Vision and objective
Every social or economic activity uses natural resources and is linked to environmental impacts. Production and consumption patterns of industrialised countries, which increasingly spread over the world, are linked to an extensive resource and land use. This leads to substantial damage to the environment and climate, exhausting the carrying capacity of our planet. Global population and economic growth, among other driving forces, are pushing these trends.
The vision of the research group "Sustainable production and consumption" (RG 4) is to reduce the resource use of industrialised countries by a factor of 10 by designing more sustainable value chains in production and consumption systems, while achieving a high quality of life. Thus, the long-term vision of its research is a "low resource society". The RG 4 develops and implements strategies, instruments and concepts to reach this vision. It aims at changing patterns of action and thinking in business and society, in production and consumption, toward resource efficiency and sustainability.
Research questions - Which specific technologies, processes, products and services, or production and consumption patterns are closely linked to the use of relevant natural resources? Where are the linkages between a reduced resource use and a high quality of life?
- How can we change patterns of action and thinking in business and society toward resource efficiency and sustainability in an efficient and effective way? How can we initiate change processes that are reliable and acceptable for the user?
Research approach
The research approach is integrative and interdisciplinary, focussing on most relevant actors and change processes. It aims at analysing resource consumption and related social, economic and environmental impacts. Based on this, case studies and possible solutions are developed. The RG 4 uses integrative lifecycle approaches addressing both production and consumption. This is a systemic perspective to optimise value chains and networks ("from cradle to cradle (or grave)"). Target groups are directly involved in the research design and research processes aiming at implementing change in practice. The research process follows four main steps: problem analysis, vision development, experiments (case studies), and evaluation/learning; each of them needing constant feedback from praxis ("transition cycle", see also Loorbach 2007, Grin/Rotmans/Schot 2010).
Research focus
Assessment of resource efficiency and sustainability of value chains - Analysis of resource requirements and sustainability assessment of technologies, products and services as well as companies/sectors and households/consumer groups.
- Identification of resource efficiency potentials of technological and social innovations.
Designing resource-efficient and sustainable value chains - Analysis and development of management concepts and instruments (examples and possibilities in companies or households);
- Analysis and development of governance / policy structures and instruments (in politics and education), focussing on the development of research approaches and infrastructures for user-integrated product-service-systems.
Methods
The most important methodological approaches are based on lifecycle-wide material flow analyses, environmental and social lifecycle assessments, including prospective studies and integrated sustainability assessments. Other approaches are used for designing processes along the value chain, focussing on different scientific fields (especially economics and social sciences). The RG 4 uses various methods, which are focussed on its research processes and specific to its research questions. Some of them have been developed by the Wuppertal Institute itself; for example, the MIPS-concept (material input per service unit) for assessing the resource use of a specific service, and the hotspot-analysis for identifying sustainability potentials.
Transfer
Results are transferred in different areas: politics (development of policy instruments, integrated policy and governance concepts), economy (integration of strategies, management, organisation, product and process development) and education and communication (development of education and communication strategies, concepts and modules). |
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