More than two decades after the Rio-conference on environment and development in 1992, sustainable development remains a big challenge. Politics and administration, especially in democratic societies, have a specific responsibility in coordinating sustainable development. In order to fulfill this role, the regulative idea of sustainability needs to be integrated into decision-making in politics and administration at all levels, from local to global. Taking this into account, we have analyzed the institutionalization of sustainability as a crosscutting and long-term challenge at the federal level in Germany. Based on a theoretical-conceptual framework deriving from democracy, bureaucracy and political steering/governance theory, we have employed qualitative methods to understand, in depth, how sustainability is integrated into political-administrative practice. In the present paper, we present key results and show that sustainability is not a routine practice at the federal level in Germany. We will conclude by giving an outlook on the structural and procedural options and argue for the need to develop a “sustainability state”.

Sustainability science is marked by a quarter century of conceptual and methodological development. Based on innovative approaches, such as transformative transdisciplinarity, sustainability science makes the claim to contribute solution-oriented knowledge to sustainable development. Despite successful expansion and promising experiences, there are limitations to be considered. This article argues that the multisensorial reality of human life in socio-material practices has not been adequately captured in sustainability science. Theoretical approaches addressing the sensoriality and corporality of human existence as well as methodological approaches of ethnography and arts-based research to access relevant human dimensions beyond the cognitive are discussed, and the perspective of sensory sustainability science is sketched.

In this paper, we assess the sustainability of rural electrification programs in Ecuador, paying special attention to programs targeting small indigenous communities in the Amazon basin. Our assessment considers four dimensions of sustainability (institutional, economic, environmental, and socio-cultural) and is based on an exhaustive qualitative document analysis, complemented by semi-structured expert interviews. We found that disruptive changes have affected the electrification policies in Ecuador during decades of avoiding the development of strengthened institutions. Despite this major drawback, we found that there is a consensus on granting access to energy for all. This partially explains the national efforts, persistent through different administrations to fund rural electrification. However, in the case of off-grid photovoltaic solutions, these efforts have consistently neglected allocating funds for operation and maintenance, which has seriously compromised the sustainability. Moreover, although Ecuadorian officials declared to favor stand-alone photovoltaic systems in the case of indigenous communities in the Amazon, we found that environmental or socio-cultural aspects have a minor role in the selection of these systems. Progress regarding environmental awareness, social acceptance, and cultural justice, is still needed for ensuring the sustainability of rural electrification efforts in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Transdisciplinary sustainability science is focussing on the integration of different forms of knowledge. Despite significant methodological diversity, the dominant mode of knowledge production, representation and communication in transdisciplinary research is, however, quite traditional: it is based on gathering data followed by a text-based scientific argumentation. In recent times, arts-based and sensory approaches in social and cultural sciences have been employed to avoid scientific reductionism and gain more holistic insights into human experiences. The potential of arts-based research for opening up new ways of knowledge production and communication in sustainability science should be seized.

There is a widespread consensus among sustainability experts about the need for ambitious transformative practices in order for a sustainable development to progress. Agenda 21 emphasised the need for multilevel and multi-actor governance and explicitly focused on the local level. The conceptual and analytical preference of governance beyond government has directed attention towards the interaction between state and non-state actors. The present article focuses on the role of (local) state institutions in sustainability governance. We argue that an effective implementation of sustainability in government institutions is a precondition for a successful multi-stakeholder governance of a sustainable development. The guiding question of this article is: How has sustainability been institutionalised in local governments in Germany in the last 20 years after Agenda 21 was adopted? Based on a conceptual framework, we are presenting the empirical results of a survey of 371 German cities and municipalities in this article, which primarily aims at providing empirical evidence on to what extent sustainability has been institutionalised in German local governments. The article ends with discussing the potential reasons for the institutionalisation deficit observed and gives an outlook on the potential for developing a sustainability state, that is, a state dedicated to institutionalising sustainability.

(Un)sustainable developments are a significant challenge for state and nonstate actors from global to local level. Within the framework of the United Nations Transformation Agenda 2030 and the global Sustainable Development Goals, state institutions have a particular responsibility in guiding the process. In order to secure acceptance, this article claims that sustainability governance should aim to bring about well‐being‐oriented transformations. In this regard, besides cognitive insight into the need for change, the multisensorial dimensions of human existence in general as well as in everyday social practices in particular should be more systematically taken into account. Foundational conceptual and methodological considerations on sensory‐informed policymaking for sustainable development are discussed.