In October 2011, delegates from Norway's Statsbygg visited Ecologic Institute to gain new perspectives on European and German approaches to sustainable renewable energy solutions, smart grid implementation and smart buildings.

On 24 and 25 October 2011, Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Legal, and Gesa Homann, Researcher at Ecologic Institute, held a seminar on current issues in German and European environmental law at the Berlin Academy of Public Administration (Verwaltungsakademie Berlin).

Flörke, Martina et al. 2011: Final Report for the Project Climate Adaptation - Modelling Water Scenarios and Sectoral Impacts. Center for Environmental Systems Research, Kassel.

Climate change, the finiteness of fossil fuels, national security, and job creation: there are many reasons to invest in renewable energy. In this article in the New York Times, Christoph H. Stefes, Senior Associate at Ecologic Institut, explains that investments in renewable energy are lacking due to the absence of a stable investment environment. The article is available online.

Ecoscholars was an initiative of international scholars hosted by the Ecologic Institute. It was a discussion and networking group located in Berlin. Its members were international researchers, scholars, fellows, and professionals who were involved in climate change, energy, sustainability, and other related environmental fields. Ecologic Institute created a website which provided information about the Ecoscholars network and its events. It provided a tool for users to subscribe to the Ecoscholars mailing list.

The Arctic Summer College builds a policy-oriented network of Arctic professionals from different disciplines and regions to share and discuss ideas with expert speakers via online webinars. The Arctic Summer College Website was realised by Ecologic Institute as an informational backbone of the network. Users can access the blog for news as well as refer to the archived webinar sessions.

EU researchers across an array of projects have produced valuable findings on change, adaptation and development strategies for European mountain regions in recent years. Yet, they often lack resources and experience for disseminating their results to practitioners. This collaborative webplatform, created by Ecologic Institute as part of the mountain.TRIP project, provides scientists with an expandable and user-friendly database of knowledge on communicating research results to practitioners.

In 2010, the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing. The Protocol sets forth rules on access to genetic resources. Among other purposes, research is a main driver of demand for genetic resources. Moreover, the protocol contains an obligation for Parties to ensure that the countries where the genetic resources are found and relevant indigenous communities in these countries are compensated for the use of genetic resources and related knowledge. Ecologic Institute is contributing to a study investigating the options for implementation of the Protocol at the EU level. The study is available for download.

Ecologic Institut 2011: Integrating Mainstream Economic Indicators with Sustainable Development Objectives (IN-STREAM). Newsletter. Berlin.