Sustainable Innovation across Key Sectors and Societal Challenge 5: Insights from and for Germany

The European Union (EU) targets growth based on smart, sustainable and inclusive economies, which can be promoted through profound changes in the European economic sectors largely spurred by the increasing importance and penetration of ICT throughout the European societies. Opportunities for industrial sectors to renew themselves are largely provided by sustainable innovations. This policy brief looks at the sectoral relevance of the SI initiatives collected in the CASIPEDIA against the challenges of climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials. The policy brief discusses how key policy developments at the national level are related to SI and connects the sectoral analysis on SC5 with policy developments at the national level. The German sustainability strategy 2016 refers to objectives of the Agenda 2030, which equally take into account the three dimensions of sustainability - social, ecological and economic issues. The national government and the federal states in Germany see a shared responsibility to create a sustainable and equitable world. The worldwide increase of environment protection efforts, in conjunction with megatrends and the shortage of resources leads to innovation potential in green economy and especially in environment economy.