Subtopic Making the Leitbild of Sustainable Development work

In general, there is an agreement in science and society about sustainable development, but the details of many questions regarding interpretation and implementation are yet unsettled and controversial. The operationalization of the Leitbild and systematic sustainability analyses and assessments are still an urgent task for scientific research and the consultancy for politics and the public based on it.

This programme topic investigates the potentials that technological innovations can offer in combination with socio-economic and institutional innovations to achieve a sustainable development, and how this can be integrated into a comprehensive strategic concept.

The aim is to develop societal options for action to meet sustainability targets set, and to analyze and evaluate them with regard to their impacts and implementation conditions and chances. Current research topics are the sustainable development of megacities, the development of strategies for the use of limited resources as well as the exploration of new forms of governance for the implementation of sustainable development. In addition, a consistent, comprehensive knowledge and information management is being established in the field of codifiable knowledge for the application of life cycle thinking to allow organizations to better achieve their goals regarding their contributions to sustainable development.