| Posted December 22, 2022

Our weiter_wirken Project Launches a Community of Practice to Increase Impact

During the past two years, through our weiter_wirken project we accompanied more than 40 representatives of German civil society organisations (CSOs) and supported them in increasing the effectiveness of their projects. Based on insights from behavioural and communication sciences, the participants were trained to design and communicate behavioural interventions to achieve greater sustainability. Looking back at two successful rounds of weiter_wirken, one participant noted: “By applying the content to our own practical project, we gained an intuitive approach to knowledge.”, while another emphasised that “Through this training, my project and I have grown and we are now repositioning ourselves in […]

| Posted December 14, 2022

Improving Emergency Response Technologies: Watch the PathoCERT Explainer Video!

Managing and responding efficiently to disaster situations, requires a high-level of coordination and cooperation from those in charge of the command through to the first responders on the ground. Emergency events linked to waterborne pathogen contamination are among those where stakeholder engagement is crucial to ensure the deployment of appropriate technologies and responses. Our PathoCERT project is driving forward the development of novel and easily usable technological solutions, services, and governance mechanisms to increase the situational awareness and coordination of first respondents on the ground and key actors operating along the command and control chain, enabling them to rapidly and […]

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Why Design Is Key for Positive Impact

Design is on everyone’s lips, so we asked our design team to share how they integrate design in our work. In this interview, Nikola Berger, Head of Creative & Communication and Eva Rudolf, Senior Designer at the CSCP explain how design can be a lever to achieve greater impact. The CSCP lives by a holistic and impact-oriented understanding of design. Can you explain what this means in a nutshell? Nikola Berger: Design has been an integral part of how we work for more than a decade: to translate research into language and visuals that can be grasped by a wide […]

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Our Sustainable Island Mauritius Project Received “Best Tourism NDC” Award at COP 27!

The number of tourists that Mauritius welcomes every year almost matches that of its 1.26 million inhabitants. This shows the importance of tourism for the country’s economic development. But how could tourism be used as a force for good and support Mauritius to become a “Green Destination”, a goal that the government aspires to achieve by 2030. To make this happen, comprehensive strategies that reduce the footprint (negative impacts) while increasing the handprint (positive impacts) are essential. As part of the Sustainable Island Mauritius (SIM) project, the CSCP collaborated with the Mauritius Tourism Authority to promote sustainable tourism by demonstrating […]

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Supporting Businesses to Achieve Their Biodiversity Targets

Businesses from all sectors, from pharmaceutical companies to agricultural corporations, depend on healthy ecosystem services as a prerequisite for their production processes. Our German Biodiversity & Business (UBi) project is supporting businesses to integrate biodiversity into their strategic planning and environmental management and develop goals that reduce biodiversity loss in the first place. With the launch of its new website, UBi offers companies and business associations a platform where information and know-how are shared in order to support them make forward-looking decisions and find solutions that contribute to biodiversity protection and conservation. UBi develops sector-specific biodiversity checklists, provides information on […]

| Posted December 13, 2022

Recycling of Multilayer Packaging: Engineering Struggle or Technological Innovation?

The potential of recycling multilayer packaging in Europe is not an easy topic. The packaging solutions are popular with major food manufacturers due to product safety and particular suitability for branding. However, multilayer packaging is prone to numerous challenges related to sorting, separation, and delamination at the end-of-life phase. How can we increase the rate and recycling quality of multilayer packaging? Are new technologies on waste sorting, layer separation, and material recovery suitable for the waste management sector in Germany? Industry experts discussed these questions in a multi-stakeholder workshop in Cologne in November 2022. At the ‘Packaging Club’ meeting, the […]

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How to Create Consumer-Friendly Circular Packaging – Watch our Video Series!

Demands on packaging are increasing: it should be protective, stackable, informative but also practical, attractive and circular. To fulfil these requirements, consumers should be taken on board. That’s why understanding their behaviour is crucial, also in order to understand how behavioural challenges can be overcome. Circular packaging – that is, packaging designed to be reused, recycled, or composted – is both a question of supply and demand. Of course, companies can and need to opt for the most sustainable packaging approaches. But what if certain types of packaging have a low acceptance level, leading consumers to break the loop? In […]

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WertNetzWerke: A New Centre for Digitalisation and Circular Economy for SMEs is Launched!

Current key topics such as Circular Economy and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are becoming ever more important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). One of the questions to consider is: How can SMEs use AI as a tool to innovate their business models and collaborate to create circular solutions? The Centre for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises WertNetzWerke (Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum WertNetzWerke) launched in November 2022 under the umbrella of Mittelstand Digital, a network of competence centres funded by the German government to support digitalisation in SMEs. The new centre is a follow up of the recently-concluded Competence Centre eStandards, a Mittelstand Digital […]

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Sustainable Cashmere: The Story of Mongolia

Based on traditional pastoralist livelihoods, the cashmere and wool sector is a key driver of the Mongolian economy and second only to the extractive industries. It is, however, facing challenges due to increased competition from foreign processors. In the past 4 years, our STeP EcoLab Mongolia project shared knowledge on social and environmental standards with Mongolian wool processors and cashmere herders. We supported them in implementing the newly-acquired practices as well as in communicating the value of sustainable Mongolian cashmere to European and global consumers. The journey started in 2018 with a comprehensive assessment of the Mongolian wool and cashmere […]

| Posted December 12, 2022

The CSCP at COP 15: Focusing on the Links Between Biodiversity, Business, and Circular Economy!

Key global actors have come together at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference CBD COP 15, running from 7 to 19 December in Montreal, Canada, to jointly focus on commitments to stop biodiversity loss and align actions toward its restoration. The conference is a historic event expected to adopt the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which includes a strategic vision as well as a global roadmap for the conservation, protection, restoration, and sustainable management of biodiversity and ecosystems for the next eight years. Government leaders are discussing 22 targets that will guide their activities to implement the new Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) […]

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