Research

In the Austrian Circular Economy Strategy adopted in 2022, one goal is defined as the reduction of Austria's material footprint from 24 t/cap/a (2019) to 7 t/cap/a by 2050 (BMK 2022). The material footprint is calculated by Statistics Austria as part of the MFA reporting using a calculation tool provided by the Institute for Social Ecology (see Schaffartzik et al. 2014). This tool will be revised and further developed along the following milestones: 1. Workshop #1: Discussion of options for updating and improving the Excel tool developed by BOKU Vienna for calculating raw material equivalents and material footprints as well as assessment of feasibility and decision on implementation. 2. update of the tool: support and contribution to the revision process of the input-output model and implementation in the Excel tool. 3. Workshop #2: Evaluation and discussion of the results of the updated Excel tool in comparison with results from the previous RME tool and with results from the calculation with the Eurostat country tool. Decision on the future procedure.

Levels and structure of energy and resource demands are increasingly recognized as a key critical determinant of feasibility, timing, and costs of climate mitigation actions and their SDG synergies and tradeoffs. The higher the demand, the earlier, the more stringent, and the more costly climate mitigation will have to be. Conversely, lower demands increase the temporal flexibility of climate mitigation and reduce the stringency and costs of mitigation actions, thus also reducing the risks of SDG tradeoffs. Energy and resource demands themselves are intermediary variables, and it is the services and amenities that the use of energy and other resources provides. The efficiency of resource use and the efficiency of alternative service provision models thus moves into center stage of climate mitigation from a demand, or end-use perspective. Because of the high heterogeneity of consumers and the multitude of demand types (food, shelter, mobility, communication, etc.) the theoretical understanding and modeling of “demand” (outside aggregated simplistic formulation) remains limited and fragmented, as are resulting capabilities to propose and to assess demand-side policy interventions from the twin angle of climate mitigation as well as of promoting the SDGs. Overall project objectives 1. to improve the state-of-art of demand modeling in environmental and climate policy analysis, via methods and model intercomparisons and assisting the transfer of conceptual and methodological improvements across disciplines, sectors, and environmental domains. 2. to better inform policy via structured model experiments and simulations that assess potential impacts, barriers, as well as synergies and tradeoffs to other SDG objectives of demand-side policy interventions, particularly in novel fields and service provision models such as digitalization, sharing economy, or the integration of SDG and climate objectives in synergistic policy designs. 3. EDITS focuses on both the human and the technical resources by launching an expert network and a demand-side model comparison exercise.

The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Institute of Social Ecology is cooperating with Kunst Haus Wien GmbH on the exhibition "Into the Woods: Approaches to the Forest Ecosystem" from April to August 2024. The exhibition deals with the forest habitat, its processes and threats and has brought together around 15 contemporary artists. The aims of the cooperation are to provide scientific thematic support for the exhibition, to write educational texts ("fact boxes"), to write a specialist article for the exhibition publication on Climate & Forest and to engage in joint activities. This specialist contribution will deal with key issues relating to the topic of forests, including the most important gaps in knowledge, and their scientific presentation for a non-specialist audience. Events such as a Future Talk or excursions involving members of the Institute of Social Ecology are also planned. The aim of the collaboration is to raise awareness of the importance of forests and bring the topic of ecological change to a wider audience. This cooperation creates a unique space in which the expertise of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences and the artistic representations of Kunst Haus Wien come together. The aim is also to inspire visitors and open up new perspectives on the importance of forests.