Sustainable development and the increase of resource efficiency is a challenge for organisations and their stakeholders that requires not only technical but social and organisational innovations. One of the most important sustainability-orientated innovations are strategic alliances, i.e. cooperation between different sectors, that facilitate reciprocal learning processes between companies, the state, and civil society.

The aim of the project is to analyse requirements for companies towards a successful initiation of networks and alliances, their long-term establishment and further extension of their impact, efficiency and the sphere of activity. Therefore the project focuses on companies, their management systems, their sustainable personnel, organisational, and competence-related development. Apart from a cross-system analysis practical solution concepts and instruments will be developed.

The objects of research are different strategic alliances that reflect the wingspan of sustainability action fields. Particular subprojects will focus on selected strategic alliances which are classified in: cooperation in the supply chain, regional sector unions/clusters, strategic intersectoral stakeholder alliances and educational alliances.

The objectives of the project and subprojects are to:

• analyse the structures and system factors of selected strategic alliances that cause their success or failure,
• deal with the measurability of the cost-benefit relations of these structures,
• analyse the successful integration of sustainability targets and the definition of demands on the structures of management systems in companies and networks,
• describe profiles of competence, employment and qualification,
• develop transferable and action supporting instruments and concepts for sustainability-orientated strategic alliances.

The Wuppertal Institute is responsible for the management and coordination of the whole project. Furthermore, based on a case study of the educational alliance KURS 21, it develops a manual as a practice-oriented instrument for the formaton of strategic alliances between schools and enterprises.