More than 25 years of experience in academia, consulting, research & development and design in the exciting areas of Design for Sustainability and Ecodesign allow us to give impulses for radical transformation towards a more sustainable economy and society. Large and small companies, design studios, scientific institutions, Non-Governmental and Governmental Organizations are among our clients.

The econcept team includes high level experts in design, research, innovation, sustainability and communication. The core team is extended by a diverse external expert network.

econcept carries out research activities in the field of eco- and sustainable design for public and private clients. We collaborate with companies, designers, scientific institutions and consumer councils a.o. in research projects. econcept has more than 25 years of experience in developing research proposals, applying for research grants, managing and participating in research projects in the exciting areas of Design and Sustainability in their broadest sense.

econcept’s CEO, Ursula Tischner, is active in academia since 1995. She has been teaching EcoDesign and Design for Sustainability in Design Schools around the world such as Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland; Design Academy Eindhoven, The Netherlands; HfG SChwäbisch-Gmünd, Germany; Savannah College of Art and Design, USA and Fachhochschule JOANNEUM, University of Applied Sciences, Austria. At Design Academy Eindhoven she worked as associate Professor from 2002 to 2009 and was heading the master program Man&Humanity for a couple of years. As Professor at Savannah College of Art and Design she helped to establish and later managed the Master Program Design for Sustainability from 2009 to 2012. In Austria at FH JOANNEUM she was responsible for the Master Program Eco-innovative Design from 2016 to 2021.

In addition to activities at Design Schools and Universities econcept is also active in Company-in-House Training and regional training activities such as training programs for less industrialized countries from international development organizations (GIZ, InWEnt, UNIDO), or training programs on specific topics in defined regions (furniture industry in Australia, electronics industry in South Korea etc.)

econcept supports business model innovation and open innovation/design activities. In business model innovation we help companies for instance to look beyond their current business model of selling products to explore Product Service Systems, Pay per Use and Pay per Result business models. In Open Innovation and Open Design we use our own Crowd Sourcing Platform www.innonatives.com to open up the innovation process and involve further actors into innovation activities of companies, or start radical open innovation projects to come up with interesting start up ideas and social innovation.