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Glossary

Eco-intelligence

Daniel Goleman coined the term ‘ecological intelligence’ as early as 2009. The basic idea of his book of the same name is that only when we – collectively as well as individually – sharpen our ecological intelligence will it be possible for us to live in a truly environmentally friendly way, instead of just buying a bit of organic here and recycling a bit there. Goleman does not even consider the required rethinking to be particularly difficult: consumers would merely have to choose environmentally friendly products and spurn the others.

He sees the difficulties in implementation in the lack of transparency over the entire life cycle of a product. The non-uniform and sometimes inconsistent standards with which environmental friendliness can be measured should also be added here. After the term lost some of its popularity in recent years, the Zukunftsinstitut (Future Institute) is taking it up again in 2025 and defining it as follows: ‘The megatrend of eco-intelligence expresses the increasing intelligence in relation to ecological, economic and social interactions. As humans come to understand and accept that they are part of nature, so too does their sense of responsibility to adapt and develop creative solutions.’

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