At the United Nations conference in Rio, 179 countries committed themselves to this model by signing an agenda for the 21st century.
With regard to provisions for environmental protection, the concept of sustainable development requires strategies of action, which can be continued indefinitely

• by minimising consumption rates of transitory resources via improvement of efficiency, substitution of transitory resources by renewable ones and by recycling (material stream management),
• by preventing the consumption rates of renewable materials and energies from exceeding their given rate of reproduction,
  
• by preventing emissions from exceeding the capacity for regeneration and absorption by environmental media and human beings.

The Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt focuses on supporting projects which help to protect the environment by integrating products and production methods and by shaping attitudes with environmental education programmes aimed at changing patterns of behaviour.

According to the law, the subsidies are concentrated on small and medium-sized enterprises, with priority going to the support of pioneers with innovative environmental ideas.

The DBU particularly encourages co-operation projects between small and medium-sized enterprises and research institutions. Projects from institutions, associations and special interest groups in their role as multipliers are also very welcome.
The three main criteria for obtaining a subsidy are:

• Innovation: the project has to be an advance to the state-of-the-art of current research and technology.

• Exemplary and model character: the innovation should be of interest to a broad segment of the population (e.g. a complete industry). It should also be possible to implement the innovation under commercial conditions within a brief time-scale.

• Environmentally beneficial: the innovation should lead to new, supplementary measures for the protection of the environment.

The decision to grant support largely depends on the concrete contribution which of the project towards reducing environmental degradation. The Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt supports additional measures for disseminating and consolidating project results.

The guidelines of support list 9 special fields including the topics of environmental technology, environmental provision and research, nature protection and environmental communication. These are completed by limited special focus projects which are published and announced separately.