The Green Growth Knowledge Partnership (GGKP) warmly welcomes the United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources (UNU-FLORES) as a new partner in green growth knowledge.
UNU-FLORES is one of the 13 institutes and programmes comprising the United Nations University. It was established in Dresden, Germany in 2012 with the support of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German State Ministry for Higher Education, Research and the Arts of the Free State of Saxony to help address the challenge of the evolving complexity influencing resource management and sustainable development that can improve water, energy and food security. UNU-FLORES further develops strategies to resolve pressing problems in the sustainable use and integrated management of environmental resources, particularly water, soil and waste.
In all activities, UNU-FLORES strives to fulfil its mission of advancing a Nexus Approach to the sustainable management of environmental resources. An asset of the institute is its integration into the research environment in Dresden and Saxony as well as its strategic positioning within the thematic areas of the UN University. Focusing on the needs of the United Nations and its Member States, particularly developing countries and emerging economies, the institute engages in research, capacity development, advanced teaching and training as well as dissemination of knowledge.
UNU-FLORES, over the coming years, will extend and upscale the concept of integrated resource management through adopting a truly integrative perspective by considering inter-related resources and emphasizing fluxes of resources between phases and compartments. Instead of following a traditional input-output model that shows how parts of a system are affected by a change in another part of that system, UNU-FLORES explores whether the consistent tracing and management of resources as fluxes will result in sustainable management outcomes. In this role, UNU-FLORES aspires to become an internationally recognized hub and intellectual focal point promoting integrated management strategies.
In 2015, UNU-FLORES, in collaboration with PRISMA – Centre for Sustainability Assessment and Policy launched the joint Nexus Seminar Series, which features lectures by senior scholars that highlight all dimensions of research on the Nexus Approach, ranging from hands-on implementation strategies to theoretical debates.
The GGKP looks forward to the ongoing contributions of UNU-FLORES to the growing body of global green growth research and knowledge.
