On 16 March, I had a one-hour dialogue with Prof. Vandana Shiva from India – organised by Dr. Alfred Strigl (Vienna) and Alexandra Wandel (Director of the World Future Council). The conversation took place at the 7th Pioneers of Change Online Summit, and was themed “Future Visions & System Change – WHERE TO?”. A recording […] more…
Joe Fensterle, Professor at the HSRW in Kleve, talks to Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker about climate change and sustainability, the Wuppertal Institute, science communication, tradable CO2 budgets, and how important initiatives like FridaysForFuture are. more…
Here are the slides of my talk on “Circular Economy, Cascade Use and Efficiency as Pillars of a Factor Five World“ at the LCM 2011 – Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Management, on August 28–31 at the dahlem cube in Berlin. more…
There is one unchallenged parameter for quality rankings of universities: publications in peer-reviewed journals. The same holds for quality measurements of candidates applying for professors’ chairs at ambitious research universities. Peer-reviewed publications typically have a rather narrow disciplinary scope. more…
This title contrasts with the preoccupation with labour productivity during the last 200 years of technological progress. Labour productivity has been the melody of the first Industrial Revolution. It increased twentyfold or more during those 200 years. This has been the basis of prosperity and it is the main theme of China’s stunning economic progress. more…
The subtitle of the report of the World Commission for the Social Dimension of Globalization, which you were involved in, is “Creating opportunities for all”. It also mentions the role of companies and of the UN Global Compact, which Bosch also joined in 2004. more…
We live in a finite world. Ultimately, there is no way around production and consumption patterns that are sustainable. Ultimately, customers, engineers, managers and politicians will show a strict priority for the respect of nature and the environment. more…
The answer to this question should be yes and no. Yes, we are closer than ten years ago. During all of he 1990s, an irritatingly optimistic mindset was dominating the world. The very expression of ‘saving the planet’ would not have been politically correct in these days, because it sounds ‘pessimistic’. more…
The global environment is endangered. We are losing some fifty plant and animal species every day. The global climate is beginning to become hotter. Unpredictable changes may hit countries both in the temperate and tropical zones. Theoretically even the sea water table is unstable. more…
I shall briefly offer some unconventional views on Japan and then move on to discuss the megatrend of globalisation which I see as the main reason for the massive neglect of the environment. I shall conclude with an attempt at establishing a new sense of direction for technology, civilisation and investments. more…