Given the current climate crisis, the debate surrounding human-environmental interaction is becoming increasingly important. Faculty members in the field of environmental history aim to address the issue by exploring the historical transformation of the human-environment relationship and looking at past movements that address climate, energy, the use of land, nutrition, waste management, technologization, and conserving nature.

The Institute of Social and Economic History has recently been focusing more on socio-ecological transformation in terms of education and research. The Senate passed a resolution to re-name the "Institute of Economic, Social & Environmental History" beginning in 2024. Ernst Langthaler, head of the institute, spoke about the reasons behind the decision: "When historians look at economic and social issues, they not only address human relationships, but also the way humans interact with nature. By cultivating the land, extracting mineral resources, using fossil fuels, dumping waste, and conserving nature, humans living in the past not only altered their surroundings, but themselves as well. We aim to expand our current fields of research in the history of economics and society to include environmental history because understanding the present-day Anthropocene involves understanding its lengthy past. The past is a laboratory, providing countless lessons in support of future socio-ecological transformation."

In recent years, the institute's activities in environmental history have attracted (inter)national recognition, including kicking off the annual doctoral candidate conference "Wirtschafts-, Sozial- und Umweltgeschichte", held annually at different universities since 2018. The ongoing Austria Science Fund project "Soy and Agro-Food Change (SoyChange)" is examining the socio-ecological transformation of agriculture and food over the past 150 years. The Institute's most recent publication, a special issue of the journal "Zeitgeschichte", focuses on Austria’s environmental history during the 20th century.