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Oeko-Institut

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  Life Cycle Assessments as a tool for making environmentally friendly decisions

  Blog 01/15/2026

  Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a well-established and widely accepted method of comparing the environmental impact of processes and products. It examines the entire life cycle. In this blog post, Tobias Wagner, an expert in life cycle assessment, explains how the method works and its areas of application.

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  Impressions from Bali - how findings on site influence research

  Blog 03/21/2024

  Dr Hannes Böttcher presents a major EU project and reports on his trip to Bali. There are good reasons for travelling to project meetings from time to time to gain a better understanding of other groups.

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  Striking a Balance – The Role of Sufficiency in the Energy Transition

  Blog 09/19/2023

  Sufficiency has been an important topic at the Oeko-Institut for over a decade. In this context, the Oeko-Institut, together with Vito / EnergyVille and for the EEA, has written a study on the term „sufficiency“. The key findings are presented in this article.

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  Transcript of the podcast: How can the sustainability transformation work?

  08/22/2023

  The podcast with Jan Peter Schemmel for reading.

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  Transcript of the podcast: What can be done to make farming more climate-friendly?

  Blog 07/14/2023

  The podcast with Margarethe Scheffler for reading.

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  “We are seeing genuine change”

  Blog 06/23/2023

  Rachel Waggett works as a Principal Environment Officer and developes climate strategies for the Liverpool City Region.

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  “Continuity is the maxim”

  Blog 03/01/2023

  Managing science well – that was what Susanne Fröschl’s work was all about during her time on the Oeko-Institut’s executive board. She now leaves the institute after a stint of eight years. In conversation with her successor André Nelius, she talks about novel modes of operation since the coronavirus pandemic, successful transformations in the day-to-day workings of science, and the challenges to come.

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  Transcript of the Podcast: Can the Forests still be saved?

  01/25/2023

  The Podcast with Dr Hannes Böttcher for reading.

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  Goodbye, nuclear power!

  Blog 12/12/2022

  The latest issue of the Oeko-Institut’s eco@work magazine turns the spotlight on the phase-out of nuclear power. So let’s take a look back at nuclear power in Germany.

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  10 steps towards sustainable consumption

  Blog 05/10/2022

  Sustainable consumption – how does it work? Our research assistant Felix Behrens has often been asked that question by his friends since joining the Oeko-Institut. Together with his colleagues, he has defined 10 key principles that support sustainable consumer choices.

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  #CircularEconomy_4: Dealing with complex supply chains and products

  Blog 06/17/2021

  Circular Business Models are effective, when they operate in short and well-known supply chains.

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  #CircularEconomy_3: Only with the right prescription can the circular economy be a remedy

  Blog 06/02/2021

  Not all Circular Business Models are designed to relieve the environment to the extent that would be necessary.

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  #CircularEconomy_1: Will Circular Business Models save the world? [deu/eng]

  Blog 04/29/2021

  In the #CircularEconomy blog series, some scientists of the Oeko-Institut raise few questions on the current state and potential of Circular Business Models and present their proposals on how the circular economy can really contribute to climate protection.

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  No sustainability debate without chemicals

  Blog 11/19/2020

  Invisible but present everywhere: everyday products such as electronic goods, sofas and clothes release chemicals into the air, yet this is an entirely overlooked aspect of the sustainability debate. The chemist Clara Löw of the Oeko-Institut explains in her blog post why this needs to change.

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  "Two weeks for future": Me, my son and our tandem

  Blog 09/23/2020

  Because her son Felix needs the same level of care as a toddler, Dr Teufel has no time to demonstrate regularly. Nevertheless, she wanted to make a stand and show her solidarity. That is how she hit on the idea of taking her son and the recumbent tandem on a “Two Weeks for Future” cycling tour. Here she reports on the trip.

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  A journey from Oeko-Institut to Australia

  Blog 08/18/2020

  Graham Anderson worked as a scientist at the Oeko-Institut in Berlin until summer 2019. He wanted to make his return to his home country Australia as sustainable as possible and decided to travel by train rather than by air. He now describes what this journey (before the corona pandemic!) looked like in his travel report.

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  The carbon footprint of our digital lifestyles

  Blog 04/24/2020

  Oeko-Institut is reputed for knowing the answers to many relevant environmental questions concerning the future. Senior researcher Jens Gröger is currently working on the topic of "sustainable digitization" and has done the maths.

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  Changes in course needed for UN scheme to address aviation emissions

  Blog 04/07/2020

  Commentary on the UN agreement CORSIA

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  Using incentives to put out fires [de/eng]

  Blog 02/11/2020

  The area of Agbogbloshie in Accra, Ghana’s capital city, has come to the world’s attention on account of its role in the recycling of electronic waste (e-waste) and the problems that this gives rise to. Andreas Manhart of the Oeko-Institut took part in a project that looked for – and found – new ways of solving the e-waste problem in Ghana.

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  Enjoy your meal - in an environmentally friendly way!

  Blog 01/09/2020

  As in other years, the Critical Agricultural Report is published during Berlin’s so-called International Green Week. In accordance to this, Dr. Dietlinde Quack of the Oeko-Institut explains what can be done in Germany to ensure a more environmentally and animal-friendly diet.

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  Building sustainability into the national hydrogen strategy

  Blog 12/23/2019

  The planned national hydrogen strategy will include a roadmap for the market launch of electrolysers. However, the exemption from levies and charges currently being discussed is the wrong approach, writes Christoph Heinemann from the Oeko-Institut.

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  #plasticfree: Microplastics are in style

  Blog 12/13/2019

  Part 3: Instead of clothes, we should change our attitude towards fashion.

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  Double counting in international emissions trading

  Blog 10/11/2019

  At the next climate conference in Chile in December 2019, one issue will be particularly contentious: the rules for international trade in emission reductions. A central question will be whether and how “double counting” – two countries using the same emission reduction to achieve their climate targets – can be prevented. Lambert Schneider, Research Coordinator for International Climate Policy at Oeko-Institut, has summarised the international discussion on double counting with nine other authors in the Science journal.

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  Sustainable clothing? It suits me! [eng]

  Blog 04/17/2019

  Neither eco nor fair: Matching the Fashion Week in Berlin, Alexa Hännicke and Dr Jenny Teufel reveal the consequences of "fast fashion".

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  Repair or replace?

  Blog 04/04/2019

  [Translate to English:] How can appliances be kept in service for as long as possible? When are they worth repairing – and when does it makes sense to buy a new and efficient appliance? The Oeko-Institut provides answers to these questions in a new background paper.

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  Governance in The Smart City: Sketches of A Research Programme in Legal Theory

  01/11/2019

  [Translate to English:] A contribution by Dr Peter Gailhofer in the newly published anthology "The Globalisation of Urban Governance".

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  Erosion of European sustainability requirements for bioenergy

  08/21/2018

  [Translate to English:] Extending the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) on solid and gaseous biomass is being used to roll back sustainability requirements. This is the wrong path, say Dr. Klaus Hennenberg and colleagues, in their recent article in Nature Ecology and Evolution.