This area of expertise covers the management and distribution of scarce natural, biogenic and social resources at company, sectoral, regional, and global levels. The focus is on agriculture, forestry and the timber industry, integrative water management as well as food, transportation, energy, waste and recycling management. Various research approaches are used in the analyses, with an integrated perspective in the interplay of methods and content playing a central role. For example, empirical social research examines the cognitive and political processes as well as the networks of actors. Sustainable production, transport and distribution options are determined in operational and economic optimization processes. Finally, the calculation and simulation of material and energy flows are used to illustrate society’s consumption of resources and the effects of consumption on the environment and nature. 

This field of expertise develops concepts and methods that both explain social phenomena and support sustainable transformation processes towards a resource-conserving, climate-neutral society. Life cycle analyses help to make production and consumption patterns more sustainable.

In future research priorities, the integrated perspective is to be expanded in order to gain new insights into complex social transformation processes and to support operational, regional, and sectoral developments. Integrated and sustainable solutions for climate protection, water and food security, biodiversity, and soil conservation as well as resource consumption will be developed and social phenomena such as the marginalization of groups and normative principles in the inter- and intragenerational distribution of resources will be investigated.