The federal government of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) determined the state's sustainability strategy by cabinet decision on 14 June, 2016. In the medium term, between 2016 and 2020, the government will focus on implementing its first sustainability strategy as well as monitoring its progress and updating it accordingly. Based on the example of North Rhine-Westphalia, this research project aims at exploring selected questions that typically arise during the implementation of a statewide sustainability strategy. The research will focus on the following four topics:

• The compatibility of NRW's sustainability strategy with existing sustainability strategies on UN, EU and national level.
• The analysis of interdependencies between different fields of action, cross-cutting topics and focal areas of the state's sustainability strategy.
• foresighted identification and investigation of central information on new sustainability and environmental policy topics, trends and dates
• focal areas of reinforcing the sustainability-related scientific issues: the social dimension of sustainability and circular economy

From the beginning, the "TEAM Sustainability" is involved in the discussion process regarding the implementation of the state's sustainability strategy. "TEAM Sustainability" is made up of relevant statewide players from around the state, thus bundling the different facets and contents of the on-going debate surrounding sustainability. It continuously advises and reflects on the research project during scientific processing (part C).

The research project "Experiences of Implementing State-Wide Sustainability Strategies – Case Study: Sustainability Strategy NRW" comprises 13 research modules in five parts – compatibility (part A), interdependencies (part B), "TEAM Sustainability" (part C), sustainability radar (part D) and focal areas (part E).

Sponsor:
Ministry for Environment, Agriculture, Conservation and Consumer Protection of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

Supervision:
Prof. Dr. Manfred Fischedick (Scientific Managing Director, Wuppertal Institute)