In the face of global environmental change and increasing disaster risks, the transformation of societies is essential. The sector “Sustainable Transformation” analyzes and develops appropriate conceptual foundations and translates these into needs assessments, recommendations for action or planning roadmaps.
Global environmental change, including climate change and the biodiversity crisis, as well as natural hazards such as wildfires, floods and droughts, pose major challenges for societies. Studies show that currently no country satisfies the basic needs of its inhabitants at a level of resource consumption that could be sustainably extended to all people worldwide.1 The number of countries that exceed the biophysical limits of sustainable development is steadily increasing. In this context, greater efforts are needed to reduce emissions. But new, resource-efficient economic models are also needed, which must include both a more effective use of resources, the development of bio-economic approaches, and alternative lifestyles and consumption behavior.
At the same time, the effects of climate change are becoming ever more apparent, as the floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021, the record heatwave summer of 2022 or the floods in northern Germany in the winter of 2023/2024 clearly show. In addition to the human suffering, the floods in 2021, for example, caused costs of around 44 billion euros, and the drought and heat events across the entire European continent in 2022 cost around 40 billion euros.2 Consequently, adaptation to and management of such natural hazards must be improved. From an economic perspective, investments in climate protection and adaptation must be weighed against the potential preventable damages and implemented in holistic, long-term strategies. The development of such approaches is the focus of the priority topic “Sustainable Transformation” – in Collaboration with our Customers.
We analyze causal relationships and develop conceptual foundations. There is consensus that sustainable living requires the transformation of societies. However, there is debate about whether this transformation should be radical or incremental. Our concepts consider scientific foundations and discourses.
In the area of “sustainable transformation”, we develop concepts for designing social change processes, both in terms of emissions reduction (mitigation) and the planning of adaptation processes. In addition, we develop co-creative and interactive processes to involve all stakeholders affected by corresponding transformation processes. We transfer the results into needs descriptions, solution screenings, or planning roadmaps.
We analyze the composition of actors and the interface between science, politics and practice (science-policy-practice interface).
Our methods include workshops, surveys, interviews, actor mapping and foresight processes, as well as bibliometric analyses.
The area of “sustainable transformation” is closely linked to the topics of “civil security”, “rural areas” and “innovations in health protection and disaster medicine” and integrates cross-cutting topics such as “resilience” and “citizen science”.
1 Fanning, A.L., O’Neill, D.W., Hickel, J. et al. The social shortfall and ecological overshoot of nations. Nat Sustain 5, 26–36 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00799-z
2 European Environment Agency (EEA) (2023): Annual economic losses caused by weather - and climate - related extreme events in the EU Member States, https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/indicators/economic-losses-from-climate-related (03.07.2024)
Fraunhofer Institute for Technological Trend Analysis INT