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• Katharina Mader

2002 Spring Conference:
13.–15.3.2002, Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler

At first sight, the buzzwords “sustainable development” and “innovation”, expressing the main concepts of modern environmental and economic policies, appear to be excluding each other. The demand for sustainable development prevents innovations; innovations – driving economic development – jeopardize sustainable development. A closer look makes us discover that the concepts should better be understood as complements to each other: Without innovations, sustainable development cannot be attained; the value-added component of innovations is enhanced by an alignment in terms of sustainable development. This complementary view is widely accepted today. Nevertheless, it is far from clear how innovations and sustainable development interact in specific contexts.

The 2002 Spring Symposium integrated the views of the sciences as well as those of companies towards this specification. A dialogue was enabled that demonstrated the potential of innovations for sustainable development as well as the advantages of the concept of sustainable development for innovations.

Invited speakers were:
Professor Dr. Ulrich Steger, Lausanne: “Nachhaltige Entwicklung und Innovation in einer globalisierten Wirtschaft”; Professor Dr. Kornelis Blok, Utrecht: “Energiesysteme und Entwicklungsszenarien”; Professor Dr. Dieter Imboden, Zürich: “Die Beurteilung von Energiesystemen”; Dr. Dieter Jahn, BASF AG: “Beiträge von Forschung und Entwicklung zur nachhaltigen Entwicklung am Beispiel der BASF-Gruppe”; Dr. Christian Schneller, E.ON Energie AG: “Nachhaltigkeit, Innovation und Wettbewerb – Aus dem Geschäft eines Energieversorgers”; Heinz-Jörg Brecker, Vaillant GmbH: “Nachhaltige Entwicklung – geplante Innovationen. Prozessorientierte Produktentwicklung bei Vaillant”; Professor Dr. Hans G. Nutzinger, Kassel und Professor Dr. Rudi Kurz, Pforzheim: “Nachhaltige Innovationen. Eine Restriktion als Chance für wirtschaftliche Entwicklung”; Professor Dr. Walter Frenz, Aachen: “Das Recht nachhaltiger Innovationen”.