| Posted March 23, 2019

The CSCP to Bring Sustainability to the Artificial Intelligence Debate

Fittingly titled “AI made in Germany”, the German Federal Government presented its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy in late 2018. With AI as one of the cornerstones of digitalisation, one major task will be the integration of the AI strategy into existing digitalisation strategies. As part of the Mittelstand-Digital Competence Centre eStandards, the CSCP is contributing its expertise. Triggered by the new Federal AI Strategy, Mittelstand-Digital has initiated a Working Group on Artificial Intelligence, in order to best serve SMEs with all their AI-related projects and needs. The Working Group consists of representatives of each Competence Centre, so new insights are distributed […]

| Posted March 22, 2019

Sustainable Consumption and Production: New Value Creation Models on the Rise

Are you a prosumer? You most probably are – if you have ever grown a tomato on your own, repaired your bike or mended your own clothes. Most of us are not even aware that we take part in active value creation every day! And we do this for good reasons – whether as a hobby, for financial savings or a sense of responsibility for future generations. Indeed, as our ProMoNa project has shown: prosumption holds major sustainability potentials – if done right. A growing part of our society want a more personal, trustful and sustainable way of production and consumption. […]

| Posted March 21, 2019

The CSCP and Its Partners Developed the Handprint – a Tool for Measuring Positive Sustainability Impacts of Products

Assessing our footprint is key but there is more to explore! What about the positive impacts we are having on people and the planet? These actions are where the Handprint comes in: The Handprint is a new perspective on sustainability. It represents the positive contributions organisations and companies make towards a sustainable future. The project that developed the handprint tool has just concluded. Together with our partners, the CSCP has developed a methodology to translate the handprint concept into a tool that provides tangible results. These results will allow you to minimize your footprint while maximizing your ecological, economic, and social […]

| Posted March 20, 2019

Does the Circular Economy Understand What Makes Consumers Tick? Join the CSCP’s Consumer Insight Action Panel!

Together with European partners, the CSCP is setting up the Consumer Insight Action Panel for the circular economy. Its mandate is to analyse circular economy challenges within the sectors of textiles, plastics and electronics from a consumer behaviour perspective. The research will be combined with pilot testing and replication activities to create a real impact when informing policy and business innovations. Within the electronics sector, for example, how might we address premature obsolescence of products? How can we enable and motivate consumers to repair or reuse electronic products? EU decision makers have already clearly recognised the importance of understanding and integrating […]

| Posted March 19, 2019

Cookin’Hope Workshop – Discussing the Professional Integration of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in the Gastronomy Sector

This one-day workshop, which took place in February, was a great success, bringing together stakeholders from refugee and asylum organisations, policy makers and business. It led to the establishment of a network that is going to push the agenda and the objectives of the workshop forward. This is to ensure continued sustainable professional integration of refugees and asylum seekers in the German labour market while helping to overcome the skilled labour shortage in Germany*, leading to a win-win situation for all. The gastronomy sector can play a key role in the sustainable professional integration of refugees and asylum seekers if a […]

| Posted March 18, 2019

Introducing Sustainable Consumption and Production to Horticultural Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Kenya

Horticultural Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) in Naivasha, Kenya, can now actively reduce their environmental footprint and become more sustainable after participating in the Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) training conducted as part of the CSCP’s GOALAN project. In Kenya, the horticulture industry is the fastest growing agricultural sub-sector. It is one of the top foreign exchange earners for the country generating approximately US$ 1 billion annually. Kenya exports 700 tons of fresh produce every week, of which 250 tons (33%) come from Lake Naivasha basin. Due to the rapid growth of the horticulture industry around the lake, the basin […]

| Posted March 17, 2019

“Every Job is Green” – BOOM Camps Want to Excite Young People About Future Jobs

“How will I live and work in 2030? Which products and services will be needed in the future and how can these be designed sustainably? Will there still be the same jobs in 2030? What skills will I need in the future?” The CSCP is about to explore these and other questions with teenagers and young adults in the upcoming BOOM holiday camps. In January 2019, our new project „BOOM – Berufsorientierung und grüne Jobs mal anders” (career orientation and green jobs with a new perspective) started! Central to the BOOM project will be various holiday camps for teenagers and young […]

| Posted March 13, 2019

Practice Project with Migori Explores How QR Codes Can Make Packaging-Free Shopping More Attractive

migori is the first store in Cologne’s Südstadt to leave packaging behind – for the sake of the environment, as well as to create new options of shopping. To better inform their customers about the products they are buying, migori is teaming up with Competence Centre eStandards experts. In Germany, about 6 million tons of plastic waste are produced every year. About half of this comes from packaging. That makes 37kg packaging waste per capita, per year*. In normal supermarkets, consumers don’t have much of a choice, as there is plastic packaging everywhere. migori gives consumers that choice, by selling their […]

| Posted March 11, 2019

RheinEnergie Workshop: Rethinking the Future of Selling Energy

Energy is used and needed everywhere: in homes, for production, and for mobility. Engineers are developing new, smarter ways to make energy available to contribute to a good life for their customers and citizens in general. In our innovative workshop with the RheinEnergie sales management team and :metabolon, we asked how an energy supplier can make the most meaningful contributions. The energy industry is constantly changing, having to adapt to production conditions and customer demands. The necessity of the German Energiewende coupled with new possibilities through digitalisation is paving the way for novel energy generation structures and business models while calling […]

| Posted March 10, 2019

First Joint Workshop on Sustainable Mongolian Cashmere with Key Actors From the Sector

In a joint workshop in Mongolia’s capital, Ulaanbaatar, more than 80 company representatives and other key actors of the Mongolian cashmere sector took their journey towards sustainable cashmere production one step further. The Mongolian cashmere sector – an important pillar of the country’s economy – faces several challenges. Production practices are still inspired by Mongolia’s socialist past and do not consider social and environmental aspects sufficiently. This results in increasing threats of deforestation and erosion of landscapes due to unsustainable herding practices. The country’s processing companies struggle with severe infrastructural obstacles, most importantly a complete absence of modern waste management including […]

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