Information and communication technologies (ICT) affect us in all areas of life. Besides the positive impact of ICT in facilitating our life, it has also negative effects on the ecological, economic, and social dimensions of our “digital society”.

With the aim to achieve a sustainable consumption of ICT, promote the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony and the Volkswagen Foundation (VolkswagenStiftung), a research project under the title “Sustainable Consumption of Information and Communication Technologies in the Digital Society – Dialogue and Transformation through Open Innovation”. The project is funded over 39 months, and it brings together researchers from different disciplines at three locations: Osnabrück, Lüneburg, and Oldenburg.

The project consortium is formed of internationally renowned professorships in the fields of Business Informatics (Prof. Dr. Teuteberg), operational Environmental Informatics (Prof. Dr. Marx Gómez), Psychology (Prof. Dr. Müller), Social Science (Prof. Dr. Lenschow), Sustainability Science (prof. Dr. Schaltegger), Innovation Management (Prof. Dr. Hansen), and Marketing (Prof. Dr. Raabe).

The project aims to actively involve different stakeholders (businesses, consumers, citizens, organizations, and policy-makers) to participate in the embodiment of sustainable products, services, business models, and regulatory frameworks, and to achieve a sustainable consumption of ICT.

In order to realize this vision, the three fundamental strategies efficiency, sufficiency and consistency would be used. In addition, the mechanisms of open innovation would be implemented and evaluated within the scope of the project.

The concept of open innovation involves opening up the innovation process to ensure greater involvement and to take advantage of the innovative potential of all actors on social and entrepreneurial levels.

• University of Osnabrück
• Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg
• Leuphana University Lüneburg

• Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Jorge Marx Gómez

• Jad Asswad
• Georg Hake

www.ecoinnovateit.de