Paths to sustainable consumption - Energy, nutrition (WENKE²)

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Project period: 01.03.2007 - 28.02.2010

How can sustainable consumption patterns - such as the use of products that protect the climate, are produced ecologically and regionally or are bought and sold using 'fair' trading practices - be disseminated to an even greater extent than in the past?

This project will examine five different economic approaches (behavioural economics, the agent-based approach and the naturalistic approach of evolutionary economics, interaction economics and the culturalistic approach) to determine the extent to which they could contribute to understanding and dismantling obstacles and to boosting acceptance of corresponding consumer behaviour.

'Household energy consumption' and 'nutrition' were selected as focal areas for studying these approaches. The project sees opportunities and approaches for possible change, particularly in collaborative activities between the actors involved on the supply and user sides. This will contribute to the actors agreeing upon mutual objectives, communicating about different expectations and interests and arriving at coordinated strategies for change in the direction of 'sustainability'.

Project partners:

University of Oldenburg, Professor Dr Pfriem
Dresden University of Technology, Professor Dr Lehmann-Waffenschmidt
Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, Professor Dr Witt

Further information is available on the project website.

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