Sustainability assessment of entire forest value chains : integrating stakeholder perspectives and indicators in decision support tools

The optimization of value chains is an important process to promote sustainable development, since value chains are closely linked to the satisfaction of human needs and combine different driving forces for environmental change. This article presents a methodological approach for the participatory development of value-chain wide sustainability indicator sets and their integration into a decision support tool in the specific case study of the chain "construction and refurbishment with wood". There are numerous indicator sets for sustainable development of forests and sustainable forestry available at different levels, ranging from local, regional and national to global scale assessments. Some efforts were also made to integrate later production stages of forest value chains (such as wood processing) in the assessment scope (e.g. for chain-of-custody certification). However, no indicator set has so far been available covering environmental, social and economic aspects for the entire value chain of building with timber. This gap was closed through applied sustainability research in the project "Holzwende 2020: Sustainable future markets for wood in the building sector"

A circular economy for the data centre industry : using design methods to address the challenge of whole system sustainability in a unique industrial sector

The data centre industry (DCI) has grown from zero in the 1980s, to enabling 60% of the global population to be connected in 2021 via 7.2 million data centres. The DCI is based on a linear economy and there is an urgent need to transform to a Circular Economy to establish a secure supply chain and ensure an economically stable and uninterrupted service, which is particularly difficult in an industry that is comprised of ten insular subsectors. This paper describes the CEDaCI project which was established to address the challenge in this unique sector; this ground-breaking project employs a whole systems approach, Design Thinking and the Double Diamond methods, which rely on people/stakeholder engagement throughout. The paper reviews and assesses the impact of these methods and project to date, using quantitative and qualitative research, via an online sectoral survey and interviews with nine data centre and IT industry experts. The results show that the project is creating positive impact and initiating change across the sector and that the innovative output (designs, business models, and a digital tool) will ensure that sectoral transformation continues; the project methods and structure will also serve as an exemplar for other sectors

Nachhaltige Zukunftsmärkte am Beispiel Holz

Nachhaltige Zukunftsmärkte sollten zum Vorteil von Unternehmen, Gesellschaft und Umwelt schneller erschlossen werden. Auf Nachhaltigkeit ausgerichtete Methoden zur Markterschließung können für das Bauen und Sanieren mit Holz eine zentrale Rolle spielen

Creating sustainable meals supported by the NAHGAST online tool : approach and effects on GHG emissions and use of natural resources

Every diet has an impact on an individual’s health status, the environment, as well as on social concerns. A growing number of meals are consumed in the out-of-home catering sector, in which a systematic sustainability assessment is not part of common practice. In order to close this gap, an instrument was developed as part of the NAHGAST project. After more than one year of using the NAHGAST online tool, it needs to be assessed what positive environmental influences can be realized by using the tool. For this reason, this article deals with the question of whether an online tool can enable stakeholders from the out-of-home consumption sector to revise their meals with regard to aspects of a sustainable diet. In addition, it will be answered how precise recipe revisions of the most popular lunchtime meals influence the material footprint as well as the carbon footprint. In conclusion, an online tool can illustrate individual sustainability paths for stakeholders in the out-of-home consumption sector and enables an independent recipe revision for already existing meals. The results show that even slight changes in recipes could lead to savings of up to a third in carbon footprint as well as in material footprint. In relation to the out-of-home consumption sector, this results in the potential for substantial multiplication effects that will pave the way for the dissemination of sustainable nutrition

Resource productivity in 7 steps: How to develop eco-innovative products and services and improve their material footprint

This compendium Resource Productivity in 7 Steps is intended to give practical advice to designers, engineers, distributors, banks, lawmakers and others how to increase the resource productivity of goods and services (dematerialisation). The eco-innovative (re-)design of products begins with the definition/description of the benefit or service, which a product provides to its user. The use of MIPS (Material Input Per unit Service) helps to develop solutions that can provide this benefit with the least possible quantity of natural resources, from. It measures the material and energy input of a product throughout its life-cycle, from cradle to cradle (production of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, use, disposal). Thus, material and energy consumption can be minimised while satisfying the demand and decoupling of the economic activities from resource use. The brochure describes in seven steps how to gain more resource productivity. It provides several worksheets for the innovation process and material intensity factors for the calculation of the material footprint. A translation into traditional chinese is also available.Die Broschüre Resource Productivity in 7 Steps (Ressourcenproduktivität in sieben Schritten) soll Designern, Ingenieuren, Vertriebsunternehmen, Banken, Gesetzgebern und anderen praktische Hinweise geben, wie man die Ressourcenproduktivität von Gütern und Dienstleistung steigern, also ihre Dematerialisierung vorantreiben kann. Die öko-innovative (Neu-)Gestaltung von Produkten beginnt mit der Definition des Nutzens bzw. der Dienstleistungen, die das Produkt den Nutzern erbringt. Die Verwendung von MIPS (Material Input Per unit Service oder output) hilft dabei, Lösungen zu entwickeln, die den geringst möglichen Einsatz natürlicher Ressourcen benötigen. Gemessen werden Material- und Energieverbrauch eines Produkts über seinen gesamten Lebenszyklus (Gewinnung und Aufbereitung der Rohstoffe, Herstellung, Vertrieb, Nutzung und Entsorgung), also von der Wiege bis zur Wiege. Auf diese Weise können Energie- und Ressourcenverbrauch gesenkt und dennoch die Nachfrage befriedigt werden. Somit wird die Entkopplung von wirtschaftlicher Tätigkeit und Ressourcenverbrauch möglich. Die in englischer Sprache verfasste Broschüre zeigt die praktischen Schritte zur Steigerung der Ressourcenproduktivität. Sie stellt Arbeitsblätter für den Innovationsprozess und Materialintensitätsfaktoren für die Berechnung des Material Footprint zur Verfügung. Eine Übersetzung in traditionellem Chinesisch liegt ebenfalls vor

Modellierungs-Studie Reparaturkosten-Empfehlung : Bericht an die Verbraucherzentrale

Die Modellierungs-Studie "Reparaturkosten-Empfehlung" wurde vom Wuppertal Institut im Auftrag der Verbraucherzentrale Nordrhein-Westfalen erstellt. Die Studie zielt auf die Berechnung von maximalen Reparaturkosten, die für eine Reparatur aus finanzieller Sicht sinnvoll für Verbraucherinnen und Verbraucher sind. Zusätzlich wird die ökologische Vorteilhaftigkeit von Reparaturen beispielhaft diskutiert