Organizations as sustainability accelerators

The urgently needed transformation toward greater sustainability is not getting off the ground. The required impetus could come from companies, authorities, associations, and other organizations, according to a recent publication with ITAS involvement.

Cover der Publikation über Transformationsbeschleuniger — Source: Springer Nature

Climate change, the pandemic, or Putin’s war are phenomena of the now repeatedly mentioned turning point in history, which destroys accustomed orders and hopes. Meanwhile, there is almost no doubt about our society’s need for transformation toward greater sustainability, but its implementation is regularly threatened by the growing complexity of the task.

Companies, authorities, schools, universities, institutes, or associations could provide a way out. After all, these organizations do not only shape society, but due to certain characteristics they can also develop more quickly toward sustainability than other social systems. This is the thesis of Jürgen Kopfmüller, who has been researching various aspects of sustainability at ITAS for many years, and his co-authors Peter Kinne, Jan Reisener, and Hans Strickwerda in the recently published book “Organisationen als Transformationsbeschleuniger” (Organizations as transformation accelerators).

Providing impulses for a sustainable society

The publication shows in a compact form how organizations can become drivers of a more sustainable society. The core element is a special reference frame, the so-called NEO house, in which organization-specific and sustainability-relevant aspects are addressed. Based on socio-ecological resilience principles, it combines rules of the Integrative Concept of Sustainable Development (ICoS) developed at ITAS with principles of design thinking and criteria for research in social responsibility. In addition to the basics and elements of the NEO house, the authors also describe first examples of its use, for example in a school.

The publication is part of the research work in the ITAS cross-cutting activity “Sustainability”, in which sustainability-related research at the institute is reflected and further developed. (18.10.2022)

Bibliographic data:

Kinne, Peter; Kopfmüller, Jürgen; Reisener, Jan; Strikwerda, Hans
Organisationen als Transformationsbeschleuniger. Die produktive Allianz von Nachhaltigkeit, Resilienz, Systems- und Design-Thinking, essentials, Berlin: Springer Nature, 2022, 66 p., Publisher information