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Our Responsibility – Sustainability at the IÖW

The IÖW is one of the pioneer institutions in transdisciplinary sustainability research in Germany. Through our scientific work we initiate, monitor and strengthen social change for sustainable development. At the same time we contribute to further developing scientific knowledge and methods. We create conceptual foundations and practical solutions that help embed ecological and social aims more firmly in the behaviour of society.

The IÖW does not only carry out sustainability research, but also endeavours to make its own work as sustainable as possible: to keep environmental damage to an absolute minimum and at the same time consider the social concerns of its employees. In 2011 the IÖW became one of the first German research institutions to publish information about its own sustainability.

We began systematically to record the environmental impact of our activities, e.g. energy and paper consumption, business travel and the purchasing of office equipment. We also report on our planned measures for promoting social sustainability at the IÖW. We place particular focus on our employees’ work-life-balance, so that we will still be enthusiastic about our work and dedicated to our research topics in the future. We are committed to further institutionalising sustainability management at the IÖW. We have set ourselves specific targets by means of a detailed sustainability programme.

Our dialogue with other research institutions and cooperation partners has shown that there is great interest in reporting on sustainabilityrelated topics. Until now few organisations in the research landscape have engaged in this kind of reporting. It is said that organisations are prevented from doing so due to the lack of special standards for sustainability reporting by research institutions; such standards must still be developed. This is something in which we would like to become involved. We have proven expertise in this area, thanks to our many years of experience in analysing corporate sustainability reporting.

You can find more details about our sustainability reporting under the section ‘Unsere Verantwortung’ (German only).

Contact Person

Katharina Wagner
Person in Charge for Sustainability at the IÖW

Telefon: +49–30–884 594-18
Telefax: +49–30–882 54 39

katharina.wagner(at)ioew.de