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Domestic sustainability innovations are considered to play a key role for pathways to sustainable consumption. The paper shows how open innovation processes can lead to such sustainable innovations, by means of an experimental and interactive infrastructure. It presents how – based on results of the LivingLab project conducted at the Wuppertal Institute within a European Consortium (Lead TU Delft) - currently an extended Sustainable LivingLab approach is developed and applied in two joint research projects at national and international level. To conceptualise this approach, we refer to recent proceedings in innovation and sustainability research, i.e. practice theory to analyse sustainable product design. Focusing on technical solutions and individual behaviour while assuming people's needs as fixed entities, disregards the dynamics of everyday practices in which technologies themselves create needs. Therefore, the consumer's position should be strengthened through userdriven innovation. LivingLabs are combined lab-/household systems, which put the user, i.e. the home occupant, and value chain related actors (producer, handicraft, etc.) on centre stage in the innovation process. We introduce its research agenda and the Three Phases Model of research. We hypothesise that at the end of this userintegrated innovation process developed products have a higher chance of successful diffusion. To illustrate this, we show how the LivingLab infrastructure is employed for the German InnovationCity Ruhr and how it can promote the development of user-centred sustainable consumption strategies.
Actor and network analysis
(2017)
Resource efficiency in production and technological innovations are inadequate for considerably reducing the current use of natural resources. Both social innovations and a complementary and equally valued strategy of sustainable consumption are required: goods must be used longer, and services that support collaborative consumption (CC) patterns must be extended. "Using rather than owning" strategies, such as product sharing, have the potential to conserve resources. Based on the results of different German studies, this article highlights the resource-saving potentials of CC patterns and recommendations proposed for policies and further research questions. The purpose of this paper is to show that a general resource-saving potential can be realized by "use rather than own" schemes, depending on the application field and the framework for implementation. CC is suitable for making a positive contribution to achieving the Factor 10 target by playing an important role in changing consumer patterns.
Die Ausarbeitung eines Konzepts für Nachhaltigkeitsbildung, welches das Ziel hat, nachhaltige Lebensstile zu befördern, muss zwei Barrieren überwinden können: die eine vom Nichtwissen zum Wissen, die andere vom Wissen zum Handeln. Sie zu überwinden, haben sich u. a. zwei Forschungsstränge zum Ziel gesetzt: Die pädagogische Kompetenzforschung, welche die für eine nachhaltige Denk- und Handlungsweise notwendigen Fähigkeiten aufdeckt, und die umweltpsychologische Theorieentwicklung, welche das Zusammenspiel von Umweltbewusstsein und andere auf das Umwelthandeln einwirkende Faktoren fokussiert. Die "Forschungsgruppe Nachhaltiges Produzieren und Konsumieren" des Wuppertal Instituts hat durch den Versuch, beide Stränge zu integrieren, ein eigenes Bildungs- und Kommunikationskonzept zur Förderung nachhaltiger Denk- und Handlungsweisen entwickelt und in die praktische Bildungsarbeit übersetzt. Die Theorie und Praxis dieses Bildungskonzepts sollen hier vorgestellt werden.
