WRF plans joint work on resource efficiency with technical and behavioural scientists in Switzerland

St. Gallen, January 2012.  Steps towards a resource efficient green economy depend not only on technical knowledge, but also on institutional changes and social innovation – and therefore call for consideration of the social sciences and humanities perspectives. This is the key message of an article which was published in the last issue of GAIA, the transdisciplinary journal for scientists and other interested parties concerned with environmental and sustainability problems, their causes and their solutions. The article was written by the WRF Secretariat and SAGUF, the Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology.

The authors find it remarkable that in decades of scientific work on sustainability and resource management “the two worlds of “hard” (technical) and “soft” (behavioural) scientists have rarely met and worked together …(…) …. Yet, this may prove to be the missing link in attempts to connect the dots – the dots between knowing what is at stake and doing something about it.”

As one Davos participant paraphrased Albert Einstein: “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” In fact, policy makers and business leaders are human beings and decide on the basis of individual and collective emotions, underlying drivers and resistances to change. Coming to grips with what these are exactly, and how to address them might well be the most important way to bridge the gap over the next few years, and, hopefully, beginning with the earth summit.

The WRF aimed to translate the latest scientific insights on resource efficiency in to concise messages that would be suitable for inclusion in global policy making and hence implementation. The resulting message was not new, but many felt it did not have to be new, as the analysis of the situation and the recipes to improve it have in fact not changed. Despite the progress that has been made in the decades after Stockholm (a generation!), one cannot help to remain concerned and worried, as the majority of the conference participants indeed said they did.

The expanding network of resources experts of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences plans to become a partner of the WRF Association. In this respect, SAGUF (Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology) could play an important role, as it is already a member of two academies, SCNAT (natural sciences) and SAGW (humanities and social sciences), and can thus take on a bridging function to facilitate necessary encounters. In a first step, SAGUF will initiate a working group trying to identify and establish suitable links. First discussions and expert workshops are planned for the year 2012.

Gaia homepage: http://www.oekom.de/etc/gaia

Download the full article (PDF) here: http://sagufv2.scnatweb.ch/downloads/GAIA4_2011_277_280_SAGUF.pdf