Since the publication of the Brundtland Report (1987) and the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio in 1992,
sustainable development has become a relevant societal model around the
world. The implementation of the concept implies challenges for researchers
in a variety of disciplines:
At the corporate level, sustainable development
was first addressed with technological developments and integrated product
policies. In the 1990s, new (environmental) management approaches gained
momentum. Only a few years ago was sustainable development first conceived
as a strategic challenge striving to integrate economic, social and
environmental issues. Companies face this challenge of integration with
a variety of voluntary activities, often referred to as Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR).
Our strength is interdisciplinary work embracing technology,
management, judicial and social sciences. Our corresponding
research objective is to analyse the interfaces and interactions between
enterprises and their stakeholders as well as to study the legal and
institutional environment in which corporations operate. Instead of
interpreting sustainable development as a costly societal claim, we
explore potential benefits (such as competitive advantages) of CSR as
a business approach.
At the political level, an adequate regulatory and
legislative framework for sustainable development needs to be set up.
Key challenges in this respect include effective collaboration between
various political actors within and beyond the state, the involvement
of stakeholders in decision making and the selection as well as the
adequate usage of various policy instruments.
Our strength is that we combine political science and management
science in the context of sustainable development in theoretical
as well as application-oriented research and consulting projects. Our
interdisciplinary work shows the potentials and limitations of such
a disciplinary cross-over. Our corresponding research objective is to
analyse the changing relations between states and businesses from both
a political science and a management science perspective. In so doing,
we explore the extent to which private sector practices are relevant
for the public sector, and vice versa.
Regarding civil society and its individuals, sustainable
development means questioning dominating patterns of behaviour and consumption.
In this respect, information, education and the creation of viable alternatives
are important. Since sustainable consumption strongly depends on subjective
needs and local knowledge, civil society representatives are asked to
participate in the public- and private-sector decision making processes.
By employing sociology, political science and management science,
we build bridges between the issues of regional development, civil society
movements and consumption. Our corresponding research objective is to
analyse the changing relations between businesses or the state on the
one hand and civil society on the other (for example in the field of
sustainable consumption).
The following list gives an overview of all current and previous RIMAS projects.
All projects
Projects (1-77 of 77)
2013 - 2015
COBALT - COntributing to Building of Awareness, Learning and Transfer of knowledge on sustainable use of raw materials (Details)
2012 - 2015
EUROSTAT Monitoring Report and flagship publications (Details)
2012 - 2016
DYNAMIX - DYNAmic policy MIXes for absolute decoupling of environmental impact of EU resource use from economic growth (Details)
2012 - 2016
Framework contract "Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Space Policy" (Details)
2012 - 2012
Organizer of a Professional Development Workshop on "Revisiting Responsible Competitiveness - The Business Case for CSR from a Systemic Perspective (Details)
Facilitation of Workshops on "The Sustainability of DG SANCO policies – New Consumption and Production Patterns" (Details)
2008 -
Evaluation of the styrian environmental program (Details)
2008 - 2011
EASY-ECO 2008-2010 - Evaluation of Sustainability - Euro-Conferences, Training and eLearning Plattform (Details)
2008 - 2008
Socially Responsible Investing und Corporate Social Responsibility (Details)
2008 - 2010
Responsible Competitiveness - Exploring the links between CSR and competitiveness on a sector basis (Details)
2008 - 2008
Forschungslandkarte ökonomischer Nachhaltigkeitsforschung – Vorstudie für ein Forschungsprogramm zur nachhaltigen Wirtschaftsordnung (Details)
2007 - 2008
Sustainable Development in Turkey: Integration Methodologies and Indicators of Sustainable Development (Details)
2007 - 2008
Review of the Serbian Sustainable Development (SD) Strategy (Details)
2007 - 2008
Weiterentwicklung der Deutschen Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie - Internationale Vergleichsstudie zu gesellschaftlichen Konsultationsprozessen bei der Formulierung und Weiterentwicklung nationaler Nachhaltigkeitsstrategien (Details)
2007 - 2008
Study on contributions of the regional and local authorities to sustainable development strategies (Details)
2007 - 2007
The Role of Government in Social Responsibility: summarising a side-event of the 5th Meeting of the ISO Working Group on Social Responsibility (Details)
2007 - 2007
Conference of „Verband der deutschen Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft e.V. Kommission Umweltwirtschaft” (Details)
2007 - 2011
Agrobiodiversity and Stakeholder Management in the Seed Industry (Details)
2007 - 2008
Theory Based Evaluation of the Austrian EcoLabel (Details)
2007 - 2007
Pilot study for developing a monitoring methodology for FP7's contribution to the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (DG Research) (Details)
2007 - 2007
Wissenschaftliche Betreuung des Workshop "Unternehmen und soziale Nachhaltigkeit - umsetzen, bewerten, auszeichnen" (Details)
2007 - 2007
SDI Analysis of Sustainable Development Indicators (Details)
Prozessberatung und Moderation bei der partizipativen Entwicklung des Nachhaltigkeits-Innovations-Zentrums Salzburg (Details)
2006 - 2007
Evaluation des Beratungsprogrammes "ÖkoManagement Niederösterreich" (Details)
2006 - 2007
Evaluation der regionalen Programme für einen nachhaltigen betrieblichen Umweltschutz (Details)
2006 - 2008
CSR policies in Europe - Analysis of national public policies on CSR, in support of a structured exchange of information on national CSR policies and initiatives (Details)
2006 - 2008
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Sustainability in Central-Eastern Europe in comparison with Western Europe (Details)
2006 - 2013
European Sustainable Development Network (ESDN) (Details)
(c)
2013 Research Institute for Managing Sustainability