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Sustainability communication

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The Sustainability Communication Working Group investigates the role of communication in societal transformation processes towards sustainable development. Its focus is on both the conditions and challenges of effective sustainability communication and its potential to initiate and support change.

Our work combines three perspectives on the topic:

  1. journalistic communication, which conveys information on environmental, social and economic sustainability and shapes public discourse,
  2. strategic communication by and within businesses, civil society organisations and government bodies, which shapes change within these organisations as well as in their interactions with societal target groups and within complex fields of action;
  3. the perspective of learning, which focuses on sustainability-related skills at both the individual and collective levels.

The working group adopts a practice-oriented and interdisciplinary approach. We examine sustainability communication across various societal fields of action – from the media, businesses and NGOs to politics, public administration and civil society.

Where possible, we pursue transformative and transdisciplinary approaches: in cooperation with stakeholders from academia and practice, we develop communication strategies, formats and interventions that not only analyse but also contribute to socio-ecological transformation.

Our projects

  • Transformative Strategic Communication
  • The Role of Strategic Communication in Socio-Ecological Transformation
  • Sustainability Communication in the Face of Backlash: Strategic Sustainability Communication and Journalism in Socially Contentious Debates
  • SME Digital Centre for Future Culture: Knowledge transfer for SMEs in digitalisation and sustainable development
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SME Digital Centre for Future Culture

The Mittelstand-Digital Centre for Future Culture supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in building a sustainable corporate culture.

SME Digital Centre for Future Culture
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Talking Salmon

Talking Salmon tells stories about salmon-like fish that are reconnecting people with nature. They are fitting protagonists, as they act as a bridge between the sea, the land and humankind. Enduring traditions are important here, as they have long transcended the boundary between humankind and nature.

Talking Salmon

Our members

Portrait of Prof. Dr. Pia Helferich

Prof. Dr. Pia Helferich


Online communication and organisational communication

Pia Sue Helferich is a professor of online communication, specialising in organisational communication, at Darmstadt University of Applied...


Sciences. She has worked on various projects and in companies, focusing on online communication, public relations and adult education. Her work also concentrates on lifelong learning, digital transformation and communication in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Portrait of Vanessa Kokoschka

Vanessa Kokoschka


Research assistant and lecturer

Lukas Materzok

Portrait of Prof. Dr. Thomas Pleil

Prof. Dr. Thomas Pleil


Public relations with a focus on online communication

Thomas Pleil is a professor of public relations with a focus on online PR. He has many years of experience in journalism, PR agencies and PR...


management at a university. His work focuses on online communication, social media, lifelong learning and sustainability communication.

Pleil established the Online Communication (B.Sc.) degree programme. He is also spokesperson for the board of directors of the Institute for Communication and Media (ikum) and spokesperson for the Research Centre for Digital Communication and Media Innovation (dkmi). In R&D, he is involved in the Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum Zukunftskultur (SME Digital Centre for Future Culture) and the System Innovation for Sustainable Development project, among others. Personal website
Portrait of Lara Pujol

Lara Pujol

Lara Pujol is a doctoral candidate whose research focuses on transformative learning at universities. She teaches in the online communication...


programme and works as a project assistant at the Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum Zukunftskultur, where she supports companies in developing sustainable corporate cultures.
Portrait of Prof. Dr. Lars Rademacher

Prof. Dr. Lars Rademacher


Corporate and sustainability communications

Lars Rademacher has been a professor in the Media Department since 2014 and has been teaching corporate and sustainability communication since...


2022. He teaches in the Online Communication (BSc) degree programme and in the international Media, Technology & Society (MSc) master's programme. He is also head of the Doctoral Centre for Sustainability Sciences (PZNW) and a member of the Research Centre for Digital Communication and Media Innovation (DKMI). Previously, he headed the Media Management programme at Macromedia University of Applied Sciences in Munich and conducts research on NGO communication, stakeholder management, corporate social responsibility and organisational learning, among other topics.
Before his academic career, Rademacher spent six years as a consultant, head of communications at the phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg and press spokesman at BASF.
Portrait of Prof. Dr. Torsten Schäfer

Prof. Dr. Torsten Schäfer


Text production; FB Media

From April 2013 to September 2013, Torsten Schäfer was a research assistant at the IKuM at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences (Green...


Journalism project) on a 50 per cent basis and also served as a substitute professor for journalism and text production. Prior to that, he worked for ten years as an environmental and science journalist, six of which as a print and online editor for the international edition of GEO (full-time) and Deutsche Welle (freelance). Since 2005, he has been a lecturer in continuing education with a focus on research, text and specialist journalism (environment/sustainability; European Union), including at the University of Lüneburg in the study programme - Sustainability and Journalism -
Portrait of Prof. Dr. Andreas Vlasic

Prof. Dr. Andreas Vlasic

Andreas Vlasic is a professor of online branding and brand management. He has many years of experience in communications research and...


communications consulting. His work focuses on strategic marketing communications, media change and digital platforms, scientific theory and empirical social research.

Partnerships

Publications

  • Pleil, Thomas, Helferich, Pia Sue, & Otsa, Teresa (2025): A typology of strategic sustainability communication: From reporting to transformation. In F. Weder (ed.), Strategic Sustainability Communication. Springer (forthcoming).
  • Rademacher, Lars; Pleil, Thomas & Helferich, Pia (2025): The role of strategic communication in socio-ecological transformation. A normative model, in: Vanessa Kokoschka, Stefan Kosak, Claudia Paganini & Lars Rademacher (eds.), Sustainability in Media Communication. Ethical Requirements and Practical Solutions. Baden-Baden: Nomos: 35–53. Download
  • Kokoschka, Vanessa (2025): Climate Journalism on Social Media. A cross-platform comparison of climate journalism formats for young audiences on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. In: Vanessa Kokoschka, Stefan Kosak, Claudia Paganini & Lars Rademacher (eds.), Sustainability in Media Communication: Ethical Requirements and Practical Solutions. Baden-Baden: Nomos: 215–232 ([available online] (https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/de/10.5771/9783748940616-35.pdf)
  • Kokoschka, Vanessa; Kosak, Stefan; Paganini, Claudia; Rademacher, Lars (2025): Sustainability in Media Communication. Ethical Requirements and Practical Solutions. Baden-Baden: Nomos ([available online] (https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/de/10.5771/9783748940616-35.pdf)
  • Schäfer, Torsten (2025): Sustainable development as a core value is transforming the professional ethics of journalists beyond climate journalism. In: Vanessa Kokoschka, Stefan Kosak, Claudia Paganini & Lars Rademacher (eds.), Sustainability in Media Communication. Ethical Requirements and Practical Solutions. Baden-Baden: Nomos: 103–118 ([available online] (https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/de/10.5771/9783748940616-35.pdf)

  • Helferich, Pia Sue & Pleil, Thomas (2024): Strategic Communication in Transformation, in: Thomas Thiessen, Volker Schulte, Kristina Bodrožić-Brnić: Leadership for Digital Transformation, Springer Nature (available online)
  • Kokoschka, Vanessa, Secco, Cristian A.; Nazemi, Kawa (2024): Visual Analytics – Climate Change in Social Media. In: 28th International Conference on Information Visualisation (IV): 167–173. Available online at:
    https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10714267

  • Kokoschka, Vanessa; Schäfer, Torsten (2022): Green Journalism: Media Forum for Sustainability and Climate Journalism. In: Communicatio Socialis, Vol. 55, No. 2: 219–222
  • Kokoschka, Vanessa; Wörtche, Joelle (2022): Broadcaster strategies for young audiences in climate journalism. In: Climate Before Eight: Media in the Climate Crisis, oekom Verlag, Munich: 185–194
  • Pleil, Thomas; Matusiak, Lea; Müller, Sandra (2021): ‘Public Relations in Transformative Science: The Contribution of Strategic Communication to the Success of a Transformative Research Paradigm’, in: Borchers, Nils S.; Güney, Selma; Krüger, Uwe; Schamberger, Kerem: Media of Transformation. Negotiations of the Critical Communication Studies Network. 259–282.
    https://doi.org/10.53291/JFPN1141