Est.1985

Environmental Lecture Series

Summer Semester 2025

BEYOND THE SHELF: The environmental debt of our consumption

Every product we take off the shelf and buy comes with a hidden cost – one that is not reflected in the price tag. While we focus on convenience, affordability, and trends, what remains unseen is the environmental debt our consumption creates. From forests cleared for farmland, to rivers polluted by factories over mountains of waste piling up in landfills.

The lecture series Beyond the Shelf: The Environmental Debt of Our Consumption uncovers these hidden consequences. How are the resources for our everyday items extracted? Where do our discarded goods truly end up? How much energy and water are used to produce the things we consume without a second thought? And who – whether people or wildlife – pays the price for our demand for more? Some of these costs are invisible, like the carbon emissions from shipping goods across the world. Others, like electronic waste dumps, are deliberately ignored.

By understanding the debt we are creating, we can begin to make more responsible choices – for ourselves, for others, for the planet, and for the future. Now is the time to look beyond the shelf and ask ourselves: What price are we truly willing to pay?

For TUM students interested in earning 1 or 3 ECTS credits

For everybody else

In our introductory session, you will:

  • meet our team
  • get an overview of our course and lecture structure
  • try out our Engagement Lab
  • and have the space to ask any questions you may have

High in the Romanian mountains, a dam was hastily built to collect the effluent from a megalomaniac copper mine, flooding an entire village. Only the church spire still protrudes from the toxic slurry. Despite this, for over 40 years Valeria has held on to her piece of earth where she lives in a small farmhouse on the hillside just a few metres away from the lake. How much longer can this continue? A true cinema experience.

Nominated for FFF Talent Award Documentary Film

Documentary screening in collaboration with DOK.fest

DOK.fest is the largest film festival in Germany dedicated solely to documentaries. Every year in May the DOK.fest welcomes well over 100 films, their makers and, if possible, some protagonists in Munich. We screen at over 20 locations throughout the city and beyond. Since 2020 there is of course a digital platform too, that offers these films to be enjoyed, discussed or binged at homes throughout Germany. Celebrating excellence in the documentary cinematic art is as important to us as are the discoveries, discussions and encounters for our guests and our audiences.

Panel Discussion

  • Moderation
    • Jan Sebening is a filmmaker, lecturer, father and a member of the DOK.fest Team – albeit not always in that order. With a background in documentary filmmaking he loves to mentor students’ projects and to organise the Student Award @DOK.fest.
  • Panelists: TBA

    Shared Session with Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences

How are climate protection and mountain sports interconnected, and why is this relationship so important? This lecture explores these questions from the perspective of the climate protection NGO Protect Our Winters Germany (POW Germany). We will examine key issues such as the environmental impact of winter sports, and the responsibility of various stakeholders – including policy makers, ski lift operators, brands, and outdoor athletes. Additionally, we will discuss the role of the mountain sports community in advocating for climate action and how a shared love for nature can be a powerful motivator for environmental responsibility.

Yasmin Sabrantke will be giving the talk.

    Shared Session with Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences

Overproduction and overconsumption of garments come with a price not included in the price tag. This talk gives an inside into the mechanisms of the textile supply chain, the damaging practices, and the consequences for humans and nature from an NGO perspective.

Svenja Hoffritz is a fashion and graphic designer and founder of the creative Studio A NEW PATH. After her fashion design studies and a master’s degree in art and design science, she worked as a designer as well as in production management and sustainable sourcing for various companies in the textile industry. As a speaker for the NGO FEMNET, she educates about the global context, environmental and human rights violations, and the causes of poverty among garment workers in the textile industry.

This lecture explores the critical interrelationship between climate change and economic inequality through recent empirical and model-based assessments. Multiple integrated assessment models demonstrate that climate change exacerbates existing economic disparities both within and across countries. Key findings show that without additional climate action (3.6°C warming scenario), global inequality could increase significantly by 2100, with the Gini index rising by up to six percentage points in vulnerable regions like Sub-Saharan Africa. Climate impacts are regressive, disproportionately affecting lower-income populations, while wealthier households experience lower relative damages. Importantly, policies aligned with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target could reduce long-term inequality increases by approximately two-thirds. Though such policies might slightly increase inequality in the short term, this effect can be counterbalanced through equal per-capita redistribution mechanisms, potentially lowering the Gini index by almost two points. The research provides robust evidence that well-designed climate policies can simultaneously address both climate stabilization and economic inclusion. These findings emphasize the importance of considering distributional aspects when formulating climate policy, as properly designed interventions can transform climate action into an opportunity for promoting greater economic equality rather than exacerbating existing disparities.

Johannes Emmerling is a Senior Scientist at EIEE and co-leads its Low carbon pathways unit. He was a Senior Researcher at Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) between 2012 and 2018. Johannes holds a Ph.D. from the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), a M.A. in Economics from the Free University Berlin and a B.Sc. in Economics from the University of Heidelberg. He was a postgraduate fellow in Development Cooperation at the German Development Institute, Bonn. He has been working amongst others at the Social Science Research Center (WZB) Berlin, the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), as Lecturer at Université Toulouse 1 Capitole, and as Consultant for the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the German Institute of Metrology (PTB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the World Bank. He is co-leading the development of the integrated assessment model WITCH. His main areas of research include Climate Change and Energy economics, Risk and Uncertainty, Welfare Economics and Development. He has co-authored over fifty articles in peer-reviewed journals and is an Associate Editor of the Public Finance Review. He is a passionate cyclist and plays keyboards in various formations.

As a means to reduce the pollution and resource use following from consumption, attempts are made to motivate consumers to switch to less environmentally harmful and resource consuming products and increasingly also services. One of the increasingly popular tools is to label products and services in such a way that consumers can distinguish the least harmful from others and, hence, are able to choose them. In this presentation, I will present and discuss research on the effectiveness of sustainability labelling as a means to influence consumer decision-making and behavior and environmental outcomes.

John Thøgersen is professor of economic psychology at Aarhus University, Denmark, Department of Management, where he coordinates the Marketing and Sustainability Research Group. He is also connected to MAPP – Centre for research on customer relations in the food sector. His research focuses on consumer willingness to reduce their climate footprint, responses to eco- and climate labelling, the establishment of sustainable lifestyles, and drivers and impediments for energy renovation and for buying organic food. He has published extensively on sustainable consumption in top journals, edited volumes, and recently a monograph on Edward Elgar. He is a Fellow of IAAP, editor of Journal of Consumer Policy, published by Springer-Nature, and member of several editorial boards, including Journal of Environmental Psychology.

Plastic packaging has become an integral part of everyday life. Buying long-life food, transporting everyday products, or protecting them is difficult without such packaging. The consequence of our actions is that more and more plastic packaging is needed and, therefore, produced yearly. Plastic packaging is a success story. It is light, cheap, available in various shapes and qualities, …. and has a long shelf life. But that is precisely one big problem: Due to the long shelf life, we have a significant problem if the plastic packaging is uncontrolled in the environment. In addition to being a massive waste of resources (most plastic is petroleum-based), plastic packaging is usually only used once.

Against this background, the lecture will address the following questions: Who is responsible for the flood of plastic packaging? Is plastic packaging really that bad? How can consumers reduce plastic packaging?

In addition to practical examples, various scientific studies on avoiding plastic packaging will also be shown.

Head of Department at the Chair of Marketing and Management of Renewable Resources at the Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences on the Straubing Campus for Biotechnology and Sustainability. Thomas Decker has been analyzing the prerequisites and conditions for sustainable consumption for 20 years. To do so, he primarily conducts surveys of consumers and experts. His focus is on applications in agriculture, using renewable raw materials and renewable energies. In addition to his research, he has been lecturing on consumer behavior and markets for renewable raw materials for many years. He also supervises students’ doctoral theses and dissertations.

In addition to his scientific work, Mr. Decker runs a part-time agricultural business. Among other things, he produces grain maize or wheat and experiences the effects of climate change due to changes in his forest.

Location

On-site: TUM Main Campus
Room: 2750 (Karl Max von Bauernfeind)
Floor: 2
Building: Main building (Z7)
Location: Arcisstraße 21, 80333 München

Online: TBA

Contact us!

rivo@fs.tum.de

History of the Environmental Lecture Series

The lecture series on the environment is an interdisciplinary, public lecture series organised by the Environmental Department of the Student Union of the TU Munich. It is organised by TU Munich students on a voluntary basis.

Speakers have been giving lectures on the topic of sustainability since 1985. This includes, for example, technical environmental protection, health, consumer and climate protection. In this way, it offers both students and teachers at the TU Munich, as well as the non-university public, the opportunity to learn about and discuss these topics and research results at a scientific level.

The speakers from research, associations, authorities and companies will be happy to answer questions from the audience after the lecture; the slides of the lectures, and in some cases the video recordings themselves, will be made available – if available – on our website. In the 40 years of its existence, more than 480 lectures have been organised so far.

In the meantime, the lecture series on the environment has become a regular part of the TU’s lecture programme and is supported, among others, by the management of the TU Munich, the Munich Center for Technology in Society and the KHG of the TU Munich. The lecture series on the environment is a partner of the BNB, the “Alliance for Sustainability in Bavaria”. In addition, some lectures are held in cooperation with the Environmental Academy and the Munich Forum for Sustainability.

Check out our trailer! 😉

As Vice President of TUM, I am proud to endorse the Environmental Lecture Series, RiVo. For nearly 40 years, TUM students have been at the forefront of this interdisciplinary initiative, providing a platform for knowledge exchange and facilitating critical discussions on the challenges and solutions surrounding sustainability. It is heartening to see speakers from diverse backgrounds sharing their expertise and enriching our understanding. RiVo educates, raises awareness and inspires action for a greener future. My heartfelt appreciation goes to the Student Council’s Environmental Department for their tireless dedication in organizing this invaluable series.

Prof. Dr. Werner Lang
TUM Vice President for Sustainable Transformation

Our previous lecture series

Watch our previous recorded lectures here!

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Outdoor Poster (60 × 84.7 cm)2
Poster
RiVo SS23 Poster