Organisation profile

Sustainability has many facets. Inter- and transdisciplinary research and teaching characterize the School of Sustainability. Scientists in our research projects work together in the laboratory, on the heath, in the grassland, in the classroom, with the city administration, with farmers, with non-governmental organizations, with companies, with students in the lecture hall and of course at their desks.

Furthermore, we work with regional and national political actors, e.g. ministries, as well as international organizations, e.g. UNEP, UNESCO, EU. We are part of national and international bodies, e.g. sustainability advisory boards of companies, member of the German Sustainability Award, World Biodiversity Council (IPBES), in order to contribute to social change with scientific findings.

Main research areas

Vision
Sustainability science investigates on a theoretical, conceptual and empirical level how to promote sustainable development and how to find and implement effective solutions for current social and ecological challenges. The aim is to create a more sustainable future.

Sustainability researchers are called upon to take responsibility for their research, which is anchored in existing scientific knowledge and methods and serves to make the world a better place for everyone.

Mission
We promote change towards a sustainable future by developing theories, concepts and practices of inclusive education for sustainability, research, governance and management.

We acknowledge the diversity and dynamics of values, norms and behaviour and contribute with transdisciplinary methods to ensuring that tensions and differences between different disciplines, methods, topics and standards are fruitfully taken up and used with productive compromises and further developments towards sustainable development.

Principles
The School of Sustainability is guided by the normative concepts of ecological system integrity and social and economic justice.

Ecological system integrity refers to the safeguarding of life-support systems, as well as the maintenance of the well-being of life on Earth.

With social and economic justice we strive for a world in which all people can fulfil their potential without endangering system integrity and the well-being of others.

Information about the School
The School of Sustainability includes...
... ca. 25 professors
... ca. 100 research assistants
... ca. 1000 students in Bachelor and Master courses

In various inter- and transdisciplinary projects we are constantly researching and working together on changes and solutions for current challenges.

  1. Published

    Evidence for climatic changes around the Matuyama-Brunhes Boundary (MBB) inferred from a multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental study of the GBY#2 core, Jordan River Valley, Israel

    Proborukmi, M. S., Urban, B., Mischke, S., Mienis, H. K., Melamed, Y., Dupont-Nivet, G., Jourdan, F. & Goren-Inbar, N., 01.01.2018, In: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 489, p. 166-185 20 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  2. Published

    Evidence for regional-scale declines in carabid beetles in old lowland beech forests following a period of severe drought

    Weiss, F., Winter, S., Pflugmacher, D., Kolling, T. & Linde, A., 07.2024, In: Landscape Ecology. 39, 7, 19 p., 123.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  3. Published

    Evidence for the age and timing of environmental change associated with a Lower Palaeolithic site within the Middle Pleistocene Reinsdorf sequence of the Schöningen coal mine, Germany

    Tucci, M., Krahn, K. J., Richter, D., van Kolfschoten, T., Álvarez, B. R., Verheijen, I., Serangeli, J., Lehmann, J., Degering, D., Schwalb, A. & Urban, B., 01.05.2021, In: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 569, 110309.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  4. Published

    Evolutionäres Management für den ewigen Frühling

    Möller, A., 01.03.2009, In: Ökologisches Wirtschaften. 24, 1, p. 47-50 4 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearch

  5. Published
  6. Published
  7. Published

    Evolution of game-play in the Australian Football League from 2001 to 2015

    Woods, C. T., Robertson, S. & Collier, N., 02.10.2017, In: Journal of Sports Sciences. 35, 19, p. 1879-1887 9 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  8. Published

    Excavations at Schöningen and paradigm shifts in human evolution

    Conard, N. J., Serangeli, J., Böhner, U., Starkovich, B. M., Miller, C. E., Urban, B. & van Kolfschoten, T., 02.12.2015, In: Journal of Human Evolution. 89, p. 1-17 17 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  9. Published

    Exemplarisch lernen an der "Lüneburger Heide": Mit Komplexität und Vielperspektivität umgehen lernen

    Stoltenberg, U. (Editor), Preisigke, J. (Editor), Drexhage, J. (Editor) & Lienau, R. (Editor), 12.2014, 1. ed. Bad Homburg: VAS Verlag für Akademische Schriften. 201 p. (Bildung für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung in Kindergarten und Grundschule: Lüneburger Beiträge; vol. 3)

    Research output: Books and anthologiesCollected editions and anthologiesEducation

  10. Published

    EXKURS: Klimawandel im Modellgebiet Lüneburger Heide - Wasserverfügbarkeit als zentrale Herausforderung

    Mersch, I. & Urban, B., 2014, Kursbuch Klimaanpassung: Handlungsoptionen für die Metropolregion Hamburg. K.-N. V. (ed.). Hamburg: TuTech Verlag, p. 80-81 2 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to scientific reportsResearch