Projects of Dr. Esther Hoffmann

• Participation process for a precautionary climate adaptation strategy of the Federal Government Designing measurable targets for the further development of the German Climate Adaptation Strategy (DAS)

  More extreme weather events, health risks and economic uncertainties: Germany must prepare for the consequences of climate change. As decided in the 2021 coalition agreement, the German government therefore wants to develop a [...] 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

• 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

• 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

• Developing a climate adaptation scheme for the GLS bank

  Climate change is progressing untamed, urgently requiring us to think about adaptive measures in order to cope with its consequences. The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like heavy rainfall, [...] 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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 battery [...] More

• Cooperation and participation process for the further development of the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (participation process DAS)

  In consideration of the ongoing climate change, adaptation to its inevitable consequences has gained relevance in recent years both in research and in politics. In Germany, the Federal Government resolved the German Strategy [...] More

• IÖW/future-Ranking of Sustainability Reports 2015

  Since 1994 the IÖW/future Ranking of Sustainability Reports regularly assesses the extra-financial reports of the largest German companies on the one hand and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the other. The basis [...] 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

• Climate Adaptation Concept Munich

  The City of Munich has commissioned the bifa Environmental Institute in cooperation with IOeW to facilitate the development of a municipal climate adaptation concept. Major task will be the coordination of all involved [...] More

• Stakeholder Dialogues: Adaptation to Climate Change

  The adaptation of society, the economy and the environment to the inevitable consequences of climate change gets increasingly important. For this process key stakeholders in economy and society need to be sensitised for the [...] More

• Climate change in Germany: Adaptive capacity and tranformation paths towards a resilient society

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• Chameleon Adapting Utilities to Climate Change - Analysing and Developing Private and Public Action

  Climate change alters and endangers not only natural areas but also our social and technical infrastructure. Extreme weather phenomena such as storms and flooding can bring down power lines or make rail lines impassible. Heat [...] More

• Linking adaptation knowledge and stakeholders, policy-relevant synthesis and target-oriented communication

  The German Adaptation Strategy includes dialogue processes with relevant stakeholders. Moreover, it aims at informing different target groups about climate impacts and possible adaptation measures. In this project the IÖW and [...] More

• BaltClim - Supporting national adaptation strategies to climate change in the Baltic States

  Although climate change in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is already regarded as an important national issue, addressing the adaptation requirements for climate change such as sea levels rising, changes in [...] More

• Sustainable Publishing - New environmental standards for the publishing industry

  About 950 million books are produced each year in Germany. Books, magazines and newspapers today are manufactured in industrial processes causing large quantities of emissions, effluents and waste. At the same time the [...] More

• IÖW/future-Ranking of Sustainability Reports 2011

  The IÖW/future Ranking of Sustainability Reports regularly assesses the extra-financial reports of the 150 largest German companies on the one hand and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on the other. The basis of the [...] More

• Evaluating Policies for Sustainable Development (EPOS)

  EPOS is a research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the framework of social-ecological research (SÖF). The main focus of the project is policy evaluation with a focus on [...] More

• Energy Efficiency and Employment

  Political targets aiming at mitigating climate change and increasing energy productivity will only be reached if companies significantly increase their energy efficiency. This can be based on efficient production processes or [...] More

• Stakeholder Dialogues: Adaptation to Climate Change

  Six stakeholder dialogues are conducted that aim at discussing challenges resulting from climate change and possible adaptation strategies. The dialogues are organised on different topics such as coastal areas (May 2009), [...] More

• Meta-Analysis – Strategies of Sustainability in Politics and Economics

  In the project a Sustainability Atlas will be developed, in which a national and international comparative overview is given on selected governmental and business strategies of sustainable development. Thereby, the underlying [...] More

• IÖW/future-Ranking der Nachhaltigkeitsberichte deutscher Großunternehmen 2009

  Das IÖW/future-Ranking der Nachhaltigkeitsberichte bewertet die gesellschaftsbezogene Berichterstattung der 150 größten deutschen Unternehmen. Die Basis der Bewertung bildet ein umfassendes Kriterienset, das seit 1994 ständig [...] More

• Future markets in forest-wood chain (ZUFO) Verbesserung der Innovations- und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit am Beispiel des Holzbaus in der Region Allgäu

  The project ZUFO pursues a modular and multi-dimensional analysis of an exemplary forest-timber-chain in the wood construction sector. Together with businesses and associations, it aims at pointing out practical development [...] More

• Sustainability Report Ranking 2007

  The Sustainability Report Ranking evaluates the content and communicative quality of the sustainability and environmental reports of Germany’s 150 largest corporations. It is a joint evaluation project of the Institute for [...] More

• Logistics towards Sustainability (LOTOS)

  LOTOS developed sustainable solutions for logistics processes from goods procurement to the delivery of products. To this end sustainability criteria in the logistics processes of the company Tchibo GmbH were analysed, [...] More

• Social Learning and Sustainability (GELENA) Analysis, practical testing und theoretical conceptualisation of participatory learning processes in science, organisations and product development in the case of climate change.

  GELENA is an interdisciplinary group of young scientists within the socio-ecological research initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The group members are affilated either with the Carl [...] More

• Governance and Sustainability – New Approaches and Networks for Social-Ecological Governance Neue Zugänge und Netzwerke für eine sozial-ökologische Steuerung

  Der dynamische Wandel von Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft und Umwelt verändert die Kontextbedingungen für eine sozial-ökologische Steuerung gesellschaftlicher Entwicklung. Auf allen politischen, wirtschaftlichen und räumlichen [...] More

• Development of policy instruments for increased use of renewable energy sources in heat production

  The project aims at the assessment of policy instruments which target the increased use of renewable energy sources for heat production. Within the project, we will select an appropriate set of policy instruments and give [...] More

• Market- and cost-development of renewable energies - second analysis of the renewable energy act

  The German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), which came into force on 1st April 2000, is intended to promote the development of renewable energy sources for the generation of electricity as a central element in climate [...] More

• Fuel Cells - a Future Technology?

  Fuel cells are expected to contribute exceedingly to environmental improvements. However, both the successful diffusion of fuel cells and their environmental benefits are highly influenced by non-technical aspects. This study [...] More