Everyday Ecology, Energy, Consumption
Project:
Sustainable Acting in Business and Private Daily Life (NaHa)
Project Coordination
Dr. Ulrike Seebacher, Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture, Graz
Project partners:
IFZ – Inter-University Research Centre for
Technology, Work and Culture, Graz (coordination)
ISOE – Institute for Social-Ecological Research,
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
IfGP – Institute for Health Promotion and Prevention,
Ltd.
UBZ – Environmental Education Center Steiermark, Graz
Project head in ISOE:
Project team in ISOE:
Dr. Konrad Götz
Dr. Irmgard Schultz
Barbara Birzle-Harder
Duration :
10/2008–09/ 2009
Funding:
Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and ResearchSustainable Acting in Business and Private Daily Life (NaHa)
The discussion of sustainable development has increasingly shifted from a focus on the ‘green supply side’ and ‘green products’ to the non-sustainable lifestyles of consumers. In short the question has become: how can sustainable lifestyles be encouraged in a world determined by globalization tendencies?
This question, as formulated in a call for proposals initiated by the
Austrian program proVision, is addressed by the project “Sustainable Acting in
Business and Private Daily Life.” The project, taking a transdisciplinary
approach, investigates the question how experience gained in sustainable
procedures practiced in business can be made useful for developing sustainable
practices in private daily life as well. Until now actors in their daily lives
have been seen either as consumers or as employed persons. Mutual connections
between the two roles have so far not been looked at within the sustainability
discussion.
The project “Sustainable Acting in Business and Private Daily Life” focuses on
the opportunities companies have when promoting sustainable behaviour. One of
the project’s key results will be a so-called ‘toolkit’ (probably an electronic
tool with different elements of learning material for managers and other persons
in charge. They will show how already in-place company activities and management
instruments of promoting sustainable acting of the employees in both their
professional and their private daily life, can be further developed and
integrated into company practices.
The areas of workplace health promotion (nutrition and exercise) and mobility
will be investigated, as well as company measures promoting the compatibility of
career and private life, gender equality and cultural diversity. The research
hypothesis assumes that ‘gender and diversity’ measures and health promotion as
well as workplace mobility are connecting everyday life in business and in the
private realm.
The project is innovative in that it ‘builds bridges’ in two ways: first of all,
links between social and ecological fields of action will be researched by
investigating the areas of occupational environmental protection and health
promotion; and secondly, company perspectives (management and designated company
personnel) and the everyday life perspectives of employees will, having first
been investigated separately, connected to one another. In this way target
groups will be determined empirically and opportunities for training apprentices
and trainees in sustainable practices will be investigated.
In addition, the toolkit will provide the project with results that will be useful for researching and practicing sustainability management in companies , including corporate social responsibility (CSR) approaches, and for developing sustainable development training programs, as well as producing new knowledge relevant to consumption and lifestyle research oriented towards sustainability.
ISOE is participating in this joint research project by preparing criteria for the selection of companies (Best Practice Report), by working out empirical study designs, by carrying out interviews in Austrian companies and by developing the toolkit. Furthermore, the Institute is also responsible for the planning and direction of the “Transdisciplinary Research Self-Evaluation” module, which will be carried out together with all project participants.