About CENTOS

The transition to sustainability is a complex project of societal change. The Oldenburg Centre for Sustainability Economics and Management (CENTOS) is dedicated to addressing the research questions required for this task.

CENTOS combines scientific competence and activities in the area of environmental economics and sustainability management which have been developed over the course of the past two decades at the University of Oldenburg, and which have now attained high national and international visibility.

CENTOS is concerned with environmental economic analyses, and with the design of processes of change and learning in companies and other stakeholders in society. The focus is particularly on business networks, new services, application systems and institutional change in the context of sustainable development. At the overall economic level, the evaluation of environmental change, the design of environmental policy measures, their political and economic determinants and their economic effects are central.

Modern concepts and methods of environmental economics and policy, questions of environmental education, consumer and lifestyle-related aspects as well as culturalistic perspectives of sustainable consumption are taken into account, as are transdisciplinary approaches in research on innovation and entrepreneurship.

At present, climate protection and energy supply, food, information and communications technologies, the textile business and mobility are among the concrete areas of investigation.

The Centre addresses the following research focus areas:

• Environmental and resource economics
• Ecological economics
• Business sustainability research, with a cultural studies base
• Sustainability-oriented learning at the individual and the societal levels
• Sustainability-oriented innovation research and sustainable supply chain management
• Environmental policy and environmental law
• Economic and business ethics.

 

The magazine EINBLICKE also provides insight into the work of CENTOS:

Dear Reader,

Just a few years ago, the question as to whether the concept of sustainability might not have to be abandoned because it was too difficult to implement was being discussed even in groups and initiatives which dealt with sustainable development. Today, the situation has changed fundamentally: the sad certainty that global climate change is already with us, and as to what could happen if we carry on as we have been, along with such developments as peak oil, the end of cheap oil, and now the global financial crisis – which has also become an economic crisis – have caused the idea of sustainability to become a household word. It is precisely the short-term thinking that has prevailed in production, consumption and on the global financial markets that has raised the demand for the regulatory concepts of sustainable development of the economy and of society. Particularly the economics disciplines, which despite a few lone voices pleading for caution, were caught completely off guard by the financial and economic crisis, are now called upon to make their contribution to the solution of the problems, for the threatening scientific scenarios must be translated into new development paths for production and consumption ...

INTRODUCTION
Klaus Fichter, Reinhard Pfriem

INVENTING THE MODERN AGE NEW
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Jörg Pietsch

THE RULES OF CHANGE
Uwe Schneidewind

HOW CAN SUSTAINABILITY BE BROUGHT ABOUT?
Klaus Fichter

POLITICAL-SOCIETAL LEARNING AND SUSTAINABILITY
Bernd Siebenhüner

ECONOMICS BEYOND GROWTH
Niko Paech

THE CRISIS OF THE FINANCIAL MARKETS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Stefanie Huß

DOES GREEN ELECTRICITY MAKE US HAPPY?  
Heinz Welsch

A PROPER SENSE OF PROPORTION AS A CULTURAL ISSUE IN ALIMENTATION
Irene Antoni-Komar, Reinhard Pfriem

“WE HAVE TO CHANGE OUR LIFESTYLES”
Klaus Töpfer

PRIVATE HOUSEHOLDS AND INTELLIGENT ENERGY SUPPLY
Thorsten Raabe

HOW TO MAKE YOUR COMPUTER GREEN?
Jens Claußen, Klaus Fichter, Ralph Hintemann

ENERGY EDUCATION AT VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS
Jane Porath, Karin Rebmann, Tobias Schlömer

COMPANY SUSTAINABILITY REPORTS ON THE INTERNET
Jorge Marx Gomez, Daniel Süpke

 “NORTHWEST 2050” PROJECT
Klaus Fichter, Reinhard Pfriem, Bernd Siebenhüner