Team
WHO WE ARE
The junior research group “The role of energy sufficiency in the energy transition and society (EnSu)” will systematically incorporate sufficiency strategies into energy system modelling and discuss the current and necessary social framework conditions for the establishment of energy sufficiency strategies.
OUR TEAM
Foto: Ludwig Wiese
Frauke Wiese
Frauke Wiese heads the junior research group together with Benjamin Best. Since 2020, she is associate professor in the area of “Transformation of Energy Systems” in the Department of Energy and Environmental Management at the Europa-Universität Flensburg and focuses on the role of sufficiency in the transformation of energy systems as part of EnSu.
After studying industrial engineering (energy and environmental management) at the University of Flensburg, Frauke Wiese worked as a project manager at Deutsche Umwelthilfe and did her doctorate on open source in energy system modelling. Subsequently, she conducted research on sustainable energy systems at the Technical University of Denmark in the Department of Energy Systems Analysis and was also involved in teaching.
Luisa Cordroch
Luisa Cordroch is a PhD student at the European University of Flensburg in the Department of Energy and Environmental Management.
In her dissertation, she investigates the contribution of sufficiency strategies to climate goals and distributive justice. The building sector is examined in detail exemplarily. For this purpose, an open-source building model will be developed, sufficiency measures will be integrated and the indicators will be expanded to include aspects of distributive justice.
Luisa Cordroch studied energy and environmental management with focus on sufficiency and energy systems.
Foto: Karsten Bahnsen
Jonas Lage
Jonas Lage works at the Norbert Elias Center for Transformation Design & Research (NEC) at the European University of Flensburg.
In his sociological PhD, he is investigating the multiple effects and ways of implementation of sufficiency policies from a perspective of transformation theory. His work builds on findings from a transdisciplinary research and development project on potentials and barrieres of municipal sufficiency policies, in which he previously worked for three years.
Jonas Lage studied Energy and Environmental Management and is part of the I.L.A. Collective, which works on the concept of Imperial Mode of Living.
Foto: Wuppertal Institut
Johannes Thema
Since 2010, Johannes Thema works with the energy policy research unit at Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.
He is a researcher and project coordinator of national and international projects on energy efficiency and sufficiency policy. His dissertation focuses on the quantification and modelling of energy sufficiency policies with the goal of integrating sufficiency policies into sectoral demand models.
Johannes Thema is an economist and political scientist and graduated from University of Cologne.
Carina Zell-Ziegler
Carina Zell-Ziegler is a researcher within the Energy and Climate Division of the Oeko-Institut, since 2014 she is working at its Berlin office.
Carina has work experience in climate protection scenarios and impact assessments of respective policies and measures as well as policy evaluation. Her research focus within the EnSu group is on impact chains and impact assessments of sufficiency measures and on the development of an open-source database for sufficiency policies. She is a doctoral student at Technische Universität Berlin.
Carina holds a Bachelor degree in Geo-Ecology and Ecosystem Management from the University of Tübingen and a Master degree in Global Change Management from the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development.
Alexander Kling
Alexander Kling joined the EnSu research group through his master’s thesis, in which he modelled sufficiency scenarios for the transformation of the energy system.
With an engineering background in electrical engineering and renewable energies, Alexander has been working as a Junior Researcher at the Wuppertal Institute since 2024.
Mareike Andert
Mareike Andert has been working as a research assistant for the EnSu junior research group since July 2024. She supports Jonas Lage and Carina Zell-Ziegler in particular and is actively involved in various publications.
She studied Political Science and General Rhetoric in Tübingen and is currently completing her Master’s degree in Sustainability Science at Leuphana in Lüneburg. In her master’s thesis, she is focussing on housing sufficiency.
Kaya Dünzen
Kaya Dünzen has been working at the Öko-Institut in Freiburg in the Energy & Climate Protection department since 2023. Prior to this, she completed her studies in Environmental Biosciences and Geography of Global Change.
As part of her master’s thesis, she modelled various scenarios designed by EnSu and analysed their CO2 budget and socio-ecological sustainability dimensions.
In the EnSu project, she is working to support sufficiency supply chains in the mobility sector and the sufficiency potential database.
Georg Graser
Georg Graser works at the European University of Flensburg in the Department of Energy and Environmental Management.
He is working in the building sector on the implementation of an open source building model that integrates sufficiency measures and expands the indicators to include aspects of distributive justice.
Georg Graser studied computer science at the Technical University of Ilmenau.
Jannes Hater
Jannes Hater is studying for a Master’s degree in Transformation Studies at the Europa-Universität Flensburg, an interdisciplinary degree programme with a focus on social sciences.
He works as a research assistant for the EnSu junior research group and supports Jonas Lage in particular with tasks relating to his doctoral project.
Jannes Hater previously studied ethnology and political science at the Georg August University in Göttingen.
David Schöpf
David Schöpf has been working at the Wuppertal Institute since November 2022, currently within the department “Energy, Transport and Climate Policy”.
As a student project assistant, he supports the junior research group Energy Sufficiency (“EnSu”), in particular with the Sufficiency Policy Database, sufficiency quantifications and website administration.
David Schöpf is studying at the University of Applied Sciences in Münster.
Alumni
Foto: Sebastian Kiefer
Benjamin Best
Benjamin Best was one of the two leaders of the Energy Sufficiency Junior Research Group and has been a research associate at the Wuppertal Institute since 2011. He studied social sciences, history and sustainability economics and management at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. His topics are legitimacy and policy mixes for energy sufficiency as well as social science energy research and sustainable structural policy.
Benjamin Best has worked on and managed projects funded by the Federal Environment Agency, the Ministry of the Environment of North Rhine-Westphalia and the GIZ and is an alumni of the Mercator Foundation. He was a member of the organising committees of the 4th International Degrowth Conference (Leipzig) and the Future for All Congress and is currently a member of the board of the Association for Ecological Economy Research.
Since 2024 he has been working in the Climate Neutral Bonn 2035 programme office.
Foto: Aline Schneider
Bendix Vogel
Bendix Vogel studied in the interdisciplinary but strongly social science-orientated Master’s degree in Transformation Studies at the European University of Flensburg. He wrote his Master’s thesis on sufficiency as part of EnSu and worked as a research assistant and project assistant for the junior research group.
Previously, Bendix Vogel studied Physics of the Earth System (B.Sc.) and Climate Physics (M.Sc.) at Kiel University and GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and worked as a research assistant in the field of theoretical oceanography and modelling after his graduation.
Johannes Parschau
Johannes Parschau was a research assistant at the Wuppertal Institute. From 2022-2024 he worked in the Department of Energy, Transport and Climate Policy and supported the junior research group ‘Energy Sufficiency’. He developed and extended Python models to quantify sufficiency policy measures in the transport and building sector.
Johannes Parschau studies computer science at RWTH Aachen University and holds a bachelor’s degree in biology with a focus on biotechnological modelling.