Together for change Download as PDF
Issue June 2014

Together for change

The contribution made by transdisciplinary sustainability research

Editorial


Transdisciplinary studies are nothing new

Editorial by Michael Sailer, CEO, Oeko-Institut

If I were asked when the Oeko-Institut started transdisciplinary working – that is, discussing the challenges of conservation with all stakeholders from society and the scientific community – I would say: on Day One. That is because the very first analyses done by our scientists in the 1970s were the product of the joint efforts of citizens’ action groups, environmental lawyers and alternative research. Our experts took other people’s knowledge and recombined it; spokespersons for environmental groups as well as other people brought this information to the policy-making table. I can say with confidence that our work at the Oeko-Institut was already transdisciplinary even before the term came into use.

Our last major review of the topic of transdisciplinary sustainability research was in our 2012 Annual Report. In this issue of eco@work we examine the subject again from…

more
Transdisciplinary studies are nothing new

In Focus


New knowledge

Transdisciplinary sustainability research

Extreme weather events are increasing. The end of fossil fuels is in sight. Our society is ageing. Climate change, resource shortage and demographic change are challenges of our times. They have something in common, too: they affect us all – the scientific community and policy-makers and industry and civil society. That is why cooperation between different players is indispensable if we are to manage global challenges together: cooperation that is essential for transdisciplinary… more

New knowledge

The sustainability trainer

Global Value – a tool for multinational companies

Becoming even better – not just in terms of products and services, but overall: for many companies that seems to go without saying. Sustainability measures for good staff development, an efficient energy supply and environmentally sound waste management are widespread. But do the activities of multinational companies actually impact on global development and sustainability goals – such as poverty reduction and environmental conservation? The European Global Value project, which… more

The sustainability trainer

Successful paths to change

Comment by guest contributor Dr. Kora Kristof

Resource conservation, zero net environmental loading, equity – these are the key objectives of the major changes facing us if we take seriously the limits to the carrying capacity of the Earth System, the welfare of all humanity and the idea of global, intergenerational justice.* Many interesting niche sustainability solutions are already appearing, but they will only become mainstream, firstly, when the right conditions are put in place at the key points in the whole system.… more

Successful paths to change

Older issues