This summary pocket book presents key recommendations gathered in the project RECREATE regarding future research and innovation needs in "Societal Challenge 5: Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials". The results include very concrete recommendations on selected topics, overarching recommendations which shall help integrating the different research areas better and recommendations regarding the use of various methodologies. The summary pocket book is available for download.

In this report the authors, which include Stephanie Wunder, Keighley McFarland and Dr. Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers from Ecologic Institute, provide an overview of the most relevant EU policies and instruments with an impact on food waste generation and/or prevention. The report explains the relevance of the different policy areas at EU level and identifies the gaps, overlaps and unintended effects of EU regulation. Finally, it identifies potential opportunities for improvement in each policy area. The report is available for download.

In April 2018, the second cycle of the Forum "Fish Protection and Downstream Migration" ended, which was devoted, among other things, to improving the implementation of measures. In this article, the authors, among them Dr. Ulf Stein of Ecologic Institute, summarize the intensive discourse between all stakeholders over the past six years and present the resulting twelve recommendations. The recommendations describe how to proceed with this topic in the future and how to avoid potential conflicts in practice. The article is published in WasserWirtschaft, Issue 06/2018, Springer Vieweg.

Instances of extreme temperatures and hurricanes are increasing. Polar ice masses are withdrawing further, climate change is threatening mankind. At the 19th Poetry Festival Berlin, poets talked with Daniela Seel (editor and poet) and Arne Riedel (Ecologic Institute) in a "Poetry Talk: World Climate Summit of Poetry". The discussion touched upon the potential of poetry to connect people emotionally to climate change and how it can generate attention for this topic.

Ecologic Institute's Elizabeth Zelljadt explained emissions trading systems (ETS) at a workshop on carbon pricing in Latin America and the Caribbean hosted by the environmental advocacy group World Wildlife Fund (WWF). As several Latin American countries are implementing carbon pricing policies – from carbon taxes applied to fossil fuels to carbon markets similar to the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) – Latin American WWF leaders brought their members together with external carbon pricing experts for a workshop on measures to price carbon around the world. The international group of participants, which included officials from the Mexican government and the United Nations, also addressed the status of global negotiations around this issue.

From 11 until 14 June 2018 transitions scholars and stakeholders from around the world met for the 9th International Sustainability Transitions (IST) conference in Manchester (United Kingdom). Dr. Grit Martinez of Ecologic Institute spoke in a dialogue session about cultural conventions, system reconfigurations and transitions.

Experts from different countries showed with illustrative examples how much the success of campaigns against food waste depends on strategic planning, identification of regional food waste patterns, evaluation of results and attracting media attention.

The national and international political agenda shows that resource conservation is a central task for environmental policy: In Germany, Europe and globally, there are political programmes and strategies aimed at fostering sustainable resource use. In five theses, this brochure from the SimRess project shows that an integrative and systemically designed resource policy contributes to achieving the goals of resource protection and climate protection. The study was carried out by Ecologic Institute with Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers and Susanne Langsdorf as co-authors. The brochure is available for download.

Addressing climate change and natural resource depletion has been key to the international and national sustainability agenda for almost 30 years. Despite existing efforts, global CO2 emissions and raw material use levels continue to grow. This seems to suggest the need for more systemic approaches in environmental policy. The authors, among them Ecologic Institute's Dr. Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers, call upon policy makers to integrate rebound mitigation strategies and move beyond exclusively improving efficiency to tackling structural and behavioural changes. The article is available for download.

Ecologic Institute participates in a Framework Contract for Europeaid (2018-2020) for "Sustainable management of Natural Resources and Resilience" in the implementation of external aid. The aim of the Framework Contract is to support and advise European Commission services (Headquarters and EU Delegations) and/or Partner Countries/Organisations along the entire cycle of operations (from design to implementation and evaluation of EU interventions) by providing technical inputs and by assisting in carrying out analysis, studies and providing opinions and advice.

While diffusion patterns are quite well understood in the context of the Global North, diffusion research has only been applied to a limited extent to investigate how policies spread across developing countries. Ecologic Institute's Doris Knoblauch, Linda Mederake and Ulf Stein therefore analyze the diffusion patterns of plastic bag bans and taxes in the Global South and Global North to contribute to the further refinement of diffusion theory by specifically addressing the under-researched Global South. The article is available for download.

BIOBRIDGES's overall aim is to ensure the marketability of sustainable bio-based products by establishing primary partnerships between bio-based industries, brand owners and consumer representatives in cooperation with other stakeholders like local communities, local authorities and industrial actors. The ambition is to create at least two new cross-sector interconnections in bio-based economy clusters.

This brochure includes a set of infographics presenting the top 20 innovative bio-based products in Europe. Through an assessment of the active marketplace, EU-based development, innovation degree and market potential, the top 20 most innovative BBPs holding the greatest promise for commercial deployment within the next 5–10 years were identified. This selection includes engineering materials, new bioplastics, high added-value products for demanding applications in the pharmaceutical and biomedical fields as well as sustainable substitutes for critical raw materials. The brochure is available for download.

Bio-based industries aim to convert biological inputs, residue and wastes into greener everyday products. The industry is small compared to more traditional ones and it is a nascent industry undergoing rapid developments. Developing bio-based products demand technological innovations and market development. The fifteen success stories of specific bio-based products in this brochure, span over nine EU Member States, and they cover a wide range of products and applications. The brochure is available for download.

The RECREATE Green Horizons Scoreboard is a website that presents relevant indicators for tackling societal challenges in the areas of climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials. The Scoreboard provides indicators on ten different Environmental Innovation Systems, or fields of knowledge, that are of high relevance to the areas of climate action, resource efficiency and raw materials.