ShapingHealthyLiving Spaces

Integrated urban development – incorporating health in all policies – is a vital part of building a healthy, future-ready society. In this context, real-world labs geared towards innovation have an important role to play. When local and regional authorities consider climate protection, climate change adaptation and health promotion in unison, it can generate meaningful synergies. Green, shaded spaces, an increased emphasis on mobility (i.e. establishing attractive pedestrian routes and high-quality cycling infrastructure) and 15-minute cities protect the climate while simultaneously promoting the health of their people who live there. The Wuppertal Institute relies on transdisciplinary living labs to translate such concepts from theory to practice. This research format enables researchers and stakeholders in local administrations to collaborate in examining what healthy, climate-resilient and socially just living spaces might look like in practice.

The InnovationsCommunity Urban Health project focuses on creating healthy and equitable living conditions in cities and places a particular emphasis on to bridging the implementation gap between scientific findings and their practical application. Another pioneering project, T hoch 3, looks at the nexus of tradition, participation and transformation by viewing allotment gardens as inclusive, social spaces that promote health, foster participation and improve heat resilience. Advanced together with BARMER, the URBAN SusHealth project examines strategies that systematically link health promotion, prevention, climate change adaptation and equal health-related opportunities. The Future in Motion project, conducted in partnership with AOK Rheinland/Hamburg, focuses on creating incentives for children to exercise and make sustainable day-to-day mobility choices. The SalusTransform project investigates how urban development can unite the issues of health, social justice and climate protection. It aims to derive concrete approaches for sustainable, health-promoting municipal administration. In the ProGiS project, researchers produced the ProGiS Index: a set of indicators that municipal authorities can deploy to identify local socio-ecological problems and, in turn, effectively develop and prioritise measures for healthy and sustainable urban development. The successor project – ProGis2.0 – aims to refine the index to provide a highly practical support system for local authorities. In addition, the WISIONS Transitions project – advanced together with partners in Nepal and Nigeria – seeks to identify adaptations to strengthen and improve the resilience of livelihoods in regions particularly affected by climate change.

The healthcare system itself, along with its associated stakeholders, also has a decisive role to play. By prioritising well-being and prevention over reactive treatment, health insurance providers are increasingly demonstrating a commitment to a just and climate-resilient society. Working in collaboration with local authorities and other partners, researchers target solutions with dual benefits for people and planet. These include initiatives to support sustainable food production, active mobility, climate-aware health literacy and sustainable structures in neighbourhood development and provisioning systems.

A sustainable transformation will require a fundamental restructuring of provisioning systems to prioritise resource conservation – from food and housing to mobility and healthcare provision. In collaboration with companies including BARMER and AOK as well as hospitals, the Institute's researchers investigate issues including product and service design methods with the potential to cut resource consumption while boosting health and well-being. For instance, sustainably structured plant-based canteens demonstrate how resource conservation and health promotion can go hand-in-hand.

In the EBEM-KAT project, the Wuppertal Institute and the University Hospital of Düsseldorf (UKD) are systematically recording climate-relevant emissions in ophthalmology – with the aim of achieving long-term reductions and establishing sustainable structures in everyday clinical practice. In addition, the Wuppertal Institute partnered with the North Rhine-Westphalia Hospital Association (KGNW) to develop Target Vision: Climate-Neutral Hospital, which includes implementation-oriented advice to help hospitals implement climate change adaptation, climate protection and resource efficiency measures. The Circular.Care.Solingen project is exploring means of establishing of circular economy models in the healthcare sector through sustainable procurement, enhanced waste management and scientifically guided pilot projects. Another example is mobility concepts for companies and municipalities to facilitate the modal switch to cycling and walking, thereby reducing emissions while improving physical fitness. This combines the Planetary Health concept (i.e. universal health of people and the planet) with biodiversity and sustainable urban development in a single, systematic research approach.

For measures like these to succeed over the long term, it must be possible to both measure and control their impacts. With this in mind, impact potential analyses form a central methodological component of the Institute's work. This approach facilitates structured recording and analysis of the complex dynamics of health, social and ecological effects, along with their interdependencies. It creates a robust tool for decision-makers, enabling them to seize on synergies in a targeted manner, identify conflicting objectives at an early stage and set a well-founded direction for integrated development, including at the municipal or neighbourhood level.