Consumer Society

In consumer societies the satisfaction of needs and pleasure is possible through consumption. This megatrend has numerous positive and negative interdependencies between economy, society and environment.

Digitisation

The term digitization covers all forms of technically networked digital communication such as broadband communication, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, Big Data, e-commerce, smart home or Industry 4.0.

Automation

Automatization is the technology by which a process or procedure is performed with minimal human assistance. It is the use of various control systems for operating equipment such as machinery, processes in factories, boilers and heat treating ovens, switching on telephone networks, steering and stabilization of ships, aircraft and other applications and vehicles.

Urbanisation

Urbanization is the spread of urban forms of life. On the one hand, this can be expressed in the growth of cities, on the other hand, by infrastructural development of rural regions comparable to urban standards and by changed social behaviour of the inhabitants of rural areas.

Health & Age

In developing countries, access to affordable basic care and survival (life expectancy, child mortality) are central. In OECD countries, health and happiness can hardly be separated. People place new expectations on the health system, companies and infrastructures and wish to live in health-promoting environments.

Climate & Energy

The megatrend climate and energy is one of the most omnipresent trends of our time. The last time the global temperature was as high as it is today was 100.000 years ago. The concentration of CO2 was last at today's level three to four million years ago.

Knowledge Society

Knowledge is losing its elitist character; the global level of education is higher today than ever before. In particular, the interaction with the megatrend digitization is changing our knowledge of the world and the way we handle information. Thanks to the Internet, access to information worldwide has become much better and fairer.

Resource Scarcity

We humans consume more natural resources than are available to us. They include finite materials (e.g. minerals, ores for industrial metals, phosphorus, sand, fossil groundwater, etc.), renewable resources (e.g. food raw materials, fish stocks), as well as the quality of the soil, the health of the plant and animal world and biodiversity.

New Mobility

Technical innovations and changing human needs are becoming the driving force behind new forms of mobility: networked, digital, emission-free and shared. What we are experiencing is an evolution of mobility.