Regionale Netzwerke. Gesellschaftliche Nachhaltigkeit gestalten – am Beispiel von Lernpartnerschaften zwischen Schulen und Unternehmen

Eine nachhaltige Entwicklung erfordert eine umfassende Transformation unserer Gesellschaft. Klar ist: Klassische Politikmuster reichen dafür kaum aus. Auch verfügen einzelne Akteure meist nicht über ausreichende Mittel und Informationen, um Veränderungen alleine voranzutreiben. Daher kommt regionalen Nachhaltigkeitsnetzwerken und Kooperationen eine zentrale Bedeutung zu - insbesondere zwischen Unternehmen und anderen gesellschaftlichen Gruppen. Carolin Baedeker zeigt anhand eines Netzwerks zwischen Schulen und Unternehmen in Wuppertal wie regionale Netzwerke einen entscheidenden Beitrag für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung leisten. Sie bilden den Ankerpunkt einer Vernetzung im Mehrebenensystem - von der individuellen über die lokale und regionale bis zur gesamtgesellschaftlichen Ebene. Die Autorin identifiziert wesentliche Merkmale und Erfolgsfaktoren für regionale, innovationsorientierte Netzwerke und entwickelt daraus das Modell eines Lernenden Netzwerks mit kreativen Agenten. Deutlich wird, wie regionale Akteure von gegenseitigem Vertrauen, emotionaler Bindung, spezifischer Vor-Ort-Kenntnis und konkreter Ergebnisorientierung profitieren

In the Wake of the Butterfly: James McNeill Whistler and His Circle in Venice - Venezia

Venezia, from Karl Baedeker, Italy: From the Alps to Naples (Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1909), with additions by Eric Denker. Reprinted for the Reflections & Undercurrents: Ernest Roth and Printmaking in Venice, 1900 - 1940 exhibition at the Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery, January 23 - April 4, 2014.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/wakeofbutterfly-ephemera/1004/thumbnail.jp

SAFE - Sustainability Assessment For Enterprises: Die Methodik. Ein Instrument zur Unterstützung einer zukunftsfähigen Unternehmens- und Organisationsentwicklung

-- In practice, questions of ecological company policy deal much more with technical questions than with organisational ones. In many guides for the implementation of an Environmental Management System the development of the organisation that first has to grow into this new task has not yet been fully planned, as has the participation of the employees. The deciding factors for this implementationinclude the improvement of information and communication within the company, the increase in employee motivation and the optimisation of the interfaces between economics, ecology and social aspects.Companies often show a great need for analysis and management instrumentswhich they themselves can organise and which, with the participation of the employees, help to find and to translate solutions quickly into action which show theway. Together with small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) of different branches, the SAFE - Sustainability Assessment For Enterprises instrument has been developed and tested.The instrument SAFE is used as a dialogue instrument in companies and serves as a lasting method of controlling success and of deriving new measures. The aimof the instrument is to motivate employees to become involved in change proc-esses and to cooperate in the shaping of the development of the enterprise in astreamlined procedure. They should know their participation possibilities as wellas learn how to use them. Altogether the viewpoint should be changed from anecological enterprise development to a lasting one and in doing this the develop-ment of ideas and strategies for the implementation of sustainability in the com-pany is to be supported.In a clear procedure the companies determine independently the ecological, economic and social aspects which are relevant for their enterprise's development and deduce potential for improvements and options for action for those aspects.The environmental control agents and/or quality control agents - and often alsothe managers - become qualified to use the instrument on their own. The imple-mentation of SAFE takes place together with employees from different levels inthe company who go through the procedure of several working phases in twodays. In these working phases a profile of the company's strengths/weaknesses will be drawn up as well as a list of organisational and technical suggestions forimprovement and qualification requirements. Afterwards, a plan of measures willbe deduced from those lists and suggestions. All these proceedings are based on the questionnaire Is your company fit for the future. The measures will be putinto action within a defined period of time by the persons who are responsible forthis implementation. The process will be repeated at regular intervals.In a test phase SAFE has until now been applied in approximately 40 companies for the first time and has been developed further. Its successful use shows that theinstrument can be applied to companies in all branches.Zukunftsfähige Unternehmen,Nachhaltigkeit,dreifache Gewinnstrategie,Indikatoren,Unternehmens-/Organisationsentwicklung,Kommunikation,Qualifizierung,Beteiligung,Umweltmanagementsysteme,Ressourcenproduktivität,Ressourcenmanagement,Lernendes Unternehmen,Kontinuierlicher Verbesserungsprozess (KVP),Wettbewerbsfähigkeit,Sustainable Enterprises,sustainability,triple-win-strategy,indicators,organizational learning,communication,qualification,participation,environmental management systems,resource productivity,resource management,the learning company,continious improvement,competitiveness

Reflections & Undercurrents Venezia

Venezia, from Karl Baedeker, Italy: From the Alps to Naples (Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1909), with additions by Eric Denker. Reprinted for the Reflections & Undercurrents: Ernest Roth and Printmaking in Venice, 1900 - 1940 exhibition at the Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery, January 23 - April 4, 2014.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/roth-ephemera/1003/thumbnail.jp

Resource intensity in global food chains : the hot spot analysis

Purpose - The Hot Spot Analysis developed by the Wuppertal Institute is a screening tool focussing on the demand of reliable sustainability-oriented decision-making processes in complex value chains identifying high priority areas ("hot spots") for effective measures in companies. This paper aims to focus on this tool. Design/methodology/approach - The Hot Spot Analysis is a qualitative method following a cradle-to-cradle approach. With the examples of coffee and cream cheese hot spots of sustainability indicators throughout the entire life cycle are identified and evaluated with data from literature reviews and expert consultations or stakeholder statements. This paper focuses on the indicator resource efficiency as an example of how the methodology works. Findings - The identified hot spots for coffee are the raw material procurement phase in terms of abiotic material, water and energy consumption, the production phase concerning biotic material and the energy consumption in the use phase. For cream cheese relevant hot spots appear in the raw material procurement phase in terms of biotic materials and water as well as biotic materials and energy consumption during the production phase. Research limitations/implications - Life cycle analyses connected to indicators like resource efficiency need to be applied as consequent steps of a Hot Spot Analysis if a deeper level of analysis is eventually aimed at which is more cost and time intensive in the short term. The Hot Spot Analysis can be combined with other sustainability management instruments. Practical implications - Research and management can be directed to hot spots of sustainability potential quickly which pays off in the long term. Originality/value - The paper shows that companies can address sustainability potentials relatively cost moderately

Energy sufficiency in private households enabled by adequate appliances

Energy efficiency of a range of domestic appliances covered by the labelling and ecodesign directives has improved significantly over the last 15 years. However, the power consumption of the German residential sector has remained relatively constant over this period. Besides other factors, such as decreasing average household size, the main reasons for this development were the increases of the types, features, size, equipment stock and usage times of appliances and devices in private households. The project "Energy Sufficiency - strategies and instruments for a technical, systemic and cultural transformation towards sustainable restriction of energy demand in the field of construction and everyday life" investigates how the complementation of energy efficiency with energy sufficiency could lead to more user adequate domestic products and product-service systems and thereby result in an absolute reduction of power consumption. In this project, energy sufficiency is defined as a strategy to reduce energy consumption by three approaches: 1. Quantitative reduction of sizes, features, usage times of devices etc. 2. Substitution of technical equipment in households by e.g.urban services. 3. Adjustment of technical services delivered by appliances toutility needed and desired by users. The energy saving effects of an application of these approaches were modelled for different types of households and the energy saving potentials of energy sufficiency quantified. Innovative approaches for user adequate products and services were developed in open innovation workshops by the Design Thinking method. The paper summarizes some of the intermediate results of theoretical and transdisciplinary investigations of the project that runs until May 31, 2016. Furthermore, a first set of design criteria for user adequate appliances enabling energy sufficiency are developed based on these results. The paper concludes with suggestions for the future development of energy labelling and ecodesign derived from the design criteria and supplemented by examples of existing requirements according to the voluntary environmental label "Blauer Engel"