BeAT – Professional Development and Training Center
BeAT – Professional Development and Training Center

DekaRB

DekaRB - Accelerating decarbonization for a resilient economy

The decarbonization of the economy is essential on the path to climate neutrality and essential for a sustainable future. Despite innovative technologies and clear targets, implementation is often slower than hoped.

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What does decarbonization mean for the economy?

Decarbonization means reducing or completely avoiding carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. This is to be achieved by increasing the use of renewable energies, improving energy efficiency and switching to climate-friendly production and operating processes.

This means profound change for the economy: existing structures, processes, and technologies must be deliberately rethought and further developed. Companies are faced with the challenge of not only driving forward technological innovations, but also shaping organizational and cultural changes in a sustainable way.

Why are non-technical barriers important?

Technological solutions alone are often not sufficient to successfully implement the transformation to a climate-neutral economy. Non-technical obstacles, such as a lack of trust between stakeholders, problems with the acceptance of new technologies or uncertainties regarding long-term prospects slow down important transformation decisions. These barriers are often complex, social or organizational in nature and require specific solutions to overcome them.

Our approach

The project is based on a comprehensive qualitative survey in which the actual inhibiting factors and challenges are analyzed. We are focusing on the following aspects:

  • Obstacles to the energy transition: What economic, social and organizational barriers prevent transformation decisions?
  • Trust and acceptance deficits: How do decision-makers and employees feel about new technologies and collaborative approaches?
  • Best practices: Which successful examples can serve as role models?

On this basis, we develop innovative solutions that have supra-regional significance, but are initially geared towards the needs of our local partners. Possible approaches include, for example, regional value creation networks for the decentralized use of renewable energies, inter-company networks to improve working and living conditions or model projects for resilience-oriented industrial areas.

Practical and future-oriented

The approaches developed will be implemented as prototypes at three selected industrial areas in Thuringia. These locations are exemplary for industrial areas in rural regions that are strongly characterized by structural change.

Sustainable transfer of the results

To ensure that the findings from DekaRB can be used widely, we are focusing on developing a universal blueprint: a guide for other regions and industries to accelerate decarbonization. Results and findings from the project will also be regularly updated and made available on our website.

Objective of DekaRB

This is precisely where the project „Accelerating Decarbonization for a Resilient Economy (DekaRB) comes in: It researches the non-technical barriers that are slowing down the transformation in the manufacturing sectors and develops practical solutions for a sustainable and cooperative implementation of decarbonization.

 

DekaRB is pursuing the goal of enabling companies in the manufacturing sectors to successfully make their energy supply CO2-neutral.

 

We want to use innovative and collaborative approaches together with practice partners to identify ways in which decarbonization can be effectively accelerated.

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Whitepaper: Uncertainty, Bureaucracy and Transformation Anxiety – Challenges Facing Thuringia’s Economy in the Energy Transition of the Thuringian Industrial Sector

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