R. Andreas Kraemer, Founder & Director Emeritus
Ecologic Institute is old enough to remember the SARS pandemic 2002/2003 with the prospect of public life having to be shut down and the work-force be dispersed very much as is happening right now for SARS-CoV-2. At the time, the decision was made to ensure Ecologic Institute could continue to function, continue as many as possible of its activities and carry forward its projects, even under conditions of a curfew or lockdown, as we now call it.
That required investment in hardware (laptops with cameras and headsets, remote access for all staff with sufficient bandwidth in every home, bandwidth for the offices, VPN, a suitable and resilient server structure with sufficient overcapacity and redundancy, self-hosted applications for sharing and jointly working on files, video conference rooms, ...), the associate software and licenses, and perhaps most importantly training and practice in their use.
Ensuring mobile working through these investments proved relatively easy in the science and policy teams who need to be mobile so that they are present and embedded in the science and policy communities they serve. Providing these teams with the means to work from anywhere and to provide the necessary training was easy partly because the costs were outweighed by efficiency gains from voluntary mobile working – which many during the pandemic now call "home office" work – even in the absence of a threat to public health (or public order in general).
Some administrative functions were more difficult to move online and into mobile working, particularly human resource management and some aspects of accounting and contract management. The main reason was a continued need to deal with physical documents (e.g. doctor's certificates for sick leave, or signatures on paper contracts). Although matters have improved over the years, government regulations were changed only with the onset of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, enabling these departments to work online from anywhere. The final steps in the shift to mobile working for all were completed in February 2020, with digitized administration and contract scans making life easier in these times.
In the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (of 2019-2021 maybe) and the roll-out of mobile working for all, productivity fell considerably, initially about 50%, under the sudden condition of involuntary or imposed mobile working for all. This is partly because it does not suit everyone, partly because of children not being at school and causing distraction at home, and partly because of the general disruption caused by the pandemic. Productivity is beginning to increase again as everyone gets used to the new circumstances and establishes new work routines.
The chat in the coffee corner or over a joint lunch with colleagues is replaced by more frequent exchanges on messenger services, by email, by telephone or video conferencing. A positive side effect of turning to video conferences is felt by those employees who already live and work outside of Berlin, where our main offices are, as their integration into meetings and team structures becomes more natural and equal to the rest.
Reaching policy makers can become more difficult, because in this early stage of the pandemic they are highly focused on the corona virus and operating in crisis mode while also reconfiguring their own practices and routines. Formal channels of conversation and advice are not as effective. However, where relationships are well established, ideas can still be conveyed. And on the positive side: there is a general mood in favor of reform and a readiness to rethink the processes of policy making as well as the substance of policy, and to allocate additional resources. Policy communities are receptive and ready to rethink and act, once a receptor inside the decision-making circles can be reached.
The situation can play out in various ways, especially as extraordinarily large fiscal and monetary measures are adopted to first stabilize society and the economy, and then to stimulate economic growth and job creation once the pandemic is brought under control. These measures provide opportunities to facilitate shifts away from unsustainable practices and steer the economy on a path towards sustainability. We can use this crisis to make long-overdue corrections in key sectors like energy, mobility, food production, health, or urban development as well as in the patterns of production, trade, and consumption.
At Ecologic Institute, we seek to understand the environmental dimension of the corona virus pandemic. Environmental and social conditions as well as cultural practices and the workings of the globalized economy play important roles in the origins and development of this pandemic.
While thorough analysis of the causes and effects will be the subject of research for years to come, some key elements can already be discerned, for instance the density of human population, the age structure of the affected population, the contribution of air pollution to pre-existing respiratory conditions.
At Ecologic Institute, attention is now turning to what should happen in the later stages of the pandemic, which might take 18 to 24 months to run its course. What policy should be the focus on in the longer term, in the time after the crisis? In that context, we are now developing various strains of work:
New narratives: The shared experience of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic changes the priorities and the context in which concerns will be articulated and policies formulated. How can we explain the science and policy needs in the new societal context we expect after the pandemic is over?
New policy making: The crisis has put all branches of government – legislature, executive and administration, and the judiciary – to a test, and the same is true for the federal systems of Germany and the European Union. This has revealed severe shortcomings in coordination and cooperation across policy domains and levels or scales of government. Ecologic Institute will address those issues at local, sub-national, national, European and international level with a focus on good governance in the fields of environment and health.
New policies: The current pandemic has also revealed shortcomings in the substance of various policies, in the underlying assumptions, choice of instruments, effectiveness and adaptability, and their environmental and social effects including societies' resilience in the face of pandemic. Ecologic Institute will propose reforms of policies and policy instruments (including law), focusing on the integration of environmental and health concerns into other policies.
New municipalism: Reinvigorating urban policies and infrastructure management for public services for education, energy, environment, food supply, health, information, transport, water, waste, etc.
New areas and forms of EU cooperation: How to develop the EU further, building on the experience with migration, accelerated digitalization, and the SARS-CoV-2 crisis?
New approaches in global affairs and multilateralism: How can humanity live sustainably in a globalized world, respecting planetary boundaries? Ecologic Institute will investigate the causes and effects of the pandemic and share its insights. This might include analyzing the environmental footprint and social impact of the new cultural practices that evolve during the current corona virus pandemic, and formulating recommendations e.g. on food systems, global transport, intercultural and transnational learning, and transformative research, and reforms of international law and institutions.
Implications of the insights from the pandemic for other ongoing crises, in particular global overheating, loss of ecosystems and biological diversity, deterioration of our ocean, the water-soil-food nexus, and other aspects of environment, resource and energy policy.
Consequences for the next health crisis: Evidently, the world has not learned enough from SARS, MERS, the bird flu, Ebola and other scares. We seek to provide a push for better preparedness.
Further dimensions may be added to these reflections as we move forward.
There is a clear and present danger that governments – by reflex, driven by ideology or under pressure from the incumbent industries – will abandon their policies to protect the environment, climate and natural ecosystems and resources as they seek to restart the economy as well as social and cultural life. The dominant thinking in most ministries of finance, economy, transport, or agriculture still remains that environmental concerns are an irritating distraction from their mission, despite the fact that the protection, conservation, and sustainable management of nature are the foundations for human existence, social life, and all economic activity as we know it. There is thus a risk of stimulating a destructive economic system that drives us ever faster towards an environmental precipice, rather than taking the opportunity of reforming the economic system so that humanity is put on a path towards sustainability where it lives within the planetary boundaries of Earth.
Before the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, there was a strong pressure on politicians and business leaders in many countries to adequately address the threat of global overheating. In the corona virus crisis, people have shown great willingness to accept strong measures to change behavior in order to protect the health system and save lives, and to provide assistance to those whose livelihoods are threatened, especially once the reasons for the measures are explained. This shows how society can act forcefully, quickly and in unison when facing an existential threat. Most people understand that we need a healthy environment for a healthy economy that serves healthy people. We will work for an age of reform to dawn as the corona virus pandemic fades.
This pandemic and its aftermath provide needs and opportunities for new networks and alliances of think tanks to work on issues that cut across policy domains, contribute to effective global governance, and facilitate exchanges among prospective leaders of the next generation.
Think Tanks are, almost by definition, learning systems that learn on behalf of society. We owe it to all those who are fighting the pandemic, risking their own health and lives, that we do our best to learn, analyze and gain valuable insights for society and policy makers. This helps improve policies and practice. That is the opportunity in this crisis, and we should not waste it.