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Towards a Responsible and Sustainable Digital Transformation
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Dear Reader,
The CSCP is excited to head the first-ever Centre for Economics and Digital Responsibility in North-Rhine Westphalia!
How do we feed eight billion people on our planet in the near future? How do we meet their (our!) growing demand for energy? Answers to these questions often contain the words digital transformation.
Trends that might sound either utopic or even frightening to a lot of people, like autonomic driving and swarm mobility, artificially produced in-vitro meat or energy from 100% renewables can be products of this digital transformation. And they might as well be some of the solutions to a sustainable life on this planet… also, one of our key topics, the circular economy, can profit immensely from digitalisation!
We see the need for digitalisation to support and accelerate the transformation towards more sustainable societies, less pollution, less land seizure, less waste. Digitalisation also has the potential to improve our everyday lives in a less abstract way: it can give us time.
But most important during this process, where markets and rules will change as well, will be to make sure that the digital transformation leads to a better, a more responsible and just (economic) system for all its participants: those who have to face drastic changes in their work-life in economically developed countries as well as countries that still thrive to ensure a decent standard of living for their people.
The CSCP is proud to be part of this design process. How to avoid rebound effects, how to include everybody, how to ensure fairness and justice are the important questions – let’s start finding answers! The search for solutions on how to improve the quality of life for everyone in times of digitalisation is open!
Fitting to this, the CSCP has opened a call for collaboration on how to include digital responsibility into your organisational strategy. Do you want to be visionary and think ahead? We are looking forward to your ideas and challenges!
Digitalisation for people and planet plays the main role in our new Centre for Economics and Digital Responsibility but digitalisation plays a role in all of our projects, for example the starting project on Resource-Efficient, Economic and Intelligent Foodchains where we explore AI solutions to have as little waste in the foodchain as possible. Learn more about how digitalisation supports sustainability in our projects in this newsletter.
Your CSCP Team
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How can companies future-proof their business model concerning the megatrends, digitalisation and sustainability? Together with network partners - Chamber of Industry and Commerce North Rhine-Westphalia (IHK NRW) and Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, the CSCP sets up a first of its kind centre to help SMEs in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to find their way to successful adaptation sustainability and digitalisation.
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The CSCP is a partner of upcoming research project “REIF: Resource-efficient, Economic and Intelligent Foodchain'', which is one of the 16 winners of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Innovation Competition run by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi). REIF aims to revolutionise the food industry in Germany to guarantee a supply that is as waste-free as possible.
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Over 40 NGO’s have successfully completed the Academy of Change (AoC) programme on sustainable behaviour designed for future leaders working on climate change and sustainability in the NGO sector. Read the final report on the programme, the core behaviour change tools and our pilot interventions. Plus, learn some exciting news about the next round of the AoC programme.
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As increased attention is placed on the production, consumption and disposal of products around the world, business leaders are recognising the growing need to transition to a Circular Economy. The CSCP organised the Transitioning to Circular Economy in Textiles, Electronics, Plastics/Packaging Workshop in Cologne, to enable businesses learn about the many opportunities in transitioning to circular business models.
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Over 40 women and youth entrepreneurs participated in the ‘Train the Trainer’ programme organised by the Switch Africa Green ‘GOALAN’ project in Njambini, Kenya, where they learned how to apply sustainable horticulture practices and add value to their produce. The project also introduces sustainable consumption and production (SCP) practices to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and farmers, which will give them greater market access.
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Between July and October 2019 organisations have the opportunity to test their business ideas in the newly set up “Expedition: Space Station” shipping containers in Utopiastadt. These containers are an open laboratory module which can be rented for 1 Euro per week. Apply today with your idea.
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Mittelstand 4.0 Kompetenzzentrum eStandards— a competence centre that brings digitalisation and standardisation to German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) — completed its first two years. Let’s look back on the project’s achievements in promoting sustainable digitalisation to German SME’s.
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Kozani’s biowaste club has officially kicked-off this summer. As part of the H2020 SCALIBUR project, the CSCP will foster stakeholder engagement in the project’s pilot cities and support the city’s biowaste value chains in becoming circular.
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The EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis congratulated the success of the just finalised REFRESH project as an outstanding research project with valuable results and impacts. REFRESH was an EU research project taking action against food waste. Twenty-six partners from China and 12 European countries worked towards Sustainable Development Goal 12.3.
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The CSCP team joined the Global Climate Strike in the cities of Wuppertal, Cologne, Berlin, Essen, Düsseldorf and Heidelberg to demonstrate for climate action and support the Fridays for Future movement. This is a cause that is not only important for us as an organisation but essential for the future of our lives and the lives of the next generations.
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Founding member of the CSCP Professor Dr Klaus Töpfer was awarded the State Prize of North Rhine-Westphalia for decades of his outstanding commitment to international service in environmental protection, nature conservation and global sustainable development, as well as for his service to his home state of North Rhine-Westphalia. He is a former Federal Environment Minister of Germany, long-time Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and Under-Secretary-General of the UN.
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Although European companies are increasingly adopting circular business models, focused mainly on operational efficiency and reducing waste, a recent report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) states that these initiatives are still in their “infancy”. The report titled ‘Paving the way for a circular economy: insights on status and potentials’ points out: it is too early to evaluate the overall economic and environmental impacts of the circular economy, since initiatives are young and diverse, and relevant harmonised European-level statistics are still largely lacking.
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The CSCP joins The German Association for Alternative Protein Sources (Bundesverband für alternative Proteinquellen e.V.) and participated in the first official kick-off general assembly meeting in Düsseldorf. The association which currently comprises of 48-members is growing and aims to create a platform that provides transparent and comprehensible information for consumers, policy makers and business in the German food industry.
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Can CSR contribute to the transition towards circular cities? Can companies contribute to the development of circular cities through their CSR strategy? The students from the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences found the answers to these questions at the CSR-Circular Cities Workshop which was organised by the CSCP. This workshop was a part of their one-week CSR course where they cycled to different companies in the Rhineland and Ruhr area to learn about business ethics and different approaches to CSR.
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The CSCP Publishes the Circular Economy Guidebook for Cities
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Cities are major contributors to climate change and responsible for up to 76% of the carbon emissions. On the solution side, cities are also magnets for creative potential and thus facilitators of societal transformation towards more sustainability in public as well as the private sector. In our Circular Economy Guidebook for Cities, we address these challenges by suggesting systematic approaches and providing concrete examples to achieve progress towards circularity in cities.
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Making the change happen: Accelerating change towards the sustainable behaviours that really matter – with NGOs and beyond!
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Circular Economy Guidebook for Cities
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