ETCE Lab

Research Focus

Sustainability: „Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

The catastrophic worsening of climate change, severe environmental pollution and dwindling non-renewable resources are forcing society to abandon the inefficient and destructive linear economy (LE) that it has so far relied upon. A circular economy (CE) replaces our LE with circular, more sustainable forms of consumption and production and decouples economic growth from using natural resources. To do so, CE aims to maintain natural resources and to minimize the discharge of harmful substances. In CE, products and services are designed and constructed in a way that enables them to be returned to the economic and material flow at any time.

Related concepts, such as circular societies, go beyond just economic means and circulate and redistribute wealth, knowledge, technology and power throughout society.