George Mason University's "German Campus Weeks" program, sponsored by the German embassy, featured a presentation on climate and energy policy by Ecologic Institute's Elizabeth Zelljadt. She explained Germany's energy transition (Energiewende) and the country's role in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to about 40 undergraduates.

In February 2017, the European Commission published for the first time an Environmental Implementation Review (EIR). The EIR aims to improve implementation in the field of EU environmental policy, by trying to identify the causes of implementation gaps, and to find solutions to them. The first round of assessment reports for the 28 Member States revealed a lack of sound methodologies for assessing the various aspects of environmental governance.

This commentary on the SchadRegProtAG is primarily intended as a legal working aid for practice and is aimed at the enforcement authorities and the operators of potentially reportable operating facilities.

This report has been prepared as part of work-package 5 of the FIThydro project on Fishfriendly Innovative Technologies for Hydropower. It aims at investigating the regulatory landscape influencing actions relevant to environmental improvements in the context of planning and operating hydropower plants. Emphasis is given to the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive, nature protection policies and policies on renewable energy and climate change adaptation, thereby outlining opportunities, barriers and challenges in reaching multiple environmental objectives. The report is available for download.

Successful innovations require more than a great idea and technical expertise – they need a market. The BRIGAID Market Analysis Framework (MAF+) aims to support innovators to identify market opportunities, tune their innovations to meet actual market needs, and develop their business strategy. This document proposes how an innovator, a supporting partner, and an observer (i.e. the intended users of the MAF+) will interact with the online portal. The aim is to clearly lay out the path these users will follow and define the required software functionality at each step of the assessment. The document served as a blueprint to guide the web development of the MAF+ online portal. Detailed explanations of the 12 exercises are included in the annex, which compiles the draft templates used to inform the development of the portal. The report is available for download.

The digitization of all spheres of life is progressing steadily, a mega-trend that will continuously and fundamentally change society. Municipalities are also making increasing use of the potential offered by digitization of political and administrative processes. Doris Knoblauch and Susanne Langsdorf (both Ecologic Institute) developed a method that allows municipalities to easily check their (digitization) projects for their contribution to sustainable development. The report and the questionnaire are available for download.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly recognised for their potential to contribute to a range of urban challenges and policy objectives. But, to what extent do current policy frameworks support or hinder their implementation? At the international conference on "Nature-based solutions: From Innovation to Common-Use", Ecologic Institute's McKenna Davis addressed this question in a session on 'Blue-green infrasturcture in smart cities'. Held in Tallinn (Estonia) from the 24 to 26 October 2017, the flagship conference was part of the Presidency of the Estonian Republic of the Council of the European Union.

The transition to a low-carbon economy requires a rapid decarbonisation of Europe's energy, industrial, transport and buildings sectors, as well as measures to adapt to a changing climate. This is not only a challenge in terms of the investment needs and the technological innovation, but also in terms of the needed labour inputs. This project takes stock of the employment effects of transitioning to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy. The Ecologic Institute covers the parts of the research that are related to adaptation to climate change.

The World Resources Forum 2017 entitled "Accelerating the Resource Revolution" was held in Geneva from 24 to 25 October 2017. Ecologic Institute's Mandy Hinzmann presented the TRAFIS project with a lecture on "Transforming infrastructures towards sustainability - lessons learnt from ICT-based peer-to-peer carsharing service Drivy in Germany". The presentation slides are available for download.

The World Resources Forum 2017 entitled "Accelerating the Resource Revolution" was held in Geneva from 24 to 25 October 2017. Ecologic Institute's Dr. Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers reflected on the conception and evaluation of policy mixes for resource conservation based on the experiences of the SimRess project. The presentation slides are available for download.

Looking back with a view to the future: Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Environmental Ministry in Baden-Wurttemberg, Minister President Kretschmann and Minister for Environment Untersteller together with keynote speakers Prof. Schneidewind (Wuppertal Institute) and Dr. Bausch (Ecologic Institute) highlighted achievements of the past as well as challenges for the future. While past efforts delivered some important results, current and future trends show the need for far-reaching changes in the way we live and do business.

Bieling C., Gerdes H., Ohnesorge B., Plieninger T., Schaich H., Schleyer C., Trommler K., Wolff F. 2018: Developing landscape scenarios and identifying local management options: outcomes and evaluation of a participatory approach in the Swabian Alb, Germany. In: Padmanabhan M. (ed.): Transdisciplinary Research and Sustainability - Collaboration, Innovation and Transformation. Routledge, London: 134-150.

With a big conference in Berlin on the 17 and 18 Oktober 2017, the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) launched its new comprehensive research programme "Plastic in the Environment – Sources • Sinks • Solutions." In this research programme, 18 research projects with around 100 partners from science, industry, associations and municipalities are exploring the following questions: What is the extent of plastic pollution globally, what are its causes and its effects? For the kickoff, representatives from all collaborative projects met in the "Umweltforum" in Berlin to present the individual projects, identify common challenges and develop cross-cutting themes for an exchange across consortia.

As part of the FP7 MARS e-conference on the "Future of Water Management in Europe: Reviewing the WFD implementation", Josselin Rouillard presented an overview of key synergies and conflicts between EU policies in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). After presenting the variety of relevant EU policies, Josselin presented key results from the H2020 project Aquacross on policy integration in EU water polices and the challenges of mainstreaming water policy in sectoral policies. He then presented in more detail the outcomes of a survey of Rural Development Programmes and their contribution to supporting the objectives of the WFD.