How to develop a Code of Ethics for real-world labs

Codes of ethics play an important role in the practice of professional organizations, companies, and academia. We describe the process of developing a Code of Ethics for Real-world Labs of Sustainability, a form of practice with particular ethical challenges.

Real-world lab (RwL) work is characterized by particular ethical challenges that arise from the participatory and, above all, transformative nature of this form of practice. In response to the demand from the German-speaking community, Real-world Labs of Sustainability, we have designed and implemented a transdisciplinary process to develop a code of ethics which should meet the requirements of the RwL community and, at the same time, be ethically reflective. In this paper, we describe and reflect on this process. It was initiated at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2022, involving KIT-affiliated RwL practitioners and philosophers, and has subsequently been opened to a wider range of contributors. This article is also intended to present the full text of the draft Code of Ethics to a broader audience, and to encourage interested readers to give feedback on this draft. The feedback will be considered in a revision of the text and will thus lead the way towards the actual RwL Code of Ethics.