Research of the ISR group

The ISR group combines methods from informatics, environmental science, social sciences, and technology assessment to explore how digital technologies can be designed and applied to make targeted contributions to Sustainable Development. This interdisciplinary research field is also known as "ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S)" or "sustainable digitalisation" and is getting increasing media attention. Our scientific contribution to the development of this field is documented by the published results. For a general introduction to the topic, you may watch the videos of this ICT4S summer school.

Our projects are structured in four thematic clusters:

The digital transformation is changing our patterns of production and consumption. How can we assess these changes with regard to sustainable production and consumption? And how can we support the societal discourse on opportunities and risks of digital technologies?

Computer-based modelling and simulation methods have been used for decades to improve the understanding of complex systems, from early socio-economic "System Dynamics" models to models of social metabolism (Material-Flow Analysis, MFA) and Agent-Based Models (ABM). How can we apply and improve these methods to support education, systems thinking and decision-making for sustainability? 

Data and software tools supporting discourse and decision-making provide great opportunities for sustainable development. How can we exploit big data, machine learning and interactive tools for sustainable development?

Digital technologies have made enormous progress in energy efficiency and miniaturization. Because the ICT sector has been growing even faster than the resource efficiency of its technology, the overall footprint of data centers, network infrastructure and end-user devices is still increasing in term of energy, material resources and CO₂ emissions. How can we measure and reduce the footprint of ICT?