Research Institute for
Sustainability | at GFZ

Narratives and Mindsets

What do people associate with sustainability? What are the routes and structures that facilitate the adoption of behavior towards sustainable lifestyles, including eating habits and energy consumption? The knowledge about the drivers and promoters of collective behavioral changes is crucial for the design of transformation processes.

Research activities at the IASS aim to identify the factors that contribute to the success or failure of “sustainability narratives” and that shape public discourse as a result. The IASS research also explores how personal attitudes and qualities can be practically cultivated and how they can support collective learning processes towards sustainable lifestyles. Critical reflection on the various concepts of sustainability used in research at the IASS forms a third area of focus: how is transdisciplinary research affected by the use of different concepts of sustainability?

The first annual conference of the Society for Transdisciplinary and Participatory Research (GTPF).

22.04.2025

New Horizons in Transdisciplinary Research

Can research both engage with complex realities and be recognized by society? This was both the opening and closing question of the first annual conference of the Society for Transdisciplinary and Participatory Research (GTPF), held in early April 2025, in Frankfurt. The question speaks to one of the most pressing challenges of our time: how can research bridge the gap between the pursuit of knowledge and its ethical and social responsibilities? The answer begins where science and society embark on a shared journey.
Youth participation Lusatia

Youth Participation in Lusatia: Good Processes, Limited Impact

Substantial resources are being allocated to transform Germany’s former coal regions. What opportunities exist for young people to contribute to this process? What are their aspirations? A new study by researchers from the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) draws on interviews and analyses of several participation processes in the former coal district of Lusatia. The study, which was published in the journal Children's Geographies, concludes that while existing participation processes highlight the capacity of youth to contribute meaningfully to transformation processes, their ideas and aspirations are seldom taken into account in political decision-making.
Potsdamer Tag der Wissenschaften

Play with Science and Embrace a More Sustainable Lifestyle

The 11th annual Potsdam Science Day will take place on Saturday, 4 May 2024. This year the event will be held on the GFZ Campus on Telegrafenberg. The Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) will be hosting a booth on site, where visitors can play a climate game developed by the European research project 1.5-Degree Lifestyles and learn about how making changes to different everyday activities can reduce our impact on the climate.
Kick-off meeting Deutsch-Französisches Zukunfstwerk Berlin

Cooperation for the Heat Transition

The recently launched third cycle of the Franco-German Forum for the Future – “Plan, Refurbish, Reduce” – will explore projects working to promote the heat transition in towns in Germany and France. In this work cycle, which runs through to late 2024, the project will develop recommendations for action that will shape national policies in both countries. Cooperation between the new participating towns, cities, and districts kicked off with a meeting in Berlin on 18-19 October 2023.
Cover of the 2023 Social Sustainability Barometer

Support for Climate Action Greater Than Often Assumed

Hot on the heels of the pandemic came the energy crisis – has this experience led to a shift in public opinion on climate action in Germany? Broadly speaking, support for ambitious climate policy remains strong, however many citizens are concerned that policymakers lack the political will and that the burdens of the transformation are not being shared equitably. But it seems that many people underestimate the willingness of their fellow citizens to embrace change. This is the conclusion of the 2023 Social Sustainability Barometer, an annual representative survey of over 6,500 people across Germany on the energy and transport transitions, conducted as part of the Ariadne project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
The pathways leading to sustainability are diverse

12.12.2022

The Power of Stories: Why We Need New Narratives for a Sustainable Future, and How Quantitative Analyses Can Support Them

While the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals are universal, the pathways leading to them are diverse. Due to their different biophysical, socio-economic and political-cultural circumstances, countries are guided by different visions of how the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should be achieved and have different policy options and levers for doing so. The SHAPE project ("Sustainable development pathways achieving Human well-being while safeguarding the climate And Planet Earth”) has taken up the challenge of identifying and describing such Sustainable Development Pathways (SDPs). An interdisciplinary team of researchers is currently developing and analysing new, holistic narratives and scenarios in order to understand how actions to mitigate climate change in-teract with strategies to achieve the other Sustainable Development Goals.
Title page Social Sustainability Barometer 2022

How Is the Energy Crisis Affecting Public Opinion on the Energy and Transport Transitions in Germany?

Is the current energy crisis putting the brakes on climate action? Undaunted by the growing financial burden, support for the energy transition remains strong in Germany. Despite the spectre of skyrocketing energy prices, a broad section of the public wants to see the government double down on its efforts to achieve climate neutrality. This is the conclusion of the annual “Social Sustainability Barometer 2022”.
IASS anniversary Schinkelhalle

“A flagship in the German sustainability landscape”

Following a two-year delay due to the pandemic, the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) celebrated the tenth anniversary of its foundation and its forthcoming integration into the Helmholtz Association with a festive ceremony in Potsdam under the motto “10+2”. The President of the German Environment Agency, Dirk Messner, gave the keynote speech and IASS Founding Director Klaus Töpfer attended as the guest of honour. The event concluded with a tribute to IASS Scientific Director Ortwin Renn, who will retire at the end of the year.
Auszubilende in der Klasse

Making Trainees in the Coal Industry Agents of Change

How can courses at vocational schools encourage their students to work for climate mitigation despite the impeding economic change? Based on workshops with trainees in the German coal-mining region of Lusatia, a team from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) offers some guidelines on how to include civics and education for sustainable development in lesson plans.
Torfitz

Torfitz: "That's the same as here!"

Although structural transformations of the kind unfolding in Lusatia affect everyone, young people are rarely involved in decision-making processes. And yet everyone should have a say in shaping the future! The research project "Social Transformation and Policy Advice in Lusatia" at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) has developed a simulation game for six to 30 players in cooperation with game developers "Playing History". The game, which is suitable for younger audiences, was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Fellow Natalie Koch

The Arabian Peninsula Lacks a Sense of "Environmental Citizenship"

One of the new IASS Fellows this year is Natalie Koch. She is a professor in the Department of Geography and Environment at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Koch is currently researching the geopolitics of sustainability and "post-oil" futures in the Arabian Peninsula. In this interview, she discusses her research project and the extent to which the war in Ukraine may be accelerating Europe's transformation to a renewable energy supply.
IASS Fellow Prof. John M. Meyer from the California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt.

Anti-populism Is Not an Effective Strategy for the Future

One of our new IASS Fellows this year is John M. Meyer, who is professor in the department of politics at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt (USA). Meyer helped launch two interdisciplinary courses at the university: one focusing on power and privilege in environmental studies, and the other focusing on environment and community. He was additionally pivotal in founding the academic field of environmental political theory. Currently, Meyer is working on the topic of populism, which he talks about in this brief interview.
Citizens’ Assembly berlin

04.02.2022

Berlin Citizens’ Assembly on Climate - Can public participation deliver effective climate action?

If there’s one thing that we can all agree on, it’s the need for greater citizen participation – especially when it comes to protecting the climate. But how can we make participation work?
Constructive collaboration between science and business can unlock potentials for sustainability transformations that enjoy broad support.

“Transdisciplinary research” – what does that mean?

The wicked problems of the Anthropocene present major challenges to traditional scientific methods. Transdisciplinary research is a way to overcome these challenges as it involves both non-academic societal actors and academics from various disciplines. Despite its increasing popularity, the transdisciplinary approach still has not quite caught on everywhere – and it is often misunderstood. A publication from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) summarises definitions and characteristics of transdisciplinary research and outlines an exemplary three-phase model that transdisciplinary teams can use to carry out their research successfully.
Gruppe Kollaboration Zusammenarbeit Politikberatung

What Expertise is Needed to Design Collaboration?

The complex challenges of our time increasingly require scientists to step outside their conventional roles. A team of researchers from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) has examined innovative approaches to policy advice that support actors from politics and government in the development of collaborative processes to address socio-ecological issues. Their paper identifies the knowledge, skills and practices required to design collaborations.
Zoom-Session

02.12.2021

Sustainability studies and art – Allies for transforming narratives

A symphony composed by the melting arctic deeply touches an audience of policymakers at COP25. A photograph inspires a political scientist to expand her research on the Amazon with a performance set in a Berlin city forest. And a museum about possible futures doesn’t just have an education team running workshops for its exhibitions but dedicates a whole floor to a lab where scientists and artists can “go nuts” in collaborative projects.
Covid_19, India, worker fills medical oxygen cylinders for patients with Covid-19 infections

Sustainable Solutions for the Global South in a Post-Pandemic World

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted efforts to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in some cases stalled progress decades in the making. The pandemic has revealed social inequalities and widened the gulf between countries. In a new study published by the IASS a team of Alexander von Humboldt Climate Protection Fellows analyses the effects of the pandemic on climate mitigation and sustainable development in the Global South.
Summer 2021: vacation or staycation? As the pandemic continues into its second year, many people yearn to travel again.

25.05.2021

The pandemic: An opportunity for transformation?

The response to the coronavirus pandemic has brought about changes that would once have seemed unthinkable. As part of its precautionary measures, the state has been permitted to limit freedoms in order to protect the health of its citizens. The flood of mass tourism has become a trickle and the number of people commuting to work has plummeted. As economies slow, so too do greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, Germany has reached its climate goals for 2020 after all. The pandemic has also seen a surge in solidarity, with citizens helping each other with the shopping, collecting donations for shuttered cinemas and much more. Parliaments have seen bipartisan support for bridging loans, debt moratoriums, and stimulus programmes to keep businesses afloat and support struggling families.
Dotsie Bausch, Olympic silver medalist and Executive Director of Switch4Good; Dr. Milton Mills, critical care physician and Switch4Good Advisor.

10.12.2020

The Impact of Narrative Messaging on Behavioral Change towards Sustainable Diets: Results of US Survey

Food consumption and production are one of the key entry points available to human societies for effecting a transformation towards sustainability. Food production is a major contributor to a whole range of environmental problems including climate change, biodiversity loss, water overuse, and air and water pollution. Also, unhealthful diets cause chronic disease and millions of premature deaths around the world each year. One common link between these two unsustainable trends is high levels of consumption of animal products—meat, dairy, eggs, etc., particularly in industrialized countries, but also increasingly in developing countries. Thus, efforts to shift diets en masse away from animal products towards plant-based foods can reap multiple sustainability benefits.
Amazonian Rainforest Impression tree

Brazil: Can Covid-19 Open the Door for New Pandemics?

Brazil is one of the hotspots of the corona pandemic, and the Brazilian Amazon is particularly hard hit. In a new Discussion Paper, IASS Fellow Artur Sgambatti Monteiro and Lucas Lima dos Santos describe the impacts of the pandemic on the region. The virus has overwhelmed the poor healthcare system in Amazonian cities and towns. Indigenous groups are especially vulnerable because the pandemic has opened the floodgates for the illegal deforestation and invasion of their territories. The authors warn that the encroachment on previously untouched parts of the forest could give rise to new transmissible zoonoses.
Urbane Mobilität

Media Continues its Love Affair with Cars

How do daily newspapers in Germany report on the subject of urban mobility? For a study by the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) that explores how current and future urban mobility are reported on in the German media, a team of researchers examined a selection of articles from daily newspapers. The study reveals that sustainable forms of mobility are seldom discussed. Similarly, the climate crisis is rarely mentioned in articles relating to mobility and transport. If the articles have one thing in common, it is the implicit assumption that the car-friendly city is desirable.
The log and the flame: what fire can teach us about the transformation towards sustainability

15.05.2018

The log and the flame: what fire can teach us about the transformation towards sustainability

The “Green Me Global Festival for Sustainability” is an annual event hosted at different locations around the world. Recent iterations of the festival have explored the elements earth, water and air across film screenings, discussions, and other initiatives. Researchers from the IASS have contributed to a number of these events over the years. The eleventh GreenMe Festival will take place in Berlin later this year under the motto “Action, Passion, Fire”. This prompted me to explore the themes of fire and sustainability in a dinner speech at a recent function to which sponsors and supporters of the festival were invited in early May. The following essay draws upon my comments there.
istock/FilippoBacci

30.04.2018

Mindfulness as a Pathway to Greater Climate-Sensitivity

The knowledge about global warming and its consequences for people and the environment is now part and parcel of mainstream society, and most people are well aware of the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement to limit warming to well below 2 degrees above preindustrial levels. Many proposals for reducing human emissions of CO2 hinge...

Business Journalism on Trial: New Book by Former IASS Fellow Ferdinand Knauß

Why do so many journalists still promote growth as the solution to all our economic woes?
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