The topic of green economy, or the Green New Deal, has been on our minds for rather a while now, because it is a further example of a discussion about the future which is almost entirely conducted without including women. In contrast to the German federal government's Enquete Commission on Growth, Wealth and the Quality of Life (which initially only included male experts and only added a female expert following widespread protests), in this case there was no outcry and no demand for the inclusion of perspectives on women and gender. We found this puzzling and wanted improve the understanding of this topic among women's organisations.

This is how the project "Green Economy Gender_Gerecht" came about, which began on April 1, 2011 with the support of the German Environment Ministry (BMU) and Federal Environmental Agency (UBA).

Collaboration partners included the German Woman's Council (Deutscher Frauenrat), the Brandenburg Council for Woman's Affairs (Frauenpolitischer Rat des Landes Brandenburg), the Catholic Woman's Community of Germany (Katholische Frauengemeinschaft Deutschlands) and the Association of German Woman Entrepreneurs (Verband Deutscher Unternehmerinnen).

The project is intended to help shape the concepts and discussions on a green economy in a more equitable way when it comes to gender, at the same time creating a connection to the real lived experiences. The aim is to motivate women and women's organisations to actively participate in the opinion-forming and transformation processes and to discuss what women can contribute to sustainable consumption and sustainable production, as well as how they could profit from the transformation process. Following the completion of the project (June 2012) we hope that concrete initiatives for creating change have been put in place that could serve as flagship projects.

Together with these partners and additional experts from the field of consumption and feminist economy, we collected information and discussed key issues surrounding the question of how a "green economy" might look from a gender perspective. While this should not be focused merely on more environmentally and resource-friendly production, it has to be about creating an entirely different understanding of economics in the future and address the link between the economy and daily life, assigning equal importance to the care economy and industrial production as a matter of course. It needs to be a concept that distances itself from the compulsion of growth and instead defines wealth in an entirely new way.

• Discussion Paper: Green Economy gender_just
  This discussion paper "Green Economy gender_just - Towards a resource-light and and gender-just future" formulates key parameters and challenges from a feminist perspective for a social-ecological transformation of the economy.
  It provides useful information on the concept of Green Economy and offers ideas for discussion.
  The discussion is available here.

• Background Paper: The Green Economy and consumption: gender_just?
  In this background paper Ines Weller discusses the role of private consumers in a Green Economy. She points out the problem of feminization and privatization of the responsibility for the environment.
  The background paper can be downloaded here.

• Background Paper: The relationship between Care and Green Economy
  The background paper "Sustainable economic activity: Some thoughts on the relationship between the care economy and the green economy" was written by Daniela Gottschlich, Leuphana University Lüneburg. Applying the examples of care for elderly people and care for nature she discusses what the links between Care and Green Economy could look like and raises further questions.
  The background paper can be downloaded here.