Ladenburg Roundtable

Environmental crises such as climate change and the depletion of natural resources pose serious threats to human health and to economic and political stability. To meet these challenges, ecological sustainability must be rapidly improved in all areas of society. Companies play a key role here: On the one hand, they contribute to the aggravation of ecological crises, for example by causing environmentally harmful emissions. However, when they develop sustainable products and processes, they can also be a part of the solution.

For companies to improve their environmental performance in the long term, this topic must be supported and driven forward by employees on all hierarchical levels. The question arises as to what types of interventions can reinforce environment-friendly behavior. These range from saving electricity and water at the individual workplace to more extensive initiatives, such as carrying out environment-friendly projects.

Despite the growing interest in this issue on the part of research and industry, little is known to date as to what interventions are actually effective. To further promote research and to facilitate discussion of possibilities for transfer to corporate practice, on February 26 and 27, 2026 the Ladenburg Roundtable brought together international researchers from the fields of occupational, organizational, and environmental psychology with experts from management and sustainability consulting.

The workshop comprised three sections. Under the title “What we already know,” the current state of research on interventions for environment-friendly behavior at the workplace was outlined in research presentations and a working group. In the second section, under the motto “What we need to find out,” key issues, theoretical fundamentals, and methods for future fields of research were determined. Discussion centered on the significance of emotions and social norms for environment-friendly behavior among different target groups.

Finally, the “Science-Practice-Transfer” section dealt with experience gained in the application of various interventions in corporate practice. In group work, the participants discussed innovative formats for the effective transfer of research findings into practicable measures for organizations. As the outcome of this Ladenburg Roundtable a joint position paper was drawn up, a special edition in a journal was planned, and an editorial group was formed for a series of publications with practical recommendations.