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The Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) conducts research with the goal of identifying, advancing, and guiding transformation processes towards sustainable societies. Its research practice is transdisciplinary, transformative, and co-creative. The institute cooperates with partners in academia, political institutions, administrations, civil society, and the business community to understand sustainability challenges and generate potential solutions.

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CITY CYCLING encourages people to switch to using their bicycle in their everyday lives.

The CITY CYCLING campaign encourages local politicians and citizens to choose cycling as a climate-friendly means of transportation between 1 May and 30 September. Researchers from the IASS are conducting a survey to learn more about participants’ interactions with cycling infrastructure and what it would take to encourage them to cycle more frequently. These findings will be used subsequently in the development of policy recommendations.

The panellists were: Rebecca Bertram (Heinrich Böll Foundation), Isabelle Buscke (Federation of German Consumer Organisations), Kathrin Glastra (European Parliament), Ortwin Renn (IASS), Alain Taccoen (Électricité de France).

What do citizens in France and Germany see as the key criteria for a fair energy transition? The Heinrich Böll Foundation France and the IASS presented two studies to 50 stakeholders from the policy community, business, science and civil society at an event in Brussels.

"The Skin of Our Planet" is the topic of the Potsdam Summer School 2018.

The Earth’s surface is the foundation of all human activity. Geological, biological and climatic dynamics like the carbon cycle, soil formation, and climate and ocean currents form a complex web of connected processes, whose interactions are not yet fully understood. The fifth Potsdam Summer School from 10 to 19 September 2018 is devoted to “The Skin of our Planet – the Earth’s Surface System”.

Regional organisations play an important role in solving major ocean conservation challenges.

In September, UN member states will begin negotiating a treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity on the high seas. But such challenges as ocean conservation cannot be resolved at the global level alone. A new study focusing on the Southeast Pacific shows what role regional organisations can play.

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Temperatures in the Arctic are currently rising twice as fast as in most other regions on the planet, a phenomenon most strikingly evidenced by the decreasing extent and volume of Arctic sea ice over the last decades. At the end of summer 2012, the extent of Arctic sea ice was the lowest since satellite measurements began: a mere 3.41 million km2, which is 49% below the 1979 to 2000 average. Since then, summertime sea ice in the Arctic has remained at a historically very low level. The processes currently under way in the Arctic are embedded in climate, economic, legal and social systems and processes that reach far beyond the Arctic Circle.

Eine Frau mit einer Atemschutzmaske radelt auf einer vielbefahrenen Straße in Peking.

Air pollution and climate change are closely related. The main sources of CO2 emissions – the extraction and burning of fossil fuels – are not only key drivers of climate change, but also major sources of air pollutants.

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Transformative Sustainability Research

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CITY CYCLING for a Better Climate and Clean Air: IASS Researchers Focus on Sustainable Mobility

Climate, Costs, Participation: Heinrich Böll Foundation France and IASS Reveal what Citizens Want from the Energy Transition at Event in Brussels

The Skin of our Planet: Call for Applications to the 2018 Potsdam Summer School

Ocean Action in the Southeast Pacific: Study Recommends Greater Regional Cooperation

Dossiers

Sustainable Arctic Futures: A Regional and Global Challenge Dossier

Air Pollution and Climate Change Dossier