BINK | About the project

In the BiNK project, an interdisciplinary team of researchers partnered with practitioners from educational institutions to change the culture of consumption in schools and universities.

Team Members: Gerd Michelsen (project lead), Matthias Barth, Judith Bauer, Daniel Fischer, Wolfgang Krug, Malte Nachreiner, Claudia Nemnich, Harald Mieg, Sonja Richter, Marco Rieckmann, Horst Rode, Claus Tully, Jana Werg, as well as Christian Hoffmann, Dirk Scheffler, Sophie Scholz.

How can educational institutions become places where sustainable consumption can be learned and actively cultivated? In the BINK project, an interdisciplinary team of researchers partnered with practitioners from six educational institutions over several years to experiment with new ways in which the organisational culture of an educational institution can be changed to promote sustainability and sustainable consumption behavior among young people and young adults.

Objectives

The main project goal of the project was to design a participatory and transdisciplinary intervention process that can impact changes both on the individual and the organizational level. A design aspiration was to initiate changes in the organizational culture of consumption, and to create learning environments that stimulate the development of key competencies for sustainable consumption in learners. With regard to the so-called knowledge-action gap in sustainable consumption research, the project also sought to explore the potential of the educational intervention approach to support behavior change.

Methods

An transdisciplinary intervention process was designed that maintained ownership in the educational institution by involving different stakeholders in a systematic process of reflection and analysis, intervention planning and implementation, as well as process and impact evaluation. Input was provided by an interdisciplinary team of researchers who contributed their expertise and fed insights from accompanying research into the intervention process. The accompanying research comprised a psychological media intervention, a qualitative study into drivers and barriers of sustainability changes in schools, a sociological youth study exploring consumption habits and sustainability considerations of adolescents, an educational study exploring perceptions of the organizational culture of consumption and individual consumption practices, as well as an accompanying study that was tasked with the formative evaluation of the process.

Key Publications

Michelsen, G. & Fischer, D. (Hrsg.) (2013). Nachhaltig konsumieren lernen. Ergebnisse aus dem Projekt BINK („Bildungsinstitutionen und nachhaltiger Konsum“) (Innovation in den Hochschulen – Nachhaltige Entwicklung, Bd. 11). Bad Homburg: Verlag für Akademische Schriften.

Michelsen, G. & Nemnich, C. (Hrsg.) (2011). Handreichung Bildungsinstitutionen und nachhaltiger Konsum. Nachhaltigen Konsum fördern und Schulen verändern (1. Aufl.). Bad Homburg: VAS Verl. für Akad. Schriften.

Nemnich, C. & Fischer, D. (Hrsg.) (2011). Bildung für nachhaltigen Konsum: ein Praxisbuch. Bad Homburg: VAS Verl. für Akad. Schriften.

The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in Social-Ecological Research (SÖF) funding line. Duration: 06/2008-04/2012

Project partners

BINK was carried out by Leuphana University of Lüneburg (Institute for Environmental & Sustainability Communication), Humboldt University Berlin, German Youth Institute Munich, and University of Applied Science Fresenius. Educational Institutions involved were BBS Friedenstrasse (Wilhelmshaven), BBS Haste (Osnabrueck), Gymnasium Grootmoor (Hamburg), Ida-Ehre-Schule Bad Oldesloe, University of Applied Sciences Bremen, and Leuphana University (Lueneburg)