Sustainable Consumption and Lifestyles and the Role of Small Scale Initiatives

Abstract

Background information The international conference „SustEcon Conference – The contribution of a sustainable economy to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals” took place on 25 and 26 September 2017 at the Freie Universität in Berlin, Germany (organised by the NaWiKo project). The focus of the conference was on the contributions of the sustainable economy to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This contribution can be observed on a number of different levels: Innovations toward achieving the SDGs are to be as much a topic at the conference as methodological questions about measuring sustainability. In addition to that, the differences between various discourses and concepts and their respective contributions to the sustainable economy were also featured prominently in the conference. A further topic of interest was the (political) framework conditions and barriers to a sustainable economy as well as the contribution of science to the SDGs.