SERI InfoMail

Dear friends and colleagues,

welcome to the 2nd edition of SERI's InfoMail in 2010!

Find the past editions of our InfoMail on www.seri.at/infomail

SERI Highlight

UN Report on Trends in Sustainable Development
The UN Division for Sustainable Development has published a new report called „Trends in Sustainable Development – Towards Sustainable Consumption and Production: 2010-2011“ in which trends in resource extraction and use as well as key stresses on the world’s ecosystems and life-support systems to which human activities are contributing are highlighted. The report uses data from the SERI database on resource extraction available at www.materialflows.net. Details

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Second International Conference on Sustainability Science in June
The Second International Conference on Sustainability Science (ICSS2010) will be held from >23 – 25 June in Rome, Italy. Jill Jäger will give the Keynote Address on June 25th. For more information on the conference see icss2010.net

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SERI paper on "Reducing resource consumption" highlighted as especially valuable
On 13 April German Ministries on Environment and Economic Cooperation invited to the National Dialog Forum to prepare for the upcoming meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) in N.Y. In context of the Spessial Issues of the meeting 'mining' and 'sustainable consumption and production' some critic was given to the political fosus on resource efficiency. As an important contribution helpful to shift attention from efficiency approaches to those of effective resource consumption NGO representatives recommended the Friends of the Earth Europe position paper an 'Europe's Global Responsibility' written by SERI. Furtheron, Sylvia Lorek, participating in the event, highlighted the need to start considering the need for economic degrowth to meet the needs of climate change as well as resource scarity.

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SERI @ 2nd Degrowth conference
Degrowth appears to be an emerging scientific challenge as well as a social movement, especially in southern European countries. In this sense the 2nd Degrowth conference organized in Barcelona from 26-29 April 2010 combined the two communities for fruitful exchange between practitioners and activists from civil society and academics. Among the 300 participants Sylvia Lorek, Elke Pirgmaier and Joachim Spangenberg from SERI followed the inspiring as well as demanding conference format of intensive working groups, poster sessions and traditional oral presentations. The intellectual work was embedded in practice on sustainability including music and art as well as fresh prepared vegan food and local wine. The input posters and papers to the conference as well as the results of the exchange between the participants can be followed at www.degrowth.eu

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Stephan Lutter at The Steady State Economy Conference
On 19 June the conference will take place in Leeds and will bring together NGOs, academics, businesses, politicians, the media, and the general public to explore an ecologically and socially responsible alternative to economic growth: the steady state economy. Keynote presentations include Peter Victor, Andrew Simms, Jan O’Neill, Tim Jackson. Stephan Lutter will hold a workshop on Limiting resource use and waste production. Conference Details.

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Femtech expert of the month: Ines Omann

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For further information about SERI projects please go to www.seri.at/news

How does active citizen engagement contribute to more energy aware lifestyles and how can it be promoted?
These are the main questions in the recently started project PEng – Privates Engagement im Energiebereich (Private Engagement in the energy system)”. The project is led by IFZ Graz, SERI is the main project partner. We are analyzing and collaborating with two energy initiatives in Austria: the Ökoregion Kaindorf and the Ökostrombörse. Details

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New SERI project ClimSave on adaptation to climate change
ClimSave develops and applies an integrated methodology for a stakeholder-led assessment on climate change impact and vulnerability and develops most effective and suitable adaptation measures for vulnerability hotspots.

Together with the University of Edinburgh, SERI co-leads a work package that will identify vulnerability hotspots and analyse uncertainties in impacts. You find more informations on the project-website !

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Final Report “The economic benefits of environmental policy” online!
This report describes the areas in which environmental policies deliver Europe’s current economic priorities, often more successfully than other forms of economic policy intervention. It provides evidence of the role of environmental policy both in providing a short term economic stimulus and in building a sustainable, efficient and resilient economy in the long term. It highlights many areas where environmental policy is essential for sustainable economic progress. Details

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EcoFIT: EcoLOGICAL FOOTPRINT for IT ASSESSMENT
After the successful completion of the 1st project phase EcoFIT (1) in spring 2009, Siemens IT Solutions and Services, footprint consult and SERI are continuing their interdisciplinary cooperation. Purpose of this project: creating an EcoFIT-Assessment-Tool to evaluate, for instance the ecologic footprint of IT-based Business Services (e.g. E-mail). Details: www.seri.at/ecofit2

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CEECEC Ecological Economics Online Course is starting
29 students from many different CSOs (Civil Society Organizations) from all over the world are going to be challenged to link real-life case studies to the broader field of ecological economics and to understand the basic concepts and methods of ecological economics in their application to a wide variety of environmental problems and conflicts. SERI’s Johannes Frühmann and Magdalena Mayr have helped organizing this course and will report about the results. Visit the CEECEC website.

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Review: LebensKlimaKonferenz in Gmunden
The project “Lebensklima” is investigating analysing these relationships in the context of two regional case studies – Gmunden (an example for a small urban region) and Graz (urban agglomeration). The project aims for a continuation of activities to reduce the human’s impact on climate change through close collaboration with the public authorities of the case study regions. With the strong participation of citizens at the regional level, the reference to the their needs and concerns can be addressed and elicited. Few weeks ago, the second focus group "LebensKlimaKonferenz" took place in Gmunden. Details (German)

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Cooperation Friends oft he Earth / SERI: new publication and Event at Brussels
For two years, SERI is working as scientific consultant for the NGO “Friends of the Earth”. The main goal is to establish a solid system to measure the resource use in Europe in order to assure an efficient use with our natural resources. Both partners have already developed an indicator sheet, which is dealing with the question how to measure the resource use of European countries (download here).

Friends of the Earth is hosting an event regarding the issue “Measuring the European resource use” in Brussels on May 30th and June 1st, where also a discussion with members of the European Parliament is going to take place. There, SERI will present the indicator-set which is used to measure the resource use. Details

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Book presentation: Endlich im Endlichen
Fred Luks new book "Endlich im Endlichen: Oder: Warum die Rettung der Welt Ironie und Großzügigkeit erfordert" is directed to people who are comitted to save the world like the community of sustainability scientists. Fred Luks postulates that there is a strong need for more irony to find oneself in a reasonable position to analyse what the world asks for and who really needs to be saved. Fritz Hinterberger participated in a panel discussion organized on the occasion of the first presentation of Fred Luks' book to the public.

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