Abstract

A sustainable transformation of production and consumption patterns in countries of the Global North is urgently needed to stop the increasing transgression of planetary boundaries and to secure an environment worth living in for current and future generations. Socially innovative approaches attempt to make consumption and production more environmentally and socially compatible. As technical innovations alone do not bring about the necessary potential for change, they are becoming increasingly important. A broad knowledge base is needed to better understand social innovations for sustainable consumption and develop them further in a targeted manner. Regular monitoring of these innovations can serve to determine the impact, dissemination and also the needs of stakeholders and initiatives and thus build up this knowledge base. For this reason, the BMBF-funded project "Impact assessment and dissemination potential of social innovations for sustainable consumption (FoSInKo)" developed a concept for such regular monitoring. This report presents preliminary conceptual considerations, the procedure for developing the monitoring concept and the concept itself.

The monitoring concept is intended to serve as a starting point for establishing permanent and regular monitoring of social innovations for sustainable consumption in the future. The concept focussed primarily on the development of an indicator system for the three impact dimensions of ecology, economy and social aspects as well as the development of a suitable instrument for surveying the diffusion of social innovations. The concept offers:

- a well-founded proposal for a methodological approach,
- a tested and validated survey concept for surveying dissemination and social effects and
- a comprehensive set of indicators to measure the ecological, economic and social impact.

This discussion paper provides a detailed presentation of the preliminary conceptual considerations and the survey instrument. It is aimed at researchers, political actors and practitioners who would like to delve deeper into the topic. A low-threshold and more compact presentation of the monitoring concept can be found in the publication "Gemeinsam wirken & Veränderungen sichtbar machen. A proposal for monitoring social innovations for sustainable consumption" (Degel et al., 2024)

Authors

Fields of research

Energy, climate and infrastructure