8 years of Corporate Digital Responsibility in Germany
CDR Conference 2026 on 10 November in Berlin
On 10 November 2026, the CDR Conference organised by the Corporate Digital Responsibility Initiative will take place from 1.00 pm to 5.00 pm at Data Space in Berlin.
Under the title ‘From Principle to Practice: 8 Years of Corporate Digital Responsibility in Germany – Review and Outlook’, we would like to take stock together and look to the future. Eight years after the CDR Initiative was founded, we want to discuss the practical experience gained, how digital responsibility can be embedded within organisations, and the role CDR plays in an era of artificial intelligence, increasing regulation, international competition and issues of digital sovereignty.
In the ‘Future Radar’, we turn our attention to the issues that will shape CDR up to 2030: digital sovereignty, trust and transparency, technostress amongst employees, AI, and democracy and social resilience. The event is aimed in particular at business representatives and consumer protection stakeholders, but also at other civil society and political actors, as well as the academic community.
Since January 2023, the secretariat of the CDR Initiative has been run by the ConPolicy Institute for Consumer Policy and concern.
ConPolicy keynote at DENEFF
Making Decisions Under Uncertainty – What Consumers Need Now
On 23 September 2026, ConPolicy Managing Director Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun gave a keynote presentation at the AGil Days of the German Business Initiative for Energy Efficiency (DENEFF). The presentation focused on how the current contradictory political and communication environment affects consumers’ decisions on energy-efficient home modernisation and energy efficiency.
Thorun showed that changing framework conditions, high technical and legal complexity, concerns about high costs, as well as emotionally charged and negative narratives lead consumers to postpone or avoid decisions. Behavioural economic mechanisms such as ambiguity aversion, cognitive overload, loss aversion and the availability heuristic reinforce these effects.
Based on this analysis, Thorun identified five approaches for consumer-oriented communication: providing guidance despite uncertainty, simplifying decisions, enabling an entry point with as little risk as possible, putting security and freedom at the centre of communication, and making successful real-world modernisation examples more visible.
The key message: Communication cannot solve political and regulatory problems. But it can help consumers take action when the benefits are tangible, the path is simple and the first step is manageable.
Project for the Federal Environment Agency
ConPolicy continues to support the Competence Center for Sustainable Consumption
The Competence Center for Sustainable Consumption (KNK) supports the implementation and further development of the National Programme for Sustainable Consumption (NPNK). In a new three-year project, the KNK will once again receive scientific, organisational and communication support from ConPolicy in cooperation with co2online, the ifeu – Heidelberg Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, and Kopfarbyte. The focus is on the KNK’s three key objectives: providing information, fostering networking and supporting the implementation of the NPNK.
ConPolicy is responsible in particular for tasks relating to supporting research, as well as the design and delivery of expert discussions, dialogue formats and the Forum on Sustainable Consumption.
Further information on the project can be found here.
New publication on sustainability and consumer protection in digital consumption
Sustainable consumption in the platform economy
Digital platforms are increasingly influencing consumer decisions: they facilitate access to information, enable personalised offers and automate consumption processes. At the same time, targeted purchasing incentives can exacerbate challenges such as overconsumption.
Julia Reinhard, Stephan Ramesohl and Justus von Geibler from the Wuppertal Institute, together with Otmar Lell from ConPolicy, examine how digital platforms can be designed to be more sustainable and oriented towards the common good in their new article ‘Sustainable Consumption in the Platform Economy – Approaches to Sustainability and Consumer Protection by Design in Digital Consumption Processes’. The article has been published in the Springer reference work SDG 12: Sustainable Consumption and Production.
The focus is on the concept of the circular customer journey. It combines digital consumer behaviour and environmentally relevant resource flows within a systemic approach. Along this customer journey, the authors identify regulatory levers to minimise risks and promote sustainable products and circular business models. Furthermore, innovative approaches to policy-making – including compact and collaborative governance formats – are presented, and recommendations are derived for a future-proof platform economy oriented towards the common good.
The publication is available here. Further information on the project can be found here.
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