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

    Development and Validation of the German Climate Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (GCAS-A)

    Voltmer, K. & Harloff, L., 05.2025, In: Praxis der Kinderpsychologie und Kinderpsychiatrie. 74, 4, p. 350-370 21 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  2. Published

    The Challenge of Introducing Sustainability-Oriented Innovation—An Ethnographic Study

    Śliwińska, I., Beńko, P., Breuer, H., Ciesielska, M., Ivanov, K., Kasz, J. & Matras-Postołek, K., 06.2025, In: Sustainable Development. 33, 3, p. 4191-4203 13 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  3. Published
  4. Published

    Perceptions of nature and its non-material contributions to people at Mount Kilimanjaro

    Degano, M. E., Augustino Kwaslema, S., Böhning-Gaese, K., Hemp, A., Lehnen, L., Martín-López, B., Pearson, J., Mueller, T. & Arbieu, U., 07.2025, In: People and Nature. 7, 7, p. 1697-1712 16 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  5. Published

    Quantification of phototrophically grown Galdieria sulphuraria and other microalgae using diphenylamine

    Hashe, L., Masudi, W. L., Chiyanzu, I., Schönfelder, S., Pleissner, D. & Cowan, A. K., 08.2025, In: Journal of Applied Phycology. 37, 4, p. 2329-2338 10 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  6. Published

    We have to talk! Claims of early career researchers to transform circular economy research

    Beyeler, L., Eimterbäumer, M., Jürgens, M., Böckel, A., Schoch, K., Bichler, R. M., Straub-Mück, M., Molnár, M. & Jaeger-Erben, M., 07.2025, In: Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 221, 3 p., 108423.

    Research output: Journal contributionsComments / Debate / ReportsResearch

  7. Published

    Contributions of Net-Map to sustainability action research

    Cortés-Calderón, S. V., López-Rodríguez, M. D., Jiménez-Aceituno, A., Castro, A. J. & Mancilla-García, M., 08.2025, In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. 75, 101542.

    Research output: Journal contributionsScientific review articlesResearch

  8. Published

    Local nutrient addition drives plant diversity losses but not biotic homogenization in global grasslands

    Chen, Q., Blowes, S. A., Harpole, W. S., Ladouceur, E., Borer, E. T., MacDougall, A., Martina, J. P., Bakker, J. D., Tognetti, P. M., Seabloom, E. W., Daleo, P., Power, S., Roscher, C., Adler, P. B., Donohue, I., Wheeler, G., Stevens, C., Veen, G. F. C., Risch, A. C., Wardle, G. M., Hautier, Y., Estrada, C., Hersch-Green, E., Niu, Y., Peri, P. L., Eskelinen, A., Gruner, D. S., Olde Venterink, H., D’Antonio, C., Cadotte, M. W., Haider, S., Eisenhauer, N., Catford, J., Virtanen, R., Morgan, J. W., Tedder, M., Bagchi, S., Caldeira, M. C., Bugalho, M. N., Knops, J. M. H., Dickman, C. R., Hagenah, N., Jentsch, A., Macek, P., Osborne, B. B., Laanisto, L. & Chase, J. M., 12.2025, In: Nature Communications. 16, 1, 8 p., 4903.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  9. Published

    The role of self-care and self-compassion in networks of resilience and stress among healthcare professionals

    Pank, C., von Boros, L., Lieb, K., Dalkner, N., Egger-Lampl, S., Lehr, D., Schäfer, S. K., Tüscher, O. & Wessa, M., 12.2025, In: Scientific Reports. 15, 1, 18545.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  10. Published

    Disabling barriers—Coping with accessibility of nature in Biosphere Reserves

    Winkler, K. J., Kosanic, A. & Martín-López, B., 07.2025, In: People and Nature. 7, 7, p. 1483-1490 8 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Selbstkonzept von Lernenden beim Abschätzen physikalischer Größen
  2. Den Wort-Schatz heben
  3. Analyse von Lernmaterialien zum „Satz des Pythagoras“ für einen inklusiven Matehmatikunterricht in der Sek. I
  4. Business Model Concepts in Corporate Sustainability Contexts
  5. Landscape heterogenity affects the functional diversity of grassland Lepidoptera
  6. Media Review: Contemporary Art as Collective Organizing (and its Contradictions)
  7. Organizing Media
  8. Von der Abschaffung des Lehrers
  9. Sondernummer TEMI – Teaching Enquiry with Mysteries incorporated
  10. Ästhetische Bildung zwischen Markt und Mythos
  11. Romantische Ideen im modernen Gewand
  12. Der BilWiss-2.0-Test
  13. Das amerikanische Notstandregime nach dem 11. September 2001
  14. Gender-Mainstreaming in der Sozialpädagogik
  15. Unterstützung des Lesens im Fachunterricht
  16. Hannah Arendt
  17. Die Beurteilung der Arbeitsbedingungen durch Unternehmer und Arbeitnehmer
  18. Stability and selectivity of alkaline proteases in hydrophilic solvents
  19. The Social Organization of Arts
  20. Souveränität und Hypertrophie
  21. Novel analgesic triglycerides from cultures of Agaricus macrosporus and other basidiomycetes as selective inhibitors of neurolysin
  22. Cost-benefit ratio and empirical examination of the acceptance of heathland maintenance in the Lueneburg Heath nature reserve
  23. Das zweite Jahrzehnt
  24. Mathilde Hennig (Hg.). 2013. Die Ellipse. Neue Perspektiven auf ein altes Phänomen
  25. Zweitalphabetisierung
  26. Cultural Influences on Errors
  27. Ammonia volatilization after application of urea to winter wheat over 3 years affected by novel urease and nitrification inhibitors
  28. Taxonomic revision of the Graphipterus serrator (Forskål) group (Coleoptera, Carabidae)
  29. Equal or diverse?: Richterliche und exekutive Unabhängigkeit im Vergleich
  30. Zwischen den Extremen