This assessment system is the first of its kind with an integrated approach to assess sustainability and the transformative potential of civil society initiatives.

Is it possible to modernize apartment buildings to net zero within just a few days? The innovators at ecoworks claim just this and were awarded with the jury’s prize at this year’s DENEFF annual conference. Dr. Camilla Bausch of Ecologic Institute headed the jury for the third consecutive year to choose the winner of the competition. The innovation by ecoworks was only one of many exciting projects in the running for the 2019 PERPETUUM Energy Efficiency Prize.

Energy security – the uninterrupted supply of energy at reasonable prices, as defined by IEA – has both external and internal dynamics. It can be ensured through local adequacy, that is, abundant and varied forms of indigenous energy resources, but the countries that face local shortages, as in Bangladesh, depend on imports. Shafiqul Alam explains in his online article in the Dhaka Tribune how internal measures could attenuate reliance on external sources.

In response to Brexit, the EU embarked on a process of reflection and possibly reform, the so-called Bratislava Process or the Process on the Future of Europe. At its meeting on 9 May 2019, the European Council was expected to draw first conclusions. As a contribution to this process, the Ecologic Institute, the Istituto Affari Internazionali, the Institute of European Environment Policies and the Climate Strategy Institute 2050 offered a number of recommendations to EU policy makers on how EU climate policies can support this process, and on how climate policies can benefit from it. The recommendations are available for download.

This infographic illustrates the research objects of the joint research projects with a social science component in the research focus "Plastics in the Environment" along the value chain and with a view to the addressed societal sectors. In addition, the graph indicates the target groups to which the project results are directed and whether these are mainly options for action or risk assessments.

How is a topic such as microplastics socially problematised? How can consumers use plastics more sustainably? And what role do the interests and perceptions of different actors play in international plastics regulation? These and other questions are posed by social scientists in a number of joint research projects funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the framework of the research focus "Plastics in the Environment". In this poster series, social science research from ten joint research projects is presented and first interim results are briefly and concisely summarised.

At the launch of the new event series ZUKUNFTSFORUM ECORNET on 9 May 2019, scientists, politicians and representatives of civil society debated the need for a legal framework for climate protection in Germany and its possible components under the guiding question "What kind of climate protection law is needed?" Matthias Duwe, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, emphasised the advantages of a legal framework in his presentation on the experiences of other EU countries.

As part of the EU H2020 RURECO project, Dr. Josselin Rouillard carried out a one-month research exchange with the University of Davis, California focusing on sustainable groundwater management in Europe, France and California. Seminars with academic staff at UC Davis and Stanford University were organised comparing European and Californian strategies for sustainable groundwater management. Workshops and meetings were organised with the State Water Resource Control Board and nine groundwater sustainable agencies across the state of California. The blogpost is linked in the article.

An international workshop titled "Act Now - Antibiotics and Antibiotic Resistance in the Environment" was held in Brussels (Belgium). The over 50 participants included representatives from the EU Parliament, national regulatory agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, the water industry, and NGOs, amongst others. This report presents key points of the plenary presentations, summarises the main points of the first podium discussion, and provides an overview of the discussions in the three World Café tables. The report is available for download.

What kind of solutions are required to increase the market share of sustainable bio-based and circular products in Germany and Europe? Which products and product properties do consumers demand? What are the innovations that can be developed and what are suitable research and communication strategies? What role do local value chains and markets play? And how does a supportive regulatory environment look like?

On the 13 May 2019, Ecologic Institute organised the workshop "Beyond sectors – chances and challenges of multi-stakeholder collaboration in the bioeconomy" in the context of the 8th International Bioeconomy Conference in Halle (Saale). The aim of the workshop was to discuss the challenges of cross-sectoral, multi-stakeholder cooperation in the bioeconomy as well as potential instruments for their facilitation and to present good practice examples. The workshop was held in German.

Kemper, Melanie, Christian Bruhn 2019: Kurzkonzept für den Relaunch der Internetplattform Meeresmüll – www.muell-im-meer.de. Berlin, unpublished.

The bioeconomy carries the promise to offer important opportunities for rural employment and regional added value. The transition towards a more efficient and fossil-free economy should actively involve a broad spectrum of stakeholders and citizens in order to provide them with the opportunity to participate as co-creators in the design of regional strategies and to promote a sustainable use of agricultural, forest and marine ecosystems. Building on this idea, the overall goal of BE-Rural is to explore the potential of regional and local bio-based economies by supporting relevant actors in the participatory development of bioeconomy strategies, roadmaps and business models. The project will focus on regions in five modest and moderate innovator countries: Latvia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and North Macedonia.

The third set of dialogue workshops for government officials and experts from the "Climate Recon 2050" project were held in Copenhagen at the end of February 2019. The project team have been organizing two main fora for that workshop: a Technical Dialogue, for modellers and other experts designing 2050 climate policy scenarios – and a Policy-Maker Platform, to create a space for experience sharing among representatives from different EU countries.

On 7 March 2019, experts working on nature-based solutions (NBS) met in Berlin for an exchange of experiences. The discussions focused on the challenges of planning and implementing NBS and the opportunities and creative solutions to overcome them. The results of this meeting will be integrated into including the development of a catalogue of NBS and an overview of policy instruments to the "Climate NBS Polska" project.