35 running Projects // 371 Projects in total

• Right Seeds? Commons-based rights on seeds and seed varieties as a driver for socio-ecological transformations in plant cultivation

  

  Seeds, which were traditionally a public good, are increasingly commercialized by strengthened property rights and growing market powers of transnational agribusiness. This trend is accompanied by increases in productivity, [...] 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

• Strategic Dialogue on Growth Independence

  The Growth Independence Strategy Dialogue builds on the results and experiences of the UBA project “Approaches to Resource Conservation in the Context of Post-Growth Concepts”. This project analyzed in particular the question [...] More

• Testing of a participation portfolio for optimizing participatory processes for the further development of the German Strategy of Adaptation to Climate Change (DAS)

  In 2015, the German Federal Government has developed further the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (DAS) by publishing the first progress report and the Action Plan for Adaptation (APA II). The documents lay [...] More

• BlueGreenStreets Multifunctional planning of urban streetscapes and quarters

  

  Urban green spaces and blue infrastructures are not only of great importance for the quality of life, but also for the microclimate of a city quarter. In growing cities, more and more green spots have to give way to [...] More

• GartenLeistungen Urban Gardens and Parcs: Multidimensional services for socially, ecologically and economically sustainable management of urban areas and flows of materials

  

  The project investigates the multidimensional services of urban gardens and parks for urban society. An extended evaluation of these services provides reliable information that should be considered in political decisions [...] More

• Ranking of sustainability reports 2021 with a conceptual study on corporate digital responsibility

  

  The ranking of sustainability reports has been carried out jointly by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and the business initiative future e. V. - verantwortung unternehmen since 1994. Based on a [...] 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

• UMAS: Underground Methanization in Aquifer Storage

  Gas in the form of methane and hydrogen will very likely be an important source of energy in the future, also in order to compensate for fluctuating renewable energies. Therefore, storage systems are gaining in importance. [...] More

• Analysis of the potential for improving the participation of environmental organizations in debates and transdisciplinary research based on the case of resource policy Resssourcenwende

  

  Like sustainability, the field of resource policy is a cross-sectional topic. In contrast to development and human rights organizations, environmental organizations participate very little in the broader civil society debate. [...] More

• Energy Sharing: A Potential Analysis Collectively Generating and Using Electricity in the Distribution Grid: A Study on the Implementation Proposal under Article 22 of the EU Renewable Energy Directive

  In order to achieve the climate protection targets for Germany, the new German government must get a great deal underway very quickly. The expansion of the renewable power supply remains central, in particular due to the [...] 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

• Rebound Effects by Switching to Renewable Energies? Analysis of consumers and prosumer households (EE-Rebound)

  

  Private households play an important role in achieving Germany’s climate protection targets. In addition to switching energy procurement to renewable energy sources (RE), it is also important for households to reduce their [...] 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

• Environmental labels and certificates as orientation aids for public procurement Update and revision of the chapter “Environmental labels and certificates” as part of the FNR publication project “Certification marks compact – Orientation aids for sustainable purchasing”

  In this project, the IÖW is creating an overview of relevant environmental labels and certificates in the field of renewable raw materials in order to provide municipalities and other stakeholders with an orientation aid for [...] More

• Mobilizing Endogenous Potentials for Structural Change – Decarbonisation in a Lignite Mining Region DecarbLau

  How can a lignite phase-out be proactively accompanied in a structurally weak region and potentials for endogenous development opened up? This question will be investigated in the research project using Lusatia as an example. [...] More

• Digitalisation and Green Economy Interactions between the process of digitalisation and the transition to a green economy

  The project aims to analyse and evaluate the opportunities and challenges of digital change from an environmental point of view. The project investigates the environmental effects of digitalisation, the future scenarios for [...] 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

• Social and environmental heat transition in Berlin A project of the joint program ‘Knowledge. Transformation. Berlin’ by the research partnership Ecornet Berlin

  

  About half of Berlin’s carbon dioxide emissions stem from heating buildings. Reducing the demand for heat through energy-efficient building refurbishment and shifting to renewable energy and waste heat for heating are the two [...] 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

• Green City of the Future – Climate-Resilient Neighborhoods in a Growing City Subproject: Analysis of social and economic aspects of green infrastructures

  

  Many German cities experience a significant population growth due to their attractive working and living environment. The consequence is a higher space consumption, triggered by increasing construction activities in the [...] 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

• Evaluation and advancement of CSR reporting

  The CSR Directive Implementation Act (CSR-RUG) of 2017 renders non-financial reporting mandatory for nearly 500 companies in Germany. The Act requires companies to publish information on environmental concerns, employees’ [...] More

• gARTENreich Preferences and constraints for biodiversity conservation in home gardens, project phase 1

  

  Home gardens have great potential to protect and promote biological diversity. Around 17 million private gardens take up almost 2 % of the total and around 10 % of the settlement and traffic areas in Germany. However, the [...] More

• Holistic Biodiversity Management in Construction Materials Industry (GiBBS) Strategies and Measures for Biodiversity Protection in Context of Resource Extraction, project phase 1

  The project aims to preserve and promote biodiversity in the mining sites of the building materials industry. Gravel, sand, clay and gypsum are major resources required for the production of building materials. According to [...] More

• Development of a service to support the adaptation to climate change (KlimAdapt) by extending the knowledge base, specification and implementation support

  

  The German Federal Government declared in its progress report on the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change to establish an overall offer for the provision of climate and climate adaptation services. This initiative [...] More

• Prospective synergistic planning of development options in regiopols for the example of the agglomeration area of Rostock PROSPER-RO

  How large cities and their surrounding areas can develop together has increasingly become a key question for the future viability of regions. This applies especially to rather small cities (also known as ‘regiopoles’) located [...] More

• Corona and Sustainability In search of a new balance between market, state and civil society for a resilient society

  The global corona pandemic hit most countries unprepared and has had a massive impact on the health of the world's population to this day. At the same time, the measures required to combat the disease have led to considerable [...] 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

• Advisory opinion on the definition of social economy enterprises (Sökon)

  In Berlin and throughout Germany, a growing number of enterprises associate themselves with the “social economy”. What they have in common is that they aim to use their economic activities to help solve social and/or [...] More

• Entwicklung einer Wärmestrategie für das Land Berlin

  Berlin hat sich mit dem Berliner Energiewendegesetz das Ziel gesetzt, bis spätestens zum Jahr 2050 die CO2-Emissionen auf ein klimaneutrales Niveau zu senken. Zudem hat sich der Senat mit der Anerkennung einer Klimanotlage in [...] 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

• Environmental Awareness in Germany 2018 Representative Survey on Environmental Awareness and Environmental Behaviour in 2018, including Socio-scientific Analyses and Development of a Youth Policy Agenda

  The environmental awareness study has been gathering information on environmental awareness of the population in Germany in a representative poll every two years since 1996. Citizens are asked about their assessment of the [...] 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

• LiLa Living Lahn Socio-economic monitoring and assessment of changes in ecosystem services

  The project 'LiLa Living Lahn' looks at positive and negative effects of selected courses of action for the development of the river Lahn on ecosystem services (ES) and evaluates them economically, if possible. Thereby, it [...] More

• Climate Resilient City of Bremen BREsilient

  

  Climate change affects Bremen in many ways. To meet these challenges, the city state created an adaptation strategy. The project “BREsilient” aims at developing Bremen into a climate resilient city of the future. It builds on [...] More

• PROSumers for the Energy Union (PROSEU) Mainstreaming active participation of citizens in the energy transition

  

  The focus of PROSEU is the research into, as well as the design of, incentive structures for mainstreaming prosumerism in the European Union, thereby encouraging and safeguarding citizen participation, inclusiveness and [...] More

• Making Berlin compliant with the Paris resolutions: Update of the Feasibility Study Climate Neutral Berlin 2050 Feasibility Study

  The Paris Agreement, which is binding under international law, has created a new basis for climate policy in all countries and municipalities. In order to contribute to achieving the goal of limiting anthropogenic global [...] More

• Financial participation of affected municipalities in planning, construction and operation of renewable energy plants FinBEE

  Planning, construction and operation of renewable energy plants generate added value and employment. How much of this remains in the region depends heavily on the structure of the project as well as country and region [...] More

• New Alliances for Sustainability Policy Cooperation perspectives for environmental actors with unions, social organization and charities

  Environmental actors increasingly realize the need of cooperative thinking and acting. Links to other policy areas are too close; possible impacts of the necessary transformation too strong. It is essential to convince [...] More

• River Ecosystem Service Index – Practical implementation in the Lahn river basin (RESI-Lahn)

  Rivers and floodplains play an important role for people - from flood protection and water management to recreation and nature conservation. In order to demonstrate the wide range of ecosystem services, the project 'River [...] More

• Online value added calculator for renewable energies – Update 2020

  The Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and the Agency for Renewable Energies (AEE) developed, on behalf of and in cooperation with the Rhineland-Palatinate Energy Agency, an update of the previously jointly [...] More

• Social-ecological economy within planetary boundaries

  WWF's goal is to develop an attractive and convincing narrative that a more social and ecological economy is urgently needed due to the serious global environmental problems such as the loss of biodiversity, ocean [...] 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

• Distribute Green Local Supply Chains for Tomorrow’s City

  

  E-cargo bikes instead of vans and light trucks for the delivery of goods on the last mile: This is how the project “Distribute” tries to relieve increasing neighborhood traffic. Door delivery has long been an integral part of [...] More

• Biodiversity Criteria in Public Procurement II Further development and practical concretization of biodiversity criteria in selected public procurement product groups of the German Federal Government

  There is high pressure to achieve an immediate and substantial change towards more sustainable production and consumption patterns. This also applies to biological diversity: the production and consumption patterns prevailing [...] More

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