations for applications with artificial intelligence (AI) and automated decision making are high in many societal end economic spheres. Whether it is speech or face recognition, recommendation systems, autonomous [...] More

• 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

• Energy cooperatives as multipliers for energy sufficiency EMUSE

  

  For a successful energy transition, not only the transformation towards renewable energy use, but also an absolute reduction of primary energy consumption is essential. This absolute reduction requires not only technical [...] More

• Environmental economic report 2022 for the state North Rhine-Westphalia

  As basis for the Environmental Sector Report 2022 for the state of North-Rhine Westphalia this project is investigating the fundamentals and significance of the environmental sector in NRW. The IÖW is focusing on an [...] More

• Affordable housing and climate protection against the background of the housing situation and housing costs of low- and middle-income households

  In the Federal Climate Protection Act, Germany has committed to becoming climate-neutral by 2045. The resulting increase in climate protection efforts increases potential conflicts of interest: although climate protection [...] More

• Determination of the potential of waste heat in Berlin

  In the Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Act, the state of Berlin has set itself the binding goal of becoming climate neutral by 2045 at the latest. Whether this goal is achieved depends largely on the development of the [...] More

• Strategies for climate-friendly roofs

  Green roofs or photovoltaics? There currently is a competition of goals for using roof surfaces sustainably: On the one hand, potentials for solar energy should be used as well as possible in order to achieve climate [...] More

• Nature conservation impacts of floating PV systems. Preparation of an investigation concept for the nature conservation impacts of floating PV systems in still waters

  Photovoltaic (PV) systems on artificial and heavily modified water bodies can also contribute to achieving the expansion targets for renewable energies. First plants are already in operation on artificial still waters, [...] More

• Teilgabe Civic, cooperative, and social entrepreneurial generation of common good oriented economic infrastructure

  

  The BMBF-funded project "Teilgabe: Civic, cooperative, and social entrepreneurial generation of common good oriented economic infrastructure" is a cooperation between Institute for Ecological Economy Research, the University [...] 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

• Costs of Climate Change Impacts in Germany

  Climate change has arrived in Germany – noticeably and evidently. The blooming period occurs two weeks earlier than several years ago, exceptional heat and drought events are becoming increasingly less exceptional. This [...] More

• Climate resilient city of Bremen Second phase implementation and continuation (BREsilient II)

  

  Bremen is affected by the consequences of climate change in many ways. Accelerated sea level rise and an increase in heavy rainfall and hot spells are some of the specific challenges for the northern German region. Bremen's [...] More