Catalysis Institute
| KATALYSE Institute for Applied Environmental Research eV | |
|---|---|
| Legal form of the carrier: | Registered association |
| Facility location: | Cologne |
| Branch offices: | Dusseldorf |
| Type of research: |
Socio-ecological research
Applied environmental research |
| Areas of expertise: | Working area:
|
| Homepage: | www.katalyse.de |
The Cologne KATALYSE Institute for Applied Environmental Research eV is an independent environmental research institute .
history
Since 1978 scientists at the institute have been concerned with the protection of the environment and health as well as sustainable development in the north and south.
The name catalysis should stand for the claim to accelerate processes or to steer them in a different direction.
Work areas and activities
The work of the institute is committed to the approach of socio-ecological research. Methods and instruments from classic environmental research are used. As a non-profit organization , the KATALYSE Institute is financed through research projects, donations, sponsoring memberships and commissioned work.
The institute cooperates with numerous institutions such as the Federal Center for Health Education , the German Nature Conservation Ring , the Institute for Sports Science at the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster and the European Environmental Bureau .
Socio-ecological research
The socio-ecological research was set up to strengthen transdisciplinary environmental and sustainability research as part of the Federal Ministry of Research (BMBF) program "Research for the Environment".
Approaches that interlink natural and social sciences, university and non-university research are funded within the framework of the funding priority.
In 1994 the institute presented the first approaches for socio-ecological research. In 1999 the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE) developed the research focus on behalf of the BMBF with the support of KATALYSE and other German Ökoforum Institutes - Öko-Institut , Institute for Ecological Economic Research (IÖW). In 2001 the KATALYSE Institute carried out one of the exploratory studies (biodiversity management) in preparation for the new research focus and was involved in the EVALUNET project - evaluation network for transdisciplinary research from 2001 to 2005, in which IÖW, Öko-Institut and the Austrian Ecology Institute for Applied Environmental Research contributed.
Agriculture and Food
The focus of the work area is the development of nutritional communication measures and strategies for healthy eating. the institute advises politics and business on the implementation of sustainable nutrition concepts. The focus is on
- The creation of concepts for the sustainable production and processing of food and renewable raw materials,
- Advice on the conception of health and ecologically compatible catering systems,
- Strategy development of nutrition communication for a more sustainable diet.
From 2002 to the end of 2005, the Agriculture and Nutrition department and four other institutes carried out the BMBF joint project "Food turnaround - strategies for socio-ecological transformations in the social field of action Environment - Nutrition - Health ". The results of the research project were u. a. published in the books "Food turnaround - a challenge for politics, business and society" (2006) and "From the field to the plate - impulses of agricultural and nutritional research for sustainable development" (2007).
Sustainable consumption and environmental education
The consumer and environmental education portals of the KATALYSE Institute want to use information to help raise awareness of social responsibility and to implement sustainable consumption in practice .
For example, Catalysis has been a member of the Natur-Aktien-Index (NAI) committee since 1997 . This index provides orientation for green investments .
Indoor air quality and electrosmog
The institute participates in
- Identifying sources of pollution in public buildings, offices and apartments,
- Sampling and analyzing indoor pollutants (e.g. PCB , asbestos , mold )
- Evaluate measurement results and stress situations and
- in the case of recommendations for action to reduce and avoid pollution,
- Creation of renovation concepts and their technical implementation.
building and living
In the area of building and living, the
- Assessment of environmental, health and material-technical requirements for building materials and building products
- Pilot projects for the use of building materials and components made from renewable raw materials
- Support in the development and implementation of energy and building passes
- Development of training materials and practical guides, such as B. in the practical guide "Component planning with ecological building materials"
- Life cycle assessment , assessment and certification of buildings.
Development cooperation
In 1997 the institute expanded its purpose and included the “promotion of sustainable development in the south and north” in its statutes. As a result, the institute concentrated its development cooperation on the two countries Cuba and Brazil . The projects in this field deal with small gold mining in the Amazon , the development of products from the neem tree or the reorientation towards sustainable pig breeding. In all projects, environmental and health problems are in the foreground, for the solution approaches taking into account the cultural and social context, its state framework.
Management systems
The management systems work area is divided into the following areas
- Integrated management system
- Quality management DIN EN ISO 9000
- Environmental management DIN EN ISO 14000 / EMAS
- Product data management to meet the requirements of REACh
- Food safety management DIN EN ISO 22000 / IFS
- Occupational health and safety management ILO guidelines
- Environmental controlling and operational benchmarking
Activities and projects
- The organization of the "Förderpreis Ökologischer Landbau" from 2001–2005 for the Federal Ministry of Agriculture (BMELV) and the development of strategies for a food turnaround as part of the funding priority: Sustainable development in the area of conflict "Environment-Food-Health" of the Federal Ministry of Research (BMBF).
- The development of EcoStep practical guides for management systems in agriculture in the EU demonstration project with wine-growing businesses in Hesse (Germany), Aquitaine (France) and Emilia-Romagna (Italy).
- "Investigation of biotechnological innovation potential for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia" or risk assessments for nanotechnology and genetic engineering in nutrition and agriculture.
Individual evidence
- ↑ katalyse.de ( Memento of the original from November 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Nine examples
Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 17.2 ″ N , 6 ° 57 ′ 3.1 ″ E