Institute for Integrated Economic Research (IIER)

What Institute for Integrated Economic Research (IIER) does

The Institute for Integrated Economic Research (IIER) is a US-registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2006 and operated as a transatlantic cooperation with a parallel Dutch ANBI foundation. The organization develops macroeconomic scientific models that integrate energy and natural resource constraints into the analysis of human economic systems, and it operates from offices in Albany (NY), Den Haag (Netherlands), and Meilen (Switzerland) with approximately 32 staff.

IIER's public-facing work is built around three products: energyandstuff.org, an educational website launched in 2016 that translates its macroeconomic research into accessible content; HowAreWe, a well-being measurement initiative piloted in Q1 2022 with planned larger rollouts in Europe and the United States; and UnTax, a policy-reform initiative advocating a shift of taxation from labor and profits toward non-renewable resource inputs. The organization also distributes content through YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, email newsletters, ebooks, and audiobooks in multiple languages.

IIER funds its operations through private donations and grants (76% of 2021 revenue) and public grants (24%), with 2021 total revenue of US$624,243 and 97.7% of expenses directed to project work. The organization explicitly refuses outcome-directed or position-directed funding to preserve research independence, and it is governed by separate US and Dutch boards operating under an integrated transatlantic management model.

Name

Institute for Integrated Economic Research (IIER)

Legal name

Institute for Integrated Economic Research

Website

https://energyandstuff.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Institute for Integrated Economic Research (IIER) is a transatlantic nonprofit developing macroeconomic models that integrate energy and resource constraints. It serves the general public, researchers, educators, and policymakers through three products: energyandstuff.org, HowAreWe, and UnTax.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Economic Research & Policy Analysis

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Permitting, Siting & Environmental Impact (EIA/NEPA) Advisory (EUAMANAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Cumulative Effects, Alternatives Analysis & Mitigation Planning (EUAHAAAE)

Keywords

• Macroeconomic research
• Energy economics research
• Sustainability education
• Well-being measurement
• Resource taxation policy

Headquarters

HQ city

Meilen

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Private donations and grants: The majority of IIER funding comes from private donations and grants, comprising 76% of total revenue in 2021.
2. Public grants: Government or public institution grants made up 24% of IIER's total revenue in 2021.
3. Knowledge services revenue: Small portion of revenue comes from providing knowledge to interested third parties.

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

IIER is a nonprofit research organization that develops macroeconomic scientific models integrating energy and natural resource constraints into the understanding of human economic systems. It operates three interconnected public-facing initiatives: energyandstuff.org (public outreach and education), HowAreWe (well-being measurement at local/regional levels), and UnTax (a resource-taxation policy framework). Its core deliverable is independent scientific research and educational content on growth-constrained futures, disseminated freely to the public, scientists, educators, policymakers, and journalists.

Product overview

IIER offers a portfolio of three interconnected products: energy&stuff (public outreach platform), HowAreWe (well-being measurement initiative), and UnTax (tax reform initiative). These products work together to advance IIER's mission of establishing macroeconomic scientific models for the 21st century and guiding humanity safely through challenging times.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• HowAreWe: An initiative aimed at complementing economic metrics with measuring well-being, mostly on a local and regional level.
• UnTax

Products and services

• energy&stuff Public outreach website providing free educational content in multiple languages about economic systems, energy and natural resource limits, and how to live well in a growth-constrained future. It includes articles, cover stories, videos, and downloadable resources aimed at the general public, scientists, educators, policymakers, and journalists.
• HowAreWe IIER initiative aimed at complementing traditional economic metrics with the measurement of well-being, primarily at local and regional levels. It provides tangible inputs to help improve quality of life.
• UnTax IIER initiative that aims to change the way society views non-renewable resources by proposing to shift taxation away from human labor and profits and instead burden non-renewable inputs, encouraging more careful resource use.

Quantifiable outcome

• 97.7% of revenue directly invested in project work (HowAreWe, UnTax)

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• HowAreWecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHowAreWe is an IIER initiative aimed at complementing economic metrics with measuring well-being, primarily at local and regional levels. A successful pilot completed in Q1/2022 shows how valuable the results are, providing tangible inputs that can help make life better for many people. Currently working on larger rollouts in Europe and the United States.
• UnTaxcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUnTax is an IIER initiative that aims at changing the way society looks at non-renewable resources, viewing them as finite inputs rather than infinite resources. The project seeks to shift taxes away from human labor and profits toward burdening non-renewable inputs to encourage more careful use.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Resilience.org: Online magazine and community resource covering energy descent, relocalization, and resource-constrained futures; sits in IIER's intellectual ecosystem as a publishing and community platform rather than a research producer.

Direct peers

• Post Carbon Institute: Nonprofit research and education organization focused on helping societies navigate the transition away from fossil fuels; shares IIER's energy/resource-constraint thesis and educational outreach approach.
• Tellus Institute: Research nonprofit producing the 'Great Transition' scenario work on sustainable futures; directly comparable to IIER for combining macroeconomic modeling with civilizational-scale sustainability analysis.
• Club of Rome: The original 'Limits to Growth' think tank; the closest comparable organization to IIER in terms of mission (macroeconomic analysis under planetary resource constraints) and nonprofit research model.
• New Economics Foundation (NEF): UK think tank pioneering well-being indicators and alternative economic metrics; comparable to IIER's HowAreWe initiative and shared shift away from GDP-only measurement.

Regional players

• Stockholm Resilience Centre: Leading research center for planetary boundaries and resilience science; comparable to IIER for studying the biophysical limits of economic activity, though its primary geography is Scandinavia.

Emerging players

• Global Footprint Network: International research organization tracking humanity's ecological footprint and resource overshoot; addresses the same resource-limits framing IIER uses, but through quantitative environmental metrics rather than macroeconomic modeling.
• Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP): UK-based academic research group on 'sustainable prosperity' and the bounds of economic growth; overlaps significantly with IIER's macroeconomic-energy research agenda.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/energy_stuff
• Facebookfacebook.com/energyandstuff
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/iier

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Institute for Integrated Economic Research (IIER)