Climate change, species extinction, energy and raw material shortages are global challenges that are directly linked to our economic activity. They affect our very existence and jeopardize our ability to lead a good life today and in the future, both as a society and as individuals. 

The range of questions for which we need answers seems limitless and finding the 'right' path for global change increasingly utopian. How do we maintain an overview in the face of highly complex interrelationships and interactions? How can we distinguish the essential from the non-essential? What fundamental relationships in nature do we need to take into account? What kind of economy is appropriate? What is just? And under what conditions are people willing to change?

This book offers orientation. It deals with concepts from the natural sciences, economics and philosophy - including time, thermodynamics, scarcity, responsibility and justice - which enable an understanding of the upcoming transformation to sustainability from different perspectives. Ideally, they serve as guidelines for effective decisions and show how change is possible despite immense challenges.

The book is aimed at anyone who wants to contribute to the transformation towards sustainability - whether in politics, business, administration or civil society.

Auteur

Malte Faber, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the Heidelberg University. He received his doctorate from the Technical University of Berlin in 1969 and habilitated there in 1973. From 1974 to 2004 he held a chair in economic theory at the Heidelberg University, where he was director of the Alfred Weber Institute and from 1997-2004 director of the Interdisciplinary Institute for Environmental Economics. He has been Professor Emeritus since 2004 and teaches seminars on environmental problems and economic philosophy at German and international universities. From 1981 to 2017, he was an advisor to the German government, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the People's Republic of China. Since 1998, he has been giving courses and lectures on "Zen meditation and Christian contemplation" at the Heidelberg University and other locations.

Reiner Manstetten, Lecturer in philosophy at the Heidelberg University and teacher of Christian contemplation. 1992 doctorate in philosophy on Meister Eckhart, 1997 habilitation in economics on the picture of humankind in economics, 2003 Ernst Bloch Prize of the City of Ludwigshafen. Publications on philosophical mysticism as well as on ecological economics and the foundations of economics, often in cooperation with Malte Faber. 2018 monograph: Die dunkle Seite der Wirtschaft (Alber Verlag).

Marco Rudolf, Academic Assistant at Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences, doctoral student at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). After studying mathematics in Heidelberg and completing a master's degree in resource governance in Chile, he has been researching hydrogen in the energy transition and corporate carbon accounting since 2020. For him, transformation to a sustainable society means not only technical change, but also social change. In addition to his scientific work, he is involved in various youth organizations and organizes vacation camps for adults, where thefocus is on communal group experiences in an environment characterized by sustainable consumption and proximity to nature.

Marc Frick, Academic Associate in the General Secretariat of the University of Basel. 2020 PhD in Political Theory on social-theoretical implications of gift practices. Publications on ecological economics in cooperation with Malte Faber and Reiner Manstetten as well as on social and ethical aspects of environmental and climate policy. Since 2015, he has been the honorary chairman of an amateur sports club, which has significantly shaped his view of social cohesion and the interaction of very different people to solve social challenges.

Mi-Yong Becker, Professor of Sustainability with an Economic Focus at Bochum University of Applied Sciences. 2004 Doctorate in economics at the Heidelberg University. From 2004 to 2007, post-doctoral fellow of the DFG at the Research Training Group "Global Challenges" at the University of Tübingen. Subsequently research associate at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research until 2019, most recently as head of the "Governance and Innovation" working group. Winner of the German Environmental Award of the DBU 2018 together with M. Hirschfeld, R. Müller and M. v. Afferden for the development and political implementation of a decentralized wastewater system solution in Jordan. Professor at Bochum University of Applied Sciences since 2019 and member of the Executive Board as Vice President for Sustainability, Transfer & Entrepreneurship since 2022.