Our 13 key results and recommendations

1. We are well aware that we are locked-in in unsustainable patterns of consumption - now is the time to figure out how to unlock ourselves and abandon them.


2. We need decoupling of economic growth from both resource use and environmental impacts. 


3. We have increased labor productivity but have not sufficiently responded to the scarcity of raw materials and overuse of natural sinks: Resource productivity also demands proper taxation and incentive-structures. 


4. Education and qualification to act: We need programs addressing politicians, consumers, market actors, students and children on a global scale.


5. There is urgent need for an international land-use policy and strategy.


6. Radical change of status quo is a socio-economic mega-task related to the resources and capacities of the natural environment: Therefore the involvement and cooperation of experts from different sectors and disciplines is required.


7. Infrastructures need to be transformed and within that process especially non-technical barriers such as social dynamics and regulatory barriers must be addressed.


8. Europe has to present a new economic model, as we did 200 years ago in the industrial revolution. We must use the momentum which was built up during the past 20 years and the window of opportunity given by the financial crisis.


9. The European Union needs to build a strategic alliance with partners beyond the usual suspects: Countries with the willingness to turn and transform. 


10. In light of the global and interrelated challenges, we need a systemic set of policies - not isolated instruments.


11. In Europe, we need to make greater use of the dynamics and drive of smaller scale actors such as cities and municipalities to overcome governability problems.


12. Cost reductions through resource efficiency gains are already a central driver for business and consumers, but we need to further engage them and create strategies and visions of the future resource-base of our society.


13. Strategies must address the rebound effect by targeting the triangle of sufficiency (absolute reduction), efficiency (relative reduction) and consistency (substitution of critical materials and products, circular material flows).

Student team, Leuphana University Lueneburg
Adeline Wagner, Sebastian Koch, Florian Reinert, Svenja Stropahl