With the "German Resource Efficiency Programme" and the "Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe", the German government and the European Commission have pledged to significantly increase resource efficiency. However, more and more companies felt that these programmes were not enough. For this reason, companies from the green technologies of the future joined forces with NABU to found the Resource Conservation Alliance. The new alliance called for a more comprehensive approach to resource policy. This is because political measures had to keep pace with the enormous challenges: with volatile and rising raw material prices in the long term as well as with the overexploitation of natural resources at the expense of future generations. As part of the conference, the Resource Conservation Alliance presented its joint declaration entitled "Conserving resources, securing the future".

On behalf of the German Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), the IZT identified "green" future technologies that promised high environmental benefits on the one hand and were particularly relevant in terms of resource economics on the other. The aim of the short study was to gain an overview of companies that offered products of "green" future technologies on the market and were particularly interested in conserving resources.