Wuppertal Institute – Germany

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The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, founded in 1991, is committed to application-oriented sustainability research. Based on interdisciplinary research results and scientists’ professional know-how, the institute possesses large experience in developing methods and shaping new research fields in networks and across disciplines and institutions. By researching for politics, economy and society, the institute plays a wide reaching meditative role. Increased prosperity combined with a reduction in consumption of natural resources is the paradigm for eco-efficient innovation and for a new generation of technology that has to be more energy efficient, use less space and absorb fewer raw materials. To help achieve these aims, the Wuppertal Institute design concrete concepts for realising them in the areas of production, consumption, energy, transport, material flows and climate policy.

Research Group 4 (RG4) „Sustainable Production and Consumption“ is one of the four groups of the institute and seeks to contribute to the development of sustainable markets and of a more sustainable economy by integrated optimisation and sustainability-oriented management of production and consumption patterns. The research of RG4 is systematized and structured into two focus subjects, of which each comprises two research fields:
The first focus subject, “Resources and Sustainability Management,” is concerned with the micro-level, that is with the actors, processes and organizational and management structures in value chains (e.g. companies, consumers) and with areas of need. The applied research covers product line-related material flow data (Research Field 1.1) and product-service-systems with the focus on B2B (customer integration) and B2C (consumer integration) (Research Field 1.2).
The second focus subject, “Changing Patterns of Action in Production and Consumption”, is aimed at drivers of change at the meso-level of production and consumption patterns. Changes are promoted and anchored both by policy (Research Field 2.1), e.g. resource policy for companies, employment policy, sustainable consumption policy and integrated production-consumption policies, and via education, communication and learning processes (Research Field 2.2).

Contact person:
MSc Michael Lettenmeier