Sustainable consumption through social innovation – concepts and practice

Duration June 2012 – November 2013

Project Manager Jana Rückert-John

The research project will be carried out at the Institute for Social Innovation from 1 June 2012 to 30 November 2013. The aim is to tap into the potential of social innovations for the environmental promotion of sustainable consumption.

The project focuses on the development of a typology of social innovations and a practice-oriented guideline for action. Strategic alliances on social innovations will be supported and promoted through dialogue with experts, multipliers and social pioneers.

The project is supported by the Institute for Social Innovation e.V. (ISInova). Cooperation partners are the Centre for Technology and Society at the TU Berlin (ZTG) and the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW). The project is commissioned by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA). The final report has been available since the end of 2014.

Contact: Jana Rückert-John (jana.rueckert-john@isinova.org)

Project flyer

Discussion Paper

BzS No. 11 was created in the context of the project – Jana Rückert-John, Melanie Jaeger-Erben, Martina Schäfer, Jens Aderhold, René John: Social Innovation for Sustainable Consumption PDF-Download (ca. 450 KB)

Results brochure “Social innovations on the rise: A guide to promoting social innovations for sustainable consumption”

The brochure can be downloaded from the website of the Federal Environment Agency and can also be ordered there – here …

Press Release …

The final report “Sustainable Consumption through Social Innovation – Concepts and Practice” can be downloaded here as a pdf document.

Lecture

Dr René John takes part in the value conversation “Mine? Yours! Sharing makes you happy! Sharing Economy: Shared spaces and sustainable mobility” on Thursday, 11.12.2014 at 18:00.

Satellite Office (subway station city center), Friedrichstraße 200, 10117 Berlin: Program

Lecture

Dr. Jana Rückert-John will present the project at the 2nd National Resources Forum organised by the Federal Environment Agency and the VDI in Berlin on 12 November 2014. More information here …

Lecture

with the title “Potentials of social innovation for sustainable consumption” at the international conference “The new Politics of Lifestyle. Consumer Participation On/Offline” at the University of Siegen on 23/24 September by René John

Lecture

at the 6th Consumer Research Workshop of the NRW Competence Centre for Consumer Research (KVF) in Düsseldorf on 24 March 2014 on the project results of Jana Rückert-John and Melanie Jäger-Erben

Presentation event “Social innovations on the rise – A guide to promoting social innovations for sustainable consumption”

on 26 September 2013, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Center for Technology and Society, Hardenbergstraße 16-18, 10623 Berlin

Community consumption, “use instead of owning”, urban gardening and citizen energy cooperatives – these and similar trends in consumption are currently on everyone’s lips. They can be described as social innovations that seek to change current problematic forms of economic activity and consumption through alternatives.

How can such innovations and their effect on change be systematically promoted and strengthened? This is the question addressed by the project “Sustainable consumption through social innovations – concepts and practice” commissioned by the Federal Environment Agency.

The results are summarized in a guideline for multipliers and promoters in the field of sustainable consumption and social innovation, which was presented on 26.9.2013.

Invited were representatives of ministries, associations and foundations. An exhibition also presented various practical examples of social innovation.

Programme of the event

Welcoming speech by the President of the Federal Environment Agency Jochen Flasbarth

Presentation of the project

Press Release ISInova e.V. and ZTG Berlin

This was reported by Deutschlandfunk on 27 March 2014: Adalbert Siniawski and Michael Roehl: From Cultural and Social Sciences

More Projects

November 2022
October 2025

ATRAKTIV – Building Transformative Capacities to Activate Regional Innovation Systems

Within the framework of the guideline for funding projects on the topic of “Exploring Regional Factors for Innovation and Change – Strengthening Societal Innovative Capacity” under the funding measure “REGION.innovativ”, the project consortium is researching transformative capacities, i.e. the societal ability based on various innovations and the activation of regional innovation systems to initiate and…

October 2020
March 2023

The implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals as an opportunity and challenge for civic engagement

Cooperation between civil society organizations with both ecological and social issues is still rare, and sometimes characterized by reservations. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in particular offer potential for cooperation between organizations and their members on various social and ecological issues.