Economics for Sustainability (WiN I)

The fifteen research projects of the first call developed economic concepts for a socially and environmentally friendly globalization as well as strategies to activate and disseminate more sustainable styles of consumption within the framework of an "economy of sustainable consumption", studied, on the basis of integrated models, the economic, ecological and social interrelations which must be considered for sustainable development, developed new methods to evaluate natural capital and ecosystem services and to evaluate and develop ecological management criteria for environmental policy.

Their cross-cutting dimension has accorded high priority to the topic of sustainability innovations. In terms of their application-oriented and scientific objectives, project outcomes are characterized as follows:

1. Relevance to application and policy relevance:
   Recommendations for action and decision-making support tools for policy-makers and businesses (e.g. optimization model for positioning of wind energy units or reform proposals for regulatory practice in German environmental penal law)
2. Science:
   Integrated assessment schemes, (interdisciplinary) model coupling (e.g. coupling of a hydrologic model with an economic optimization model).

By linking and synthesizing the research being pursued in the programme's 15 projects and conducting its own supplementary research, an integrative synthesis project was to lay the foundation for creating an internationally visible German school of sustainability economics.