Dr. rer. pol. Jens Clausen is a founder and shareholder of the Borderstep Institute. The mechanical engineer conducts research on innovation and transformation processes, particularly in the fields of energy systems, heating and heating technologies, electromobility, and digitalisation. For more than three decades, he has worked on environmental innovation and sustainable business and investigates how new technologies and solutions can achieve broader adoption. In doing so, he considers not only technical aspects but also the economic, societal, and political conditions that shape transformation processes.

After obtaining his degree as a graduate engineer, Jens Clausen worked for Continental AG as a product development and application engineer. From 1991 until the founding of the Borderstep Institute in 2005, he was a Senior Researcher in the “Ecological Corporate Policy” research field at the Institute for Ecological Economy Research in Berlin and Hannover.

In 2004, he obtained his doctorate at the Institute for Institutional and Socio-Economics of the University of Bremen. Since 2019, he has coordinated the regional group of Scientists4Future in the Hannover region and was appointed to the Heating Transition Advisory Board of the City of Hannover in 2021. Since 2025, he has been working part-time for the Climate Protection and Energy Agency of Lower Saxony on energy system topics.

Jens Clausen’s home is made of wood and has a sod roof, is too large, and part of an ecological model neighborhood dating back to the 1980s. He has been driving a small electric car since 2020 and has installed a wallbox on a thick wooden beam next to his parking space.

Find all of Jens Clausen’s publications here