The transition to sustainability is a complex project of societal change. The Oldenburg Centre for Sustainability Economics and Management (CENTOS) is dedicated to addressing the research questions required for this task.

CENTOS combines scientific competence and activities in the area of environmental economics and sustainability management which have been developed over the course of the past two decades at the University of Oldenburg, and which have now attained high national and international visibility.

CENTOS is concerned with environmental economic analyses, and with the design of processes of change and learning in companies and other stakeholders in society. The focus is particularly on business networks, new services, application systems and institutional change in the context of sustainable development. At the overall economic level, the evaluation of environmental change, the design of environmental policy measures, their political and economic determinants and their economic effects are central.

Modern concepts and methods of environmental economics and policy, questions of environmental education, consumer and lifestyle-related aspects as well as culturalistic perspectives of sustainable consumption are taken into account, as are transdisciplinary approaches in research on innovation and entrepreneurship.

At present, climate protection and energy supply, food, information and communications technologies, the textile business and mobility are among the concrete areas of investigation.

The Centre addresses the following research focus areas:

• Environmental and resource economics
• Ecological economics
• Business sustainability research, with a cultural studies base
• Sustainability-oriented learning at the individual and the societal levels
• Sustainability-oriented innovation research and sustainable supply chain management
• Environmental policy and environmental law
• Economic and business ethics.