Sustainability is well-known as a slow issue. It is rarely published as a top-seller story or an indepth report. But today a few journalistic pioneers succeed in telling the sustainability story, although the mainstream does not. The Institute for Environmental Communications at the Leuphana University of Lueneburg in Germany did interview 29 journalists and scientists having their background in sustainability. The interviewers asked for journalistic tools and methods for successful media reporting on sustainability and sustainable development. After
the interviews, the results were presented and discussed in an expert meeting with journalists and scientists. This study founds an urgent need for qualification among journalists. Instead of na clear comprehension of sustainability the journalistic debate on sustainability is largely blunted, overwhelmed by its complexity and lacking specific knowledge. Among sustainability journalists we find three general types: conservative, reforming and transformative sustainability journalists. Conservative sustainability journalism sees few specific differences between sustainability journalism and other forms of journalism.
Sustainability is therefore seen as just another issue to write about. In opposite reforming and transformative sustainability journalists indicate a stronger need to adapt journalistic tools and views. The study examined that for reformers and transformatives, that journalism is meant as a general task for all related agents and structures in journalism. Instead of establishing distinct divisions or a new group of professionals, appropriate niches in established media and new channels have to be discovered to systematically integrate the general principle of sustainability in the landscape of German media. Sustainability journalism
is also characterized by its interdisciplinary perspective and competency to imagine future visions. According to reforming and transformative types sustainability issues require a change of speed in journalism, allowing both immediate as well as in-depth reporting with lesser economic restrictions of media. Qualification, networking and space for experiments would contribute to give sustainability issues an appropriate frame in media reporting. The distinguishing attribute of transformative sustainability journalists is to go beyond traditional forms of journalism, i.e. news and opinion-oriented
journalism, but also to experiment with a form of sustainability-related embedded journalism indicating ways for participation.