It is not the scarcity of resources that constitutes environmental problems, but their use, the physical throughput of our economies. Material flows are a proxy for the totality of the unspecific environmental risks from human activities. As a strategic goal, an increase of the life-cycle-wide...

It is not the scarcity of resources that constitutes environmental problems, but their use, the physical throughput of our economies. Material flows are a proxy for the totality of the unspecific environmental risks from human activities. As a strategic goal, an increase of the life-cycle-wide...

This paper reports on an Austrian research project that deals with the question how the Austrian society could cope with long-lasting low economic growth. Various causes of low-growth that are relevant for Austria (a deteriorating balance of trade, increasing resource prices, consumer restraint...

Most concepts of environmental policy do not consider adequately the complexity of nature and society. While neoclassical economics seems to fall into the trap of steering illusion, evolutionary economic concepts that consider societal complexity are too optimistic about the favours of...

Following conferences in Pignans, Maastricht, Vienna and Cologne and many e-mail exchanges, the participants of the GoSD-research initiative have identified a path for future research that describes not only governance and sustainable development but also how governance can be *for* sustainable...

The EU recently emphasised the need to speed up the pace of reforms to improve the state of the environment both in Europe and internationally. This becomes in particular challenging, as the "Lisbon Strategy" defines the general goal of an annual economic growth rate of 3%. Decoupling of...