Wuppertal Institute

The "Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy" is based in Wuppertal, Germany, and was founded by Professor Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker in 1991. It explores and develops models, strategies and instruments to support sustainable development at local, national and international level. Sustainability research at the Wuppertal Institute focuses on ecology and its relation to economy and society. Special emphasis is put on analysing and supporting technological and social innovations that decouple prosperity and economic growth from the use of natural resources.

The core research fields of the Institute's research groups are:

* Future Energy and Mobility Structures
* Energy, Transport and Climate Policy
* Material Flows and Resource Management
* Sustainable Production and Consumption

Shaping a more sustainable society raises a number of challenges that are best solved through integrated research. Scientists from the Wuppertal Institute's research units therefore join forces in cross-cutting projects:

* Sustainable Globalisation
* Eco-Sufficiency and Quality of Life
* Integrated Sustainability Scenarios

Most of the numerous publications and research reports are available at the Institute's homepage.

In 2004 an office in Berlin was started and in the year 2005 the UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP) was founded in Wuppertal.

Material input per unit of service

Material input per unit of service ("MIPS") is a unit of eco-efficiency that quantifies the sustainability of production by breaking down products into services they provide and examining the amount of material that needs to be displaced in order to provide "a unit of service". The MIPS concept was originally developed at the Wuppertal Institute by a team led by Prof. Friedrich Schmidt-Bleek in 1993.

As an example: Automobile factories don't make automobiles but services of transportation. A car is broken down into the mileage it provides as services and that is evaluated against total material displacement in manufacturing, fueling, maintenance and waste disposal.

Further reading

* Sachs, Wolfgang, Tilman Santarius, and Patrick Camiller. "Fair Future: Resource Conflicts, Security and Global Justice : a Report of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy". London: Zed Books, 2007. ISBN 1842777297

See also

* Eco-sufficiency
* UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP)

External links

* [http://www.wupperinst.org/ Wuppertal Institute Homepage]
* [http://www.scp-centre.org/ CSCP Homepage]