During the biogas Congress 2011 Ecologic Institute's Dr. Wolfgang Urban spoke about the options of use for biomethane. He pointed out that the resource 'biogas' is limited and exposed to utilisation competition. In addition, it is to be considered in relation to factors as availability of water and soil, waste and residues potentials. The greenhouse gas benefits of biogas depents of it's usage paths details. To make biomethane energy-efficient and climate-friendly combined heat and power production should be promoted. Furthermore, a CO2 footprint for biomethane should be developed, the GHG emissions from the biogas deployment and preparation minimized and the further coverage of waste and residue potentials pushed.

The international conference on Renewable Energy Self-Sufficiency (RESS), a relatively new scientific field, took place from 14 to 16 September in Freiburg. Organised by the University of Freiburg, the conference attracted scientists and academically interested practitioners from a wide variety of disciplines who are working towards comprehensive strategies to increase the proportion of renewable energies in energy systems. Timo Kaphengst, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, was invited for a key note speech on some of the fundamental questions related to Renewable Energy Self-Sufficiency. The presentation is available for download.

The Ecologic Institute hosted a dinner dialogue on the 7 September 2011, featuring a discussion of the ongoing process of developing alternative welfare indicators in Europe and its inherent challenges and rewards. Klaus Rennings of the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and Oliver Zwirner from DG Environment of the European Commission provided introductions into the subject and kick started a lively discussion on indicators and their development.

From 22 to 26 August 2011 the Vereinigung für ökologische Wirtschaftsforschung (VÖW) organized a summerschool on "Sustainable Production Chains" together with the Humboldt University of Berlin. Part of the diverse programme for PhD and master students was a seminar held at the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim (ATB) on renewable energies with a special focus on bioenergy and biomass from agro-forest systems. In his presentation Timo Kaphengst, Coordinator for Biodiversity and Forest at Ecologic Institute, highlighted different sustainability challenges within the biomass production chain and presented current policy responses on EU and German level. The presentation can be downloaded.

In the summer term of 2011, Christiane Gerstetter and Doris Knoblauch, Fellows at the Ecologic Institute, taught a seminar on policy consulting at the University of Applied Sciences in Bremen. Some 35  students, enrolled in  a bachelor’s programme, participated. The seminar consisted of a block of three units for a total duration of 32 hours  for a full course credit.

Ecologic Institute hosted the fourth green salon of the American Voices Abroad on the 16^th of August 2011. Three introductory presentations by Lucas Porsch, Tanja Srebotnjak and Rich Rosen on the need for and the challenges of Beyond GDP indicators triggered a lively discussion on the information needs of policy makers that aim at sustainability. To this end, important similarities and differences were examined in the attitudes to welfare measurement in Europe and the US.


The 2011 Arctic Summer College, hosted by Ecologic Institute, provides a platform for Arctic researchers to debate and develop ideas about a range of issues facing Arctic decision-makers, such as: Arctic economic, environmental and security policy; the impacts of large scale energy projects at the regional scale; and approaches to ecosystem-based management.

<p>On 11 July 2011, Max Grünig, Fellow at the Ecologic Institute, delivered a presentation on the transportation sector: possibilities for substitution and elasticity of demand in mineral oil consumption at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).</p>&#13;

This event was the third stakeholder workshop of the FP7 project IN-STREAM and was organised by the Ecologic Institute Berlin and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP). The focus of this workshop was green growth and green innovation and it brought together experts, statisticians, policy makers and representatives of civil society organisations to discuss and share experiences on how to improve the use of indicators to assess the progresses on economic and sustainability goals. The presentations are available for download.&#13;