Green Economy Innovation Index (GEII) ‐ a normative innovation approach for Germany & its FEW Nexus

Abstract

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) published “seventeen Sustainable Development Goals [SDG] and 169 targets” in its new agenda: Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [1]. The UN called for an urgent shift on the part of the world towards a sustainable and resilient path. The UN thereby also confirmed its three-dimensional sustainability concept: economic, social, environmental [1]. The UN SDGs are indicators for monitoring the UN-initiated green economy process [2], which is being implemented “in the institutional framework of sustainable development [3],” and is seen as “an [innovation] approach to achieving sustainable development [3].” The German government has taken up the UN-SGD approach and updated its strategy accordingly., In 2017, it published its new SDG-based strategy as an expedient compass for daily political work [4]. Based on the UN Agenda 2030 and the updated sustainability strategy of the German government, our Green Economy Innovation Index (GEII) allows us to measure whether Germany is achieving a sustainable innovation pathway towards sustainable development and especially in its food energy water (FEW) nexus sectors. The green economy innovation index (GEII) and its subindices developed by the authors calculates the degree to which a sustainable innovation path has been achieved. If GEII is <1, then development is not on a sustainable innovation path. If (GEII) is ≥, then German society has reached an innovation path towards sustainable development according to the targets set by the German government in its SDGs.