Peter Himsel/DBU

DBU-Symposium 2017

28.10.2017 in Braunschweig

Efficiency – Sufficiency – Circular Economy: Future Resource Strategy

Sustainable and efficient use of resources is considered an important prerequisite for sustainable societies. To what extent can efficient use of resources reduce the consumption of raw materials? What are the opportunities and limitations of the circular economy? Is the idea of sufficiency socially feasible? All these questions were the focus of this year’s symposium “Efficiency – Sufficiency – Circular Economy: Future Resource Strategy”, which took place in Braunschweig in the run-up to the award ceremony for the German Environmental Award 2017.

Our prosperity depends on raw materials. At the same time, the consumption of natural resources already exceeds the earth’s regenerative capacity and also leads to social inequalities. Current scientific findings on the so-called Planetary Boundaries prove that the carrying capacity of Earth systems can only be kept stable within certain load limits. Similarly, 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals require sustainable natural resource management.

In the symposium, the DBU picked up on the focus of the work of last year’s Environmental Award winners: Bas van Abel, Prof. Dr. Angelika Mettke and Walter Feeß were honored in Würzburg in 2016 for their pioneering work in the field of resource efficiency. Together with them, leading scientists and technical experts discussed the multi-layered and multi-faceted topic of future resource strategy.

You can find our social media activities under the hashtag: #uwp17