What role do policies play in driving plant-based solutions for more sustainable food systems? In this article, Julia Jägle from Ecologic Institute explores policy strategies and approaches to foster plant-based solutions in Germany and offers an international comparison. She shows that Germany has potential for improvement and introduces political instruments to further promote plant-based food systems and diets.

On 21 March 2023, Aaron Scheid presented Ecologic Institute's analysis of the German CAP Strategic Plan at the NABUtalk on the next CAP reform. He joined State Secretary Silvia Bender and CAP experts Dr. Sebastian Lakner, Sönke Beckmann, and Dr. Norbert Röder to discuss the upcoming CAP reform. They further addressed the issue of phasing out flat-rate payments and creating income for farms by rewarding climate, biodiversity and environmental services. A look at the EU's neighboring countries and the United Kingdom and look at new (and innovative?) models completed the discussion. Aaron's presentation slides are available for download.

On 21 March 2023, the STErn project team discussed the recommendations for action of the STErn project with around 40 experts from politics, administration, science and practice. The event was opened by Matthias Koller (Federal Environment Agency) and Dr. Margareta Büning-Fesel (Federal Agency for Nutrition). The recommendations for action of the STErn project were explained, discussed and supplemented in small groups.

The transport sector is one of the main emitters of greenhouse gases. To meet the demands of the Paris Climate Agreement, a radical transition in transport policy needs to be initiated. In this book, Dr. Michael Jakob (Ecologic Institute) discusses the opportunities and challenges involved in the transport transition from the perspective of ecological and social sustainability.

This infographic shows, color-coded for the three developmental stages of domestic fish, body proportion-based bar spacing of rakes that can prevent fish from swimming into the high-risk areas.

The EU Commission is planning an initiative on tackling the issue of non-intentional inputs of microplastics into the environment. The areas of textile fibres, tire abrasion, and pellet loss are specifically discussed at the EU level as part of the initiative.

This report summarizes the results of the Hydromorphology workshop series (2008, 2012, 2016, 2021) of the German Federal Environment Agency in the form of a synthesis.

This blog post shows why the EU Renovation Wave should link environmental and social issues. EU member states are currently facing three crises: the climate crisis, an energy security crisis and a social crisis. The EU Renovation Wave has a key role in responding to all three crises. However, it can only fulfill this key role if the implementation of the renovation wave is socially fair.

Germany's current nutrition system is not sustainable; it requires a far-reaching socio-ecological transformation. This finding forms the starting thesis of the STErn project, whose interim results and policy recommendations for action were discussed at a workshop on 21 March 2023. This paper provided the basis for the discussion.

Almost one third of all packaging in Germany is so-called transport packaging, which becomes waste after its single use. Despite the factual relevance of this packaging group, it is strongly underrepresented in the public perception as well as in the political discourse. During the online expert dialogue "Reusable Transport Packaging" on 27 February 2023, good examples from practice were presented and potentials, challenges and necessary elements for the expansion of reusable transport packaging were discussed together with experts from trade, logistics industry, civil society and politics. The summary is available for download.

The Berlin Senate Department for the Environment, Urban Mobility, Consumer Protection and Climate Action (SenUMVK) and Stiftung Initiative Mehrweg organised an online expert dialogue on "Reusable Transport Packaging" on 27 February 2023 to discuss potentials, challenges and elements for the expansion of reusable transport packaging together with experts from trade, the logistics industry, civil society and politics.

On 7 February 2023, Aaron Scheid, Fellow at Ecologic Institute, took stock of pesticides in agriculture and discussed possible alternatives.

Kemper, Melanie 2023: Informationsstrukturkonzept für das Internetportal Humanarzneimittel und Umwelt. Ecologic Institute, Berlin. Unpublished.

For many people, plastic bottles have become an indispensable part of everyday life. However, the production and throwing away of plastic bottles is harmful to the environment and the climate. Ideally, PET bottles are recycled and reused. But what happens to the bottles during the recycling process? "Die Geisterstunde" by Christian Tielmann is the third PIXI book produced as part of the BMBF research focus "Plastics in the Environment" with Stiftung Lesen and Carlsen Verlag and is dedicated to the recycling of plastic bottles.

As part of the EU-funded REACHOUT project, a first collection of climate service tools was developed to support cities in adapting to climate change. The publication D3.5 - Guidelines for Climate Service Tools provides a structured overview of twelve technical and "soft" tools that are brought together in the Triple-A Toolkit - a methodological framework covering the phases of analysis, ambition and action. The tools were co-created and tested in close cooperation with seven European City Hubs and offer practical solutions for climate-resilient urban development - from data-based analyses to participatory formats.