The aim of the project was to advance the conceptional work of the German Federal Environmental Agency (Umweltbundesamt) and the Federal Environment Ministry in relation to an ecologically sustainable industrial policy and to continue analysis and further concretisation of the subject. In particular, its remit was to generate ideas for further work within the respective departments and to provide suggestions as to how scientists might consider the subject with greater focus. This was done by organising a thematic dialogue in which relevant expert knowledge from different scientific disciplines was collated.
The workshop (titled "Perspectives on an ecologically sustainable industrial policy") was attended mainly by leading economists in Germany. It assigned an active role to departmental representatives from the ministries of particular relevance to ecological industrial policy as well as representatives of social groups, in order to link the research results and perspectives gained to practical needs and experience right from the beginning. The workshop was complemented by a second, titled "WTO rules and their influence on environmental innovation", which was devoted specifically to that thematic aspect of an ecologically sustainable industrial policy.
