Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Sustainable future'

En el context social global actual, en el què un nombre considerable de senyals inequívocs indiquen que la
nostra societat està contribuint al col∙lapse del planeta, " és necessari un nou tipus d'enginyer, un enginyer que
sigui plenament conscient del que està succeint a la societat i que tingui les habilitats necessàries per fer front
als aspectes socials de les tecnologies "(De Graaff et al., 2001).

L'educació superior és un instrument essencial per superar els reptes del món actual amb èxit i per formar
ciutadans capaços de construir una societat més justa i oberta (Álvarez, 2000). Per tant, les institucions
d'educació superior tenen la responsabilitat d'educar els futurs titulats amb la finalitat que adquireixin una
visió moral i ètica i assoleixin els coneixements tècnics necessaris per assegurar la qualitat de vida per a les
generacions futures (Corcoran et al, 2002).

Amb l'objectiu d'assegurar que els futurs titulats siguin enginyers sostenibles, tres qüestions fonamentals han
guiat aquesta investigació:
Quines competències en sostenibilitat ha d'adquirir un enginyer a la universitat?
Com poden aquestes competències ser adquirides d'una manera eficient?
Quina estructura educacional és més eficaç per facilitar els processos d'aprenentatge requerits?

La primera pregunta es refereix a "Què?", és a dir, a quines competències relacionades amb la sostenibilitat
(coneixements, habilitats i actituds) ha de tenir un enginyer que es gradua en el segle 21. La segona qüestió es
refereix a "Com?" i es centra en com els processos educatius poden fer possible l'aprenentatge de les
competències en sostenibilitat a través de les estratègies pedagògiques adequades. L'última pregunta es
refereix a "On?" des de la perspectiva de quin pla d'estudis i quina estructura organitzativa són necessaris per
poder aplicar la didàctica més òptima per graduar enginyers amb competències en sostenibilitat.
Aquesta recerca s'ha enfocat des d'una vessant teòrico‐pràctica en què tant les estratègies pedagògiques com
les competències en sostenibilitat s'han estudiat en paral∙lel. Amb aquesta orientació, s'ha dissenyat una eina
d'avaluació que mesura aquests dos aspectes i la seva relació, i que s'ha aplicat a 10 casos d'estudi formats per
cursos de sostenibilitat de 5 universitats tecnològiques europees, en els quals hi han participat, en total, més
de 500 estudiants.

Per completar l'estudi, s'ha analitzat la introducció de la sostenibilitat en els plans d'estudi
de 17 universitats tecnològiques, i s'han entrevistat 45 experts en educació de sostenibilitat en l'enginyeria.
En relació a les preguntes clau, els resultats de la investigació han estat els següents:
En el moment de titular‐se, l'estudiantat d'enginyeria hauria d'haver adquirit les competències següents:
pensament crític, pensament sistèmic, ser capaços de treballar en un entorn transdisciplinari, i tenir valors en
consonància amb el paradigma de la sostenibilitat. D'altra banda, d'acord amb els requisits de l'EEES, també cal
establir un marc comú per definir, descriure i avaluar les competències en sostenibilitat a nivell europeu.

Després d'haver realitzat un curs en sostenibilitat, la majoria de l'estudiantat segueix prioritzant el rol
tecnològic de la sostenibilitat, pel que fa a la tecnologia com la solució als problemes ambientals, sense gairebé
considerar els aspectes socials. Per tant, els cursos sobre sostenibilitat han d'emfatitzar més la part social i
institucional de la sostenibilitat.

Existeix una relació directa entre l'aprenentatge de la transdisciplinarietat i el pensament sistèmic.
L'aprenentatge cognitiu de l'estudiantat augmenta, a mida que s'aplica una pedagogia més orientada a la
comunitat i més constructiva. Així, l'aprenentatge cognitiu de la sostenibilitat també millora a través d'una
l''educació activa, experiencial i multimetodològica. A més a més, en l'aprenentatge de la sostenibilitat, el
paper del professorat és molt important pel que fa a l'aprenentatge implícit de valors, principis i pensament
crític associats a la sostenibilitat

Les universitats tecnològiques actualment implementen l'educació en sostenibilitat a través de quatre
estratègies principals: un curs específic, una especialització en sostenibilitat, un màster en sostenibilitat o en
tecnologies sostenibles, i la integració del desenvolupament sostenible en tots els cursos. No obstant això, la
principal barrera per a la integració de la sostenibilitat en tots els cursos és la manca de comprensió del terme
per part del professorat. L'"enfocament individual" (Peet et al., 2004) ha demostrat ser un bon sistema per
superar aquesta barrera.
Hi ha una necessitat clara de lideratge per part de l'equip de govern de les universitats en el procés de canvi
cap a una educació en sostenibilitat. Aquest lideratge ha de promoure l'enfocament de baix a dalt.
Els processos d'educació en sostenibilitat es reforcen quan aquests no només integren l'educació, sinó també
totes les altres àrees clau d'activitat de la universitat: recerca, gestió i relació amb la societat.
En breu, l'estructura d'aquesta tesi és la següent. El capítol 1 introdueix el plantejament de la recerca. El
capítol 2 revisa l'estat de l'art i la literatura en relació a les competències que els enginyers han de tenir quan
es graduen, A continuació, el capítol 3 descriu les estratègies pedagògiques per al desenvolupament sostenible
i les analitza des d'un punt de vista teòric i metodològic presentant els avantatges i desavantatges de les més
utilitzades en l'ensenyament d'enginyeria El capítol 4 presenta les estructures curriculars que han de catalitzar
el procés d'aprenentatge en sostenibilitat. El capítol 5 desenvolupa el marc conceptual de la recerca, les
propostes metodològiques de la investigació i els casos d'estudi analitzats. El capítol 6 avalua
comparativament les competències en sostenibilitat definides en tres universitats tecnològiques que són líders
europeus en sostenibilitat. El Capítol 7 introdueix el marc metodològic per a l'avaluació de l'aprenentatge
cognitiu en sostenibilitat del estudiantat. Aquesta metodologia s'aplica en el capítol 8 als 10 cursos de
sostenibilitat impartits en 5 universitats tecnològiques europees, que conformen els casos d'estudi d'aquesta
recerca. A partir de les 45 entrevistes realitzades a experts en sostenibilitat provinents de 17 universitats
tecnològiques europees, el capítol 9 estudia les millors pràctiques en pedagogia per a l'aprenentatge de la
sostenibilitat i el capítol 10 examina l'estructura curricular que més facilita l'aprenentatge en sostenibilitat a
les universitats tecnològiques. En el Capítol 11 es comparen els resultats obtinguts en els diferents casos
d'estudi i s'avaluen les propostes plantejades en el capítol 1. Finalment, el capítol 12 planteja les conclusions
de la recerca i algunes recomanacions per a les institucions d'educació superior tecnològiques.
In today's world social context, in which a considerable number of contrasting signs reveal that our society is currently contributing to the planet's collapse, "a new kind of engineer is needed, an engineer who is fully aware of what is going on in society and who has the skills to deal with societal aspects of technologies" (De
Graaff et al., 2001).

Higher education is the essential instrument to overcome the current world challenges and to train citizens able to build a more fair and open society (Alvarez, 2000). Thus higher education institutions have the responsibility to educate graduates who have achieved an ethical moral vision and the necessary technical knowledge to ensure the quality of life for future generations (Corcoran et al, 2002).

In relation to graduating sustainable engineers, three main questions have been developed to guide this research:
1. Which Sustainability (SD) competences must an engineer obtain at university?
2. How can these competences be acquired efficiently?
3. Which education structure is more effective for the required learning processes?
The first main question is a "What" question, and focuses on which competences (knowledge/understanding, skills/abilities and attitudes) an engineer graduating in the 21st century should have in relation to SD.
The second main question is a "How" question and focuses on how can the education processes make this learning achievable through the proper pedagogical strategies. The last main question is a "Where" question and looks
at the perspective of the curriculum and the organizational structure needed to apply the optimal didactics to achieve the goal of graduating sustainable engineers.
The focus of this research requires a theoretical‐practical approach in which both pedagogical strategies and SD competences are studied in parallel.
An assessment tool that measures the two subjects and their relationship is developed and case studies are run in 10 SD courses at 5 European technological universities, where nearly 500 students have participated. Moreover, the different approaches to introduce SD in the
curriculum of 17 technological universities are analysed, and 45 experts on teaching SD to engineering students have been interviewed.

In relation to the key questions, the findings of this research are the following.
When graduating the engineering students should have acquired the following SD competences: critical thinking, systemic thinking, an ability to work in transdisciplinary frameworks, and to have values consistent with the sustainability paradigm. Moreover, following the requirements of the EHEA, a common framework to define, describe and evaluate SD competences at European level is needed.

Most students, after taking a course on SD, highlight the technological role of sustainability in terms of technology as the solution to environmental problems. Therefore SD courses need to place more emphasis on the social/institutional side of sustainability.
There is a direct relationship between transdisciplinary and systemic thinking learning.
Students achieve better cognitive learning as more community‐oriented and constructive‐learning pedagogies are applied. Multi‐methodological experiential active learning education increases cognitive learning of sustainability.
In addition, the role of the teacher is very important for SD learning in terms of implicit learning of sustainability values, principles and critical thinking.

There are four main strategies to increase EESD in universities: a specific SD course, a minor/specialization in SD, a Master on SD or Sustainable Technologies and the embedment of SD in all courses. Nevertheless the main barrier to embedding SD in all courses is the lack of comprehension to SD within the faculty. The
individual approach (Peet et al., 2004) has shown to be successful to overcome this barrier.

There is a need of clear top‐down leadership in the ESD process, which must promote the bottom‐up
approach. Additionally, ESD processes are reinforced when they encompass not only education but also all the key areas of the university: research, management, and society outreach.
This thesis is organised as follows. The introduction in chapter 1 is followed by the state of the art and literature review in competences that engineers should have when graduating in chapter 2. Chapter 3 introduces the pedagogical strategies for SD and develops a theoretical and methodological exploration of
these strategies, which presents the pros & cons and learning outcomes of the most common pedagogical strategies in engineering. Chapter 4 describes the curriculum structures that catalyse the process of sustainable education. Chapter 5 presents the development of the conceptual research framework,
propositions and case studies research methodologies. A comparative SD competence analysis of three European leading SD technological universities is presented in chapter 6. Chapter 7 introduces the methodology framework to evaluate the knowledge on SD acquired by students; this methodology is later
applied in chapter 8 to 10 case studies related to SD courses taught in 5 European technological universities.
From the results of the interviews with 45 experts from 17 European technological universities, chapter 9 analyses the best pedagogical practices for SD learning and chapter 10 analyses the curriculum structure that
most facilitates the introduction of SD learning in technological universities. Chapter 11 compares the different cases analyzed and evaluates the propositions developed in chapter 1. Finally, in chapter 12 conclusions are drawn and recommendations for technological higher education institutions are provided.

Through this thesis the authors explore how Labs can be designed in order to catalyze systemic sustainable change by A) contributing to systemic socio-ecological sustainability, B) providing an adaptive and experimental alternative to forecasting and traditional planning, and C) providing forums for collaboration, collective impact, capacity building, and the emergence of systemic solutions to local and global challenges. Through their research the authors performed a literature/field review, reviewed organizational documents, and analyzed a select set of Lab theories, processes, and cases. Additionally the authors interviewed leading experts in Lab design/facilitation, sustainability, the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD), systemic change, and transformative action. The synthesis of this research is offered to emerging Lab designers, practitioners, and facilitators interested in moving society toward a sustainable, regenerative, and thriving future.

En el context social global actual, en el què un nombre considerable de senyals inequívocs indiquen que lanostra societat està contribuint al col∙lapse del planeta, " és necessari un nou tipus d'enginyer, un enginyer quesigui plenament conscient del que està succeint a la societat i que tingui les habilitats necessàries per fer frontals aspectes socials de les tecnologies "(De Graaff et al., 2001).L'educació superior és un instrument essencial per superar els reptes del món actual amb èxit i per formarciutadans capaços de construir una societat més justa i oberta (Álvarez, 2000). Per tant, les institucionsd'educació superior tenen la responsabilitat d'educar els futurs titulats amb la finalitat que adquireixin unavisió moral i ètica i assoleixin els coneixements tècnics necessaris per assegurar la qualitat de vida per a lesgeneracions futures (Corcoran et al, 2002).Amb l'objectiu d'assegurar que els futurs titulats siguin enginyers sostenibles, tres qüestions fonamentals hanguiat aquesta investigació:Quines competències en sostenibilitat ha d'adquirir un enginyer a la universitat?Com poden aquestes competències ser adquirides d'una manera eficient?Quina estructura educacional és més eficaç per facilitar els processos d'aprenentatge requerits?La primera pregunta es refereix a "Què?", és a dir, a quines competències relacionades amb la sostenibilitat(coneixements, habilitats i actituds) ha de tenir un enginyer que es gradua en el segle 21. La segona qüestió esrefereix a "Com?" i es centra en com els processos educatius poden fer possible l'aprenentatge de lescompetències en sostenibilitat a través de les estratègies pedagògiques adequades. L'última pregunta esrefereix a "On?" des de la perspectiva de quin pla d'estudis i quina estructura organitzativa són necessaris perpoder aplicar la didàctica més òptima per graduar enginyers amb competències en sostenibilitat.Aquesta recerca s'ha enfocat des d'una vessant teòrico‐pràctica en què tant les estratègies pedagògiques comles competències en sostenibilitat s'han estudiat en paral∙lel. Amb aquesta orientació, s'ha dissenyat una einad'avaluació que mesura aquests dos aspectes i la seva relació, i que s'ha aplicat a 10 casos d'estudi formats percursos de sostenibilitat de 5 universitats tecnològiques europees, en els quals hi han participat, en total, mésde 500 estudiants. Per completar l'estudi, s'ha analitzat la introducció de la sostenibilitat en els plans d'estudide 17 universitats tecnològiques, i s'han entrevistat 45 experts en educació de sostenibilitat en l'enginyeria.En relació a les preguntes clau, els resultats de la investigació han estat els següents:En el moment de titular‐se, l'estudiantat d'enginyeria hauria d'haver adquirit les competències següents:pensament crític, pensament sistèmic, ser capaços de treballar en un entorn transdisciplinari, i tenir valors enconsonància amb el paradigma de la sostenibilitat. D'altra banda, d'acord amb els requisits de l'EEES, també calestablir un marc comú per definir, descriure i avaluar les competències en sostenibilitat a nivell europeu.Després d'haver realitzat un curs en sostenibilitat, la majoria de l'estudiantat segueix prioritzant el roltecnològic de la sostenibilitat, pel que fa a la tecnologia com la solució als problemes ambientals, sense gairebéconsiderar els aspectes socials. Per tant, els cursos sobre sostenibilitat han d'emfatitzar més la part social iinstitucional de la sostenibilitat.Existeix una relació directa entre l'aprenentatge de la transdisciplinarietat i el pensament sistèmic.L'aprenentatge cognitiu de l'estudiantat augmenta, a mida que s'aplica una pedagogia més orientada a lacomunitat i més constructiva. Així, l'aprenentatge cognitiu de la sostenibilitat també millora a través d'unal''educació activa, experiencial i multimetodològica. A més a més, en l'aprenentatge de la sostenibilitat, elpaper del professorat és molt important pel que fa a l'aprenentatge implícit de valors, principis i pensamentcrític associats a la sostenibilitatLes universitats tecnològiques actualment implementen l'educació en sostenibilitat a través de quatreestratègies principals: un curs específic, una especialització en sostenibilitat, un màster en sostenibilitat o entecnologies sostenibles, i la integració del desenvolupament sostenible en tots els cursos. No obstant això, laprincipal barrera per a la integració de la sostenibilitat en tots els cursos és la manca de comprensió del termeper part del professorat. L'"enfocament individual" (Peet et al., 2004) ha demostrat ser un bon sistema persuperar aquesta barrera.Hi ha una necessitat clara de lideratge per part de l'equip de govern de les universitats en el procés de canvicap a una educació en sostenibilitat. Aquest lideratge ha de promoure l'enfocament de baix a dalt. Els processos d'educació en sostenibilitat es reforcen quan aquests no només integren l'educació, sinó tambétotes les altres àrees clau d'activitat de la universitat: recerca, gestió i relació amb la societat.En breu, l'estructura d'aquesta tesi és la següent. El capítol 1 introdueix el plantejament de la recerca. Elcapítol 2 revisa l'estat de l'art i la literatura en relació a les competències que els enginyers han de tenir quanes graduen, A continuació, el capítol 3 descriu les estratègies pedagògiques per al desenvolupament sosteniblei les analitza des d'un punt de vista teòric i metodològic presentant els avantatges i desavantatges de les mésutilitzades en l'ensenyament d'enginyeria El capítol 4 presenta les estructures curriculars que han de catalitzarel procés d'aprenentatge en sostenibilitat. El capítol 5 desenvolupa el marc conceptual de la recerca, lespropostes metodològiques de la investigació i els casos d'estudi analitzats. El capítol 6 avaluacomparativament les competències en sostenibilitat definides en tres universitats tecnològiques que són líderseuropeus en sostenibilitat. El Capítol 7 introdueix el marc metodològic per a l'avaluació de l'aprenentatgecognitiu en sostenibilitat del estudiantat. Aquesta metodologia s'aplica en el capítol 8 als 10 cursos desostenibilitat impartits en 5 universitats tecnològiques europees, que conformen els casos d'estudi d'aquestarecerca. A partir de les 45 entrevistes realitzades a experts en sostenibilitat provinents de 17 universitatstecnològiques europees, el capítol 9 estudia les millors pràctiques en pedagogia per a l'aprenentatge de lasostenibilitat i el capítol 10 examina l'estructura curricular que més facilita l'aprenentatge en sostenibilitat ales universitats tecnològiques. En el Capítol 11 es comparen els resultats obtinguts en els diferents casosd'estudi i s'avaluen les propostes plantejades en el capítol 1. Finalment, el capítol 12 planteja les conclusionsde la recerca i algunes recomanacions per a les institucions d'educació superior tecnològiques.
In today's world social context, in which a considerable number of contrasting signs reveal that our society is currently contributing to the planet's collapse, "a new kind of engineer is needed, an engineer who is fully aware of what is going on in society and who has the skills to deal with societal aspects of technologies" (DeGraaff et al., 2001).Higher education is the essential instrument to overcome the current world challenges and to train citizens able to build a more fair and open society (Alvarez, 2000). Thus higher education institutions have the responsibility to educate graduates who have achieved an ethical moral vision and the necessary technical knowledge to ensure the quality of life for future generations (Corcoran et al, 2002).In relation to graduating sustainable engineers, three main questions have been developed to guide this research:1. Which Sustainability (SD) competences must an engineer obtain at university?2. How can these competences be acquired efficiently?3. Which education structure is more effective for the required learning processes?The first main question is a "What" question, and focuses on which competences (knowledge/understanding, skills/abilities and attitudes) an engineer graduating in the 21st century should have in relation to SD. The second main question is a "How" question and focuses on how can the education processes make this learning achievable through the proper pedagogical strategies. The last main question is a "Where" question and looksat the perspective of the curriculum and the organizational structure needed to apply the optimal didactics to achieve the goal of graduating sustainable engineers.The focus of this research requires a theoretical‐practical approach in which both pedagogical strategies and SD competences are studied in parallel. An assessment tool that measures the two subjects and their relationship is developed and case studies are run in 10 SD courses at 5 European technological universities, where nearly 500 students have participated. Moreover, the different approaches to introduce SD in thecurriculum of 17 technological universities are analysed, and 45 experts on teaching SD to engineering students have been interviewed.In relation to the key questions, the findings of this research are the following.When graduating the engineering students should have acquired the following SD competences: critical thinking, systemic thinking, an ability to work in transdisciplinary frameworks, and to have values consistent with the sustainability paradigm. Moreover, following the requirements of the EHEA, a common framework to define, describe and evaluate SD competences at European level is needed.Most students, after taking a course on SD, highlight the technological role of sustainability in terms of technology as the solution to environmental problems. Therefore SD courses need to place more emphasis on the social/institutional side of sustainability.There is a direct relationship between transdisciplinary and systemic thinking learning.Students achieve better cognitive learning as more community‐oriented and constructive‐learning pedagogies are applied. Multi‐methodological experiential active learning education increases cognitive learning of sustainability. In addition, the role of the teacher is very important for SD learning in terms of implicit learning of sustainability values, principles and critical thinking.There are four main strategies to increase EESD in universities: a specific SD course, a minor/specialization in SD, a Master on SD or Sustainable Technologies and the embedment of SD in all courses. Nevertheless the main barrier to embedding SD in all courses is the lack of comprehension to SD within the faculty. Theindividual approach (Peet et al., 2004) has shown to be successful to overcome this barrier.There is a need of clear top‐down leadership in the ESD process, which must promote the bottom‐upapproach. Additionally, ESD processes are reinforced when they encompass not only education but also all the key areas of the university: research, management, and society outreach.This thesis is organised as follows. The introduction in chapter 1 is followed by the state of the art and literature review in competences that engineers should have when graduating in chapter 2. Chapter 3 introduces the pedagogical strategies for SD and develops a theoretical and methodological exploration ofthese strategies, which presents the pros & cons and learning outcomes of the most common pedagogical strategies in engineering. Chapter 4 describes the curriculum structures that catalyse the process of sustainable education. Chapter 5 presents the development of the conceptual research framework,propositions and case studies research methodologies. A comparative SD competence analysis of three European leading SD technological universities is presented in chapter 6. Chapter 7 introduces the methodology framework to evaluate the knowledge on SD acquired by students; this methodology is laterapplied in chapter 8 to 10 case studies related to SD courses taught in 5 European technological universities.From the results of the interviews with 45 experts from 17 European technological universities, chapter 9 analyses the best pedagogical practices for SD learning and chapter 10 analyses the curriculum structure thatmost facilitates the introduction of SD learning in technological universities. Chapter 11 compares the different cases analyzed and evaluates the propositions developed in chapter 1. Finally, in chapter 12 conclusions are drawn and recommendations for technological higher education institutions are provided.

The world faces sustainability challenges directly attributable to human behaviour, and expected to irreparably degrade the socio-ecological system. Cartography (mapping) is a diverse planning and communicating discipline used for strategic development of global and local solutions to these challenges. Its flexible yet robust technology can generate common understanding of issues and inspire successful solutions. This thesis studied community mapping, specifically how community mapping practitioners (CMPs) can use community mapping tools (CMTs) more effectively for Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD). Data of current SSD strengths of six CMTs was collected using the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) and 13 interviews with practitioners. Thirty-six Key Elements (KEs) of guidance for CMPs to use CMTs were developed. A Compass Model was designed to interlink the KEs, in eight interrelated categories, with the ABCD Strategic Planning Process (ABCD). The results suggest that CMPs using CMTs combined with an SSD approach have the potential to create effective solutions towards sustainability.

The tourism industry has continuously grown in the last fifty years, promoted economic growth and created jobs (UNWTO, 2017). Nevertheless, this industry is impacting and greatly stressing natural environments and societies inciting a transformation towards a more sustainable form of tourism practices (Williams & Ponsford, 2009). The United Nations General Assembly declared 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development (UNWTO, 2016). The purpose of the declaration was to position the tourism industry as a tool to address the Universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (UNWTO, 2016). A backcasting participatory approach was used to explore the roles of the SDGs in creating future sustainable tourism destinations, using Swedish Lapland as a reference. The study uses backcasting as a method together with a literature review and semi-structured interviews to key stakeholders. The study concludes that SDGs are good parameters to describe current scenarios in order to develop desired ones. It also finds that sustainable future tourism destinations are highly connected with environment and society as part of the core experience, resecting traditions and culture. In order to achieve sustainable future destinations legislation, better practices and alternative methods of transportation need to be implemented alongside creating an experience that is based on responsibility towards nature and societies.

In response to a growing popular concern for 'sustainability', Green Computing has emerged as a new `sustainability' discourse in which researchers explore solutions to reduce the environmental impact of computing technologies themselves, as well as solutions to reduce the environmental impact of other activities and behaviours through the development of new technologies. Despite good intentions and enthusiasm for the cause, there is little evidence of Green Computing having had significant or long-term impacts, and indeed, as one potential indicator, even combined with all of the efforts of many other disciplines, the exponential curve of growth in carbon emissions continues unabated. This dissertation aims to understand the reasons why Green Computing may have had a limited impact to date, and explore alternative approaches to `sustainability' that may enable greater impact by computing. To begin, key assumptions underpinning Green Computing discourse are exposed in order to contextualise it within the broader debate surrounding an agenda for 'sustainability' - the term itself, while gaining significant traction in popular culture, is deeply contested. It is shown that the discursive characteristics of Green Computing, along with its specific appropriation of the term `sustainability', reinforce a set of values that ultimately undermine its solutions and limit its impact. An alternative discourse is proposed that avoids reinforcement of problematic values, and a radically different conception of 'sustainability', and the role that computing may play in contributing to a 'sustainable' future, is proposed in a new discourse, namely Cyber-Sustainability. To illustrate the difference in solutions that might emerge from Cyber-Sustainability, an initial set of propositional solutions are presented in the form of patterns, which are offered here as an invitation for others to join in the further elaboration of these patterns towards a comprehensive pattern language.

Inspired by the question of the Club of Rome as to Design could help to translate the ubiquitous knowledge on sustainability into daily practise and Peter Senge's belief on mental models as a limiting factor to implementation of systemic insight (Senge 2006), we explored working with mental models as a sustainable design tool. We propose a definition for design uses. At the 7th Sustainable Summer School we collected general unsustainable mental models and "designed" sustainable ones. These mental models were tested as a part of the briefing to student projects and evaluated by the students. Analysing an existing product portfolio, we tested the ability of mental models to aid the creation of strategic design advice. We argue that mental models in the form of associative thinking and cognitive metaphors have been part of designing all along and overlap in nature with design methodologies to such an extent that they are sublimely suited to be used as a design tool. We summarize our prototyping exercises with the proposal of a design process using mental models to root sustainability in design practise and thinking beyond present-day eco-design (Liedtke et al 2013, Luttropp and Lagerstedt 2006, Pigosso and McAloone 2015).

Thesis advisor: Andrew Jorgenson
In 2015, the United Nations implemented the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which cover a wide range of social, economic and environmental issues. While there is a virtual international consensus regarding the importance of these goals, and reconsidering the ecological costs of human development, there are disagreements on the best approaches to actually achieving sustainability. Mainstream perspectives argue that the most feasible and effective path to sustainable development is to decouple economic growth from its environmental impacts, largely through the advancement and implementation of green technologies. In this framework, economic growth is seen as synonymous with development and a necessary prerequisite for improving human wellbeing. On the other hand, many scholars are critical of this approach to sustainable development and argue that economic growth is not only antithetical to achieving environmental sustainability, it also has limited appeal for improving social and economic wellbeing in developed countries. With this in mind, in this dissertation I examine alternative pathways to sustainable development that move beyond the growth-consensus. Previous studies argue that a working time reduction potentially represents a multi-dividend sustainability policy that could improve social, economic and environmental outcomes. Similarly, previous research also indicates that inequality is negatively associated with human wellbeing and can lead to increased environmental pressures. Across three empirical chapters, I investigate the effects of working hours and inequality, and their interaction, on measures of environmental and human wellbeing across US states over time. In the first chapter, I assess the relationship between average working hours and CO2 emissions from 2007 to 2013. This chapter is the first examination of this relationship at the US state level and finds that longer working hours are associated with increased emissions over time. The second empirical chapter takes this research one step further and examines how inequality shapes the relationship between working hours and emissions from 2005 to 2015. The results of these analyses again find that longer working hours are associated with increased emissions but that the relationship becomes more intense at higher levels of inequality. The third empirical chapter investigates the claim that a working time reduction could be a multi-dividend sustainability policy by examining the relationship between work hours and life expectancy from 2005 to 2015. I also examine how inequality shapes this relationship as well. Results indicate that longer working hours are associated with decreases in life expectancy, and that this effect is larger at higher levels of inequality. In all, these studies provide more evidence that reducing working hours could potentially be an effective sustainability policy that could contribute to achieving multiple sustainable development goals. Further, they show that inequality is an important factor shaping socio-environmental relationships and population health relationships
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Sociology

Inspired by the question of the Club of Rome as to Design could help to translate the ubiquitous knowledge on sustainability into daily practise and Peter Senge's belief on mental models as a limiting factor to implementation of systemic insight (Senge 2006), we explored working with mental models as a sustainable design tool. We propose a definition for design uses. At the 7th Sustainable Summer School we collected general unsustainable mental models and "designed" sustainable ones. These mental models were tested as a part of the briefing to student projects and evaluated by the students. Analysing an existing product portfolio, we tested the ability of mental models to aid the creation of strategic design advice. We argue that mental models in the form of associative thinking and cognitive metaphors have been part of designing all along and overlap in nature with design methodologies to such an extent that they are sublimely suited to be used as a design tool. We summarize our prototyping exercises with the proposal of a design process using mental models to root sustainability in design practise and thinking beyond present-day eco-design (Liedtke et al 2013, Luttropp and Lagerstedt 2006, Pigosso and McAloone 2015).

One aspect of leadership strategy is the need to account for the core values of the organization. The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of tribal gaming leader strategies toward sustainability, an action that leads to tribal economic development and stability. The conceptual framework of situational leadership theory was used to guide the scope and analysis of this study. Six tribal gaming leaders from Oklahoma participated in a focus group session; 7 additional tribal gaming leaders from the same gaming organization participated in individual interview sessions. Member checking was used to strengthen the credibility and trustworthiness of the interpretation of the participants' responses. Additionally, company documents were reviewed to triangulate the data. Four emergent themes were identified after data analysis: business value, which was attributed to tribal leaders' alignment to their mission; strategic vision, which included their marketing and overall business environment; collaboration, which was evident wherein the tribal gaming leaders utilized internal and external partnerships to improve local communities and maintain competitive advantage; and communication, which was emphasized for its importance as a daily skill for information sharing. This research explored the strategies necessary for tribal gaming leader choices that could have a significant influence on social progress between the organization and society, environmental protection for the surrounding community, and economic growth for the local economy. The findings from this study may contribute to social change by aiding in the organizational strategy to forecasting; these findings may also aid in the overall business value, prosperity of employees, and the local economy.

The 2040 governmental goal of 100 % renewable electricity in Sweden means that there will be a shift in electricity production and a phasing out of nuclear power. This nuclear power has to be replaced by some other source. Wind power is a viable alternative, thanks to its reliability and the abundance of wind in Sweden. However, wind power production requires a large amount of land and carries the risk of disrupting the landscape. Wind energy is therefore often difficult to develop, and when developed it is often in rural areas where it disturbs as few people as possible. This study presents an alternative to rural exploitation, it investigates whether it is possible to produce sufficient wind power to satisfy urban demand within 20 000 meters of the 20 largest cities in Sweden. Firstly, the criteria for areas where wind power can be developed were synthesised. Secondly a numerical model was used to simulate energy demand in TWh considering the future growth in demand and the phasing out of nuclear power. The demand for wind power was then translated into correlating area in km2. Finally, a GIS analysis was conducted to estimate the extent of area suitable for wind power development based on the criteria above and within a 20 000m perimeter from the 20 largest cities in Sweden. The analysis showed that only 35 % of the required area for wind power development fulfilled the criteria within the given perimeter. From the GIS analysis only 940.73 km2 was found to be suitable. From the numerical model, the results showed that for it to be sufficient, there would have to be at least 2687.1 km2 suitable land. The conclusion from this study is that in order to phase out the nuclear power, the majority of the wind power has to be located in the rural areas.

In 2015 the 17 Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by 193 member states of the United Nations. The SDGs are highly ambitious and their underlying processes are interconnected by causal relationships. Work towards fulfilling them therefore requires considering how solutions for one goal will impacts others. In this study target-oriented backcasting is applied to examine set goals in the future, as well as to determine the current state and trends of development. This is done in an effort to determine conflicts between targets and resource limitations of future development. The findings suggest that the current paradigm of giving GDP growth highest societal priority, leads to a causal relationship where development occurs at the expense of sustainability at the global level. In order to overcome this, the fulfilment of the SDGs has to be given higher priority than the size and growth rate of the GDP.
Under 2015 antogs de 17 globala hållbarhetsmålen av 193 medlemsstater i Förenta Nationerna. Målen är väldigt ambitiösa och deras underliggande processer sammanlänkar dem via orsakssamband. Arbetet med att uppfylla målen kräver därför att hänsyn tas till hur tänkta lösningar till ett mål i sin tur påverkar de övriga. I den här studien tillämpas target-oriented backcasting för att undersöka de uppsatta framtida målen, samt hur utvecklingen i dagsläget förhåller sig till dessa. Detta görs som ett försök att identifiera konflikter mellan de uppsatta målen, samt mot den begränsade mängden naturresurser som finns tillgänglig för framtida utveckling. Resultaten tyder på att under det rådande paradigmet där BNP tillväxt ges högsta prioritet i samhället, leder detta till ett orsakssamband där samhällsutveckling sker på bekostnad av långsiktig hållbarhet på global nivå. För att kunna komma runt detta krävs att uppfyllandet av de globala hållbarhetsmålen prioriteras över ekonomins storlek och tillväxt avseende BNP.

In this I will explore the ethical challenge of global climate change by analysing three accounts of how responsibility for climate change should be distributed. I explore why it is valuable to view climate change as part of a bigger ethical problem of resources, distribution and global justice. Furthermore, I will argue that a road towards change by a cosmo political theory of justice is the most reasonable option. The theme of my argumentation is that the challenge of global climate change should be understood as a problem between human beings, not between states, or via schemes for distribution or rigid systematic solutions. Many theories of justice fail to do so with challenging and potentially dangerous consequences.
I den här uppsatsen så kommer jag utforska klimatförändringar som etisk utmaning. Jag undersöker varför det är värdefullt att se klimatförändringar som en del av ett större problem som handlar om resurser, distribuering och global rättvisa. Jag kommer undersöka tre möjliga vägar till en lösning på klimatförändringar som etiskt problem och hävda att en kosmopolitisk rättviseteori är det rimligaste alternativet. Klimatförändringens utmaning måste förstås som ett problem människor emellan och inte stater emellan genom planer för distribuering av resurser eller någon annan mer eller mindre regid systematisk lösning. Många rättviseteorier lyckas mindre väl med detta med utmanande och potentiellt farliga konsekvenser som resultat.

Growth in aviation has resulted in large airports that can be described as Airport Metropolises. This thesis reviews a variety of sustainable energy options that are suitable for such airports, and presents a decision support framework that can be used to guide decision makers towards the adoption of sound sustainable energy projects and practices. The thesis demonstrates use of the decision support framework via a number of case studies and outlines a methodology which could be incorporated within a Decision Support System.

This study focuses on different manufacturing processes and material choices for products that are designed to help the future to be more sustainable. These products were developed in a global project that explored the field and subfields of urban mining. This thesis is a part of that project and is meant to come with valuable input to the results. In this urban mining project two products were developed. The two different products that has been developed during this project is the NIX and the UM Factory. They work together with keeping material on the construction site when space is limited in order to reduce the transportation, both for the environmental benefit and also from a cost perspective. Together they will not only keep the material on the site but also refine them so they can be used again. This thesis will look into how these two products can be manufactured and what materials is a suitable choice for the products. These two factors were also thought about during the development of the products, both how to make it as simple design that was easy to produce while still fulfilling the requirements set. Also what materials might be a suitable choice for different parts of the products is considered, in order to be reliable, easy to work with, and relatively cheap. The study also explored some methods and materials that might be worth looking into in a few years. Methods and materials that today are undeveloped or not economically viable.

Fossils are a non-renewable natural resource and impart many different kinds of value including scientific, educational, aesthetic and via practical uses such as construction. They provide an entirely irreplaceable record of life on Earth yet ensuring their sustainable use has often been overlooked. Ten case examples of fossil sites, with a European focus but from around the world, are documented in a framework of economic, social and environmental spheres typically used in sustainable development theory. The sustainability of the way fossils are treated at the sites is examined, compared and discussed. Non-extractive uses are generally found to be most straightforwardly sustainable, but concerns such as pollution must be born in mind. Extractive uses (commercial collecting, quarrying) present more challenges but can be made sustainable by involvement of science and investment of profits. Without a coordinated global policy for sustainable development in all areas fossil use cannot be sustainable globally.

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 102-113).
This thesis examines the status of sustainable development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It seeks to analyze the various factors supporting or hindering the progress of the Kingdom towards sustainable development. It will apply the framework developed by Ashford & Hall (2011) to assess the performance and interaction between economy, employment and environment while considering the forces of technology and globalization. The first part of the thesis will look at the current status of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Then, the three dimensions of sustainable development will be analyzed in great details followed by a short analysis of technology and trade. The analysis will then shift to the ambitious Saudi vision 2030 that aims to transform the Kingdom from an oil-dependent economy into a leading exporter of sustainable energy that has a diverse economy. The last part of the thesis will explore the focus areas which are limiting the Kingdom from progressing towards a greater degree of sustainable development. The major limitations include rapidly degrading environment, increasing unemployment rate, rising income inequality, endemic corruption, and minimal awareness about sustainable development. The thesis then concludes by summarizing the major points.
by Nabil Sayfayn.
S.M. in Engineering and Management

This is a study of urban mobility, where urban areas are defined as diverse and complex locations with a metabolism composed of multiple components and subsystems. Currently, more than 60% of the world’s population live in urban areas, a number expected to grow significantly. Most cities are unsustainable and often in ecological deficit; cities over- consume or pollute their natural resources, while unequal distribution of resources also occur. Thus, leading to serious economic and social imbalances, something that is possible to appreciate in developing nation-states. With population growth and economic concentration in urban areas, transport policies are forcing governments to seek innovative solutions for shaping and re-shaping existing and future transportation systems. Transport infrastructure related to congestion, accidents, local air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) is a challenge for many major cities in the world. This study covers the political and socio-economical processes with regards to the environmental challenges in the Peruvian transport system. It includes an analysis of the strategies and indicators of good governance by the central, metropolitan and local governments, with the aim of identifying the main drivers and barriers to improving the current transport system in Lima. It is important to highlight that urban mobility is an important component of urban planning and is constituted by the urban transport system, land use, traffic management, inter-modality, accessibility and public space management, among other things. The appropriate approach to urban mobility joins the vision of a city with citizenship (Ministerio de Vivienda 2016). From an Urban Political Ecology (UPE) perspective, one can appreciate that the transport system in Lima seems directly derived from complex social, economic and political relations and where environmental challenges are less vocal (Robbins 2012). And seen from the Entrepreneurial or innovative state and as described by Schumpeter, the role that a state or governments hold is crucial in a well-functioning society in the context of a capitalism society. An efficient government is vital in providing goods and services, rules and institutions for ensuring that the market grows, as well as directing citizens to a more prosperous life. Without such a government, sustainable development in social and economical aspects is impossible. However, the results of this study not only presents several challenges to the structure of the national, regional and local governments in Lima, but also the various dimensions to these challenges that exist. These insights are important to highlight and address, as moving towards an urban transformation that is sustainable and durable will require considerable intervention from governments to achieve substantial reductions in GHG emissions.

This thesis demonstrates how architectural design can be used to help alleviate the current environmental crisis, using a radical sustainable approach that integrates high density living and farming activities within the context of suburban planning. In South Africa, population growth and urbanisation have led to low-rise low-density buildings invading . bio diversity nodes, valuable arable land, and natural reserves on the periphery of cities. Not only are the infrastructural costs of servicing these low-density suburbs very high, but the pollution caused by daily commuting to and from the workplace has lasting environmental consequences. Continuing deforestation is needed to create new arable land; at the same time, ploughing and shipping within the agricultural sector make a significant contribution to global pollution, while up to 70% of potable water is lost through evaporation during irrigation. The architectural approach on which this thesis is based, integrates the usually separate components of living and farming, into a single closed high-rise entity, called the Living Tower. Taking a cue from ecosystem dynamics, a Living Tower model was developed to mimics the natural process whereby the waste of one entity becomes the food of another, creating an efficient cyclical flow of resources. In this way, renewable resources comprise the heart of the life-giving and life-sustaining Tower. Analysis of earlier designs based on similar principles is used to identify key elements of the Living Tower. These include amongst other integrated stacked greenhouses, evaporative coolers, an anaerobic digester, a central atrium design and a living machine (eco restorer). Living Tower models of differing heights are compared and evaluated in terms of their sustainability and efficiency. A thirty storey Living Tower is shown to provide the optimal solution to the core environmental issues considered, including the renewal of natural resources and the reclaiming of arable land. The corresponding diagrams, calculations and graphs illustrate the potential impact on both nature and society of a thirty storey Living Tower. This innovative design solution focuses on shaping the landscape with contextual reference in order for the Tower to 'grow' out of the hills and include a variety of mixed used programs in the form of living, working and playing to enhance social interaction. Through the design solutions the Living Tower successfully combines higher living densities and an ecologically friendly lifestyle in a structure that is economically viable, aesthetically pleasing, and therefore using architecture for sustainable future growth.

Open innovation platforms are a tool to solve sustainability challenges through innovation. These platforms facilitate the collaboration among diverse stakeholders, which is challenging but necessary to solve complex sustainability challenges. However, there is little research on how to design open innovation platforms to support collaboration and feedback from platform members is needed to understand their viewpoints. The study aims to understand the perceived benefits and challenges of participants from sustainability-oriented open innovation platforms. Based on this, the study intends to provide guidance for designing these platforms to increase the benefits for its participants. To understand the different viewpoints better, a qualitative research design in the form of a case study was chosen. Data was collected from interviews with participants from the open innovation platform Climate-KIC and analysed with the help of the Framework method. The results emphasise that open innovation platforms must support their participants throughout the whole open innovation process. Special attention must be paid to the diversity of the participants that require different support from the platform based on their maturity level.

The overall aim of this project was to utilise green chemistry methodology to capture potentially harmful, toxic or valuable compounds from wastewater. Novel mesoporous materials, Starbon®, prepared from naturally abundant polysaccharides, have demonstrated significant potential as adsorbents for the uptake of a range of dyes and phenols. Through the use of different polysaccharide starting materials (starch and alginic acid) and different preparation temperatures, six materials were produced. The resulting materials were characterised by techniques including: solid-state NMR, nitrogen porosimetry, FT-IR, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and electron microscopy. The experimental results revealed that the materials exhibited high efficiency to remove dyes and phenols from aqueous media due to their high mesoporous nature. The adsorption process was described well by the Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherms. Thermodynamic analysis of the results indicated that adsorption was a physical process. Investigations into the capture of palladium from liquid waste and also greener methods of supported nanoparticle formation were also carried out. Biosorption of palladium by alginic acid and seaweed was highly successful, resulting in nanometer sized palladium deposits within the adsorbent. The catalytic activity of these materials was successfully demonstrated through the use of Heck and Suzuki reactions. Preliminary work exploring the first use of living plants to recover palladium from water and in situ production of catalytically active palladium nanoparticles also is presented. This novel process eliminates the necessity for nanoparticle extraction from the plant and reduces the number of production steps compared to traditional catalyst palladium on carbon. These plant catalysts have demonstrated high catalytic activity in a range of C-C coupling reactions, outperforming traditionally used palladium catalysts.

The study aims to identify the reasons behind power shortages in the city Sulaymaniyah, located in northern Iraq or Iraqi Kurdistan, and to clarify how large the difference between power demand and supply is. Also, several interviews have been performed to give further insight to the issues and possibilities the region is facing. Nevertheless, a portion of the energy demand is met by local diesel generators supplying power in city districts. With the use of the software program ArcGIS, a mapping of all the diesel generators in the city districts is done in order to visualize the unsustainable conditions of the city. In addition, the energy output of the diesel generators is quantified, and the energy supplied to a household is estimated on an average. Later, calculations are performed to estimate the diesel generators price for electricity, their amount of annual CO 2 emissions and social costs. In order to bring light to renewable energy solutions, a solar PV configuration was chosen based on regulations and infrastructure issues in the region, suitable for households. Furthermore, with the use of intra-hour solar irradiance data from Meteonorm and the software Matlab, an optimal solar PV angle was calculated for Sulaymaniyah. Thereafter, the goal was to substitute diesel generated energy with solar PV energy and thus a solar PV system was estimated for a typical household based on; the average energy received from diesel generators, the solar PV system’s efficiency and the total solar irradiance striking the tilted panels. Furthermore, a Net Present Value was calculated to evaluate the economic profitability of the solar PV investment. Lastly, a sensitivity analysis was done with different scenarios to predict different outcomes of the NPV model. The study found that the energy system in Iraqi Kurdistan is unreliable and unsustainable, mostly due to infrastructure issues and political uncertainties. Due to these issues, power shortages occur on a daily basis and the difference between power supply and demand reached an average of 350 MW throughout 2018, and the largest difference reached 1304 MW. The number of diesel generators in the city was 525 and had a combined installed capacity of 176.6 MW, however they are usually working at 85 % operational efficiency resulting in a power supply of 150.1 MW. Additionally, it was estimated that a household receives an average of 920.07 W from the diesel generators. Furthermore, the calculated price for electricity was 207 IQD/kWh and all the generators combined pollutes approximately 319000 tons of CO 2 per year. The optimal angle for a solar panel in Sulaymaniyah was calculated to 21° and the recommended configuration for a solar PV system for households was a stand-alone battery storage system. In order for households to replace the diesel generators they need a capacity of 1.62 kW and a dimensioning of 9.66 m 2 . Finally, based on the NPV model it was found that it is economically profitable to invest in a solar PV system with today’s conditions. However, the investment is profitable with a relatively small margin and based on a scenario analysis, it showed that the investment might easily become unprofitable with the change of the discount rate. Lastly, it can be discussed that the actual demand in Sulaymaniyah is lower than the one presented, since it is artificial and very dependent on peoples consuming behaviors which might be different if they were to have access to electricity all the time. Also, one of the biggest obstacles that might hinder solar PVs to be integrated to the energy system is the net-metering, regulations and tariff issues. The KRG clearly does not give incentives to its people to invest in renewable energy, which also might be the reason why there is a very small market in Sulaymaniyah.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) provides a framework for reorienting education towards sustainability. The ESD framework is criticized for reproducing rather than transforming unsustainable systems, thus a critical analysis of the framework is crucial to understand its role in reorienting education towards sustainability. To this end, we contribute to an understanding of the role of ESD through the lens of experts who are reorienting education towards sustainability. These experts use various approaches at regional, national, and/or international levels. Based on thirteen semi-structured interviews, we find two strands in the understanding of ESD. The first strand reflects the importance of the framework in reorienting education, and the second strand reflects on ESD as part of a larger movement. Furthermore, we flag a critical need for a democratic process of reorienting education towards sustainability, to progress transformative change through ESD. Lastly, our findings suggest a need to consider the individual experience of those involved in bringing ESD into practice.

The manner in which clothing is designed, produced and used is responsible for major negative impacts on the environment as well as major ethical and social issues on a global scale. The increased concern for sustainability issues in the industry is similarly argued to have led to transformations of the business context of apparel companies, that have been shown to increasingly incorporate sustainability in their corporate strategies. This thesis focuses on sustainability strategies of Swedish clothing brands operating in the global apparel and fashion industry, with the aim to explore the topic of sustainability in relation to the Swedish apparel industry. Through qualitative interviews with sustainability managers and consultants working within the industry, it explores the drivers for working with sustainability as well as main challenges for achieving sustainability within the apparel industry. The results show that the concept of sustainability is indeed highly complex and broad in regard to the design, production and use of clothes. Companies are influenced by many factors that drive change towards sustainability. The future of the apparel sector is believed to be increasingly affected by new ideas to produce and indeed also consume clothes that challenge the dominating linear system. In conclusion, the industry faces many challenges concerning sustainability, but the proactive approaches by apparel companies seem to create new opportunities for change. Also, the anticipated further increase in interest for sustainability in society and subsequently among consumers and other actors may stimulate further advancements of the strategic responses among apparel companies.

The thesis seeks to analyse the electric bicycle (e-bike) transition phenomenon in China by applying the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) Transition Theory and Multi-scalar Perspective MLP. The research is performed with abductive case studies drawn from mixed methods. Firstly, we synthesised secondary data to investigate the e-bike transition at the national level (China) and the city level (“mini” case studies of Beijing and Fuzhou) to explore the research questions of 1) Can socio-technical transition occur without deliberate policy support (RQ1)? 2) How can we explain the rapid emergence and enduring popularity of e-bikes in China (RQ2)? Then we performed exploratory research in Cardiff, UK and Nanjing, China using semi-structured interviews. The interview results are used to help design survey questionnaire in Nanjing case study. It is the key research step and addresses the following research questions: 1) How are e-bikes embedded in the current transport regime (RQ3)? 2) How much longer can e-bikes continue to be embedded in the transport regime (RQ4)? 3) What are the mechanisms underlying the rapid emergence of e-bikes (RQ5)? To analyse the data collected from the survey, Generalised Linear Models and Binomial Generalised Linear Models are adopted to investigate current mode choice behaviour and predict future choice. In the theoretical aspect, the thesis applied the Multi-scalar Perspective MLP, filling the gap that traditional MLP does not take into account geographical, socio-political heterogeneity. In addition, we paid attention to the individual role in travel mode behaviour. From a practical perspective, the thesis uses substantial empirical data to provide a comprehensive understanding of the e-bike transition. We invited various groups in the survey, including e-bike users, bicycle users, car drivers, pedestrians and traffic police. The thesis explores a wide range of influencing factors, such as user anxiety, feelings related to e-bike adoption, e-bike user charging behaviour, other travel mode users and traffic police attitude towards e-bike development which have not been studied in previous e-bike literatures. The main findings are: 1) The fast emergence of e-bikes in China is spontaneous, without direct policy support from governments; 2) E-bike transition in China begins with transformation pathway (P1), followed by de-alignment and re-alignment pathway (P2); 3) E-bike users in China are mainly young career-aged commuters and have a much higher education level than average, which are different from other countries; 4) E-bikes are well embedded in the current transport regime and they are adopted widely in many aspects of people’s daily lives, including commuting, going shopping, and collecting children; 5) The underlying reasons for the selection of e-bikes are they provide affordable personal mobility due to the advantages of effort saving, flexible trip times, time saving in traffic jams, and high accessibility, whereas environmental and health factors are negligible; 6) E-bikes are possibly an intermediate mode on Nanjing’s motorisation pathway.

Pomona College has professed a commitment to sustainable leadership and decreased water use, exemplified by shifts to garden areas with native landscaping. However, the central college green space, Marston Quadrangle, was renovated in the summer of 2012 and only a few native plants were added to the landscape. In this thesis, I explore Pomona’s Marston Quadrangle as a visual and symbolic space, attempting to better understand the intentions of the landscaped area. I first briefly examine recent campus dialogue surrounding sustainability, water issues, and native landscaping. Then, I look at the history and architectural iconography Marston Quadrangle is steeped in, as well as some of the ideas the architects and landscapers had. I found that Marston Quadrangle is deeply tied to Pomona College’s history and identity, representing the ways in which the college tried to establish itself as on par with the schools of the East coast and England. Attempts to renovate the Quadrangle have placed a priority on restoring the vision of Ralph Cornell, the landscape architect, when it is clear that late in his life he regretted the non-native landscaping decisions he had made. I conclude that Marston Quadrangle no longer serves its purpose of establishing Pomona College as unique and works against the college’s sustainability goals. In light of this, I make suggestions for planting changes that would allow the iconography of the architecture to interact with native plantings, creating a deeply symbolic gesture of sustainable leadership and uniquely Southern California identity.

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, University of Copenhagen, Brasília, 2016.
Esta tese tem o objetivo de estudar as possibilidades para a indústria do biodiesel no Brasil, para 2030, levando em consideração as dimensões de sustentabilidade de Sachs: econômica, ambiental, ecológica, social, politica nacional e internacional, territorial, cultural e tecnológica, por meio do desenvolvimento de cenários prospectivos. Para tanto, foi necessário desenvolver um trabalho multidisciplinar, partindo do pressuposto que sustentabilidade requer visão de longo prazo e uma abordagem abrangente. Brasil é um país de grandes dimensões – 851 Mha- com condições edafológicas adequadas para produzir oleaginosas, e com tem terra disponível para agricultura e pastagens. Por isso, foi necessário uma simulação de produção de biodiesel, usando programação linear, para verificar se haveria alternativas de escolha de outras matérias primas com o que estava disponível em 2013. Os resultados mostraram que é possível desconcentrar o mercado, reduzir uso da terra e regionalizar a produção, fazendo melhor uso dos óleos produzidos e dos resíduos (óleo usado e gordura animal). Foi necessário também passar por uma discussão metodológica para incluir as dimensões de sustentabilidade nos métodos de desenvolvimento de cenários. Somente depois desta etapa, foi possível utilizá-las para identificar as forças motrizes para desenvolver os enredos dos cenários. A proposta de inclusão destas dimensões foi testada em uma entrevista em profundidade com os atores do mercado brasileiro de biodiesel. Baseado nos achados dos dois procedimentos – as simulações e as entrevistas – foi possível obter alternativas de futuro, onde a cadeia produtiva do biodiesel fosse uma catalizadora da melhoria dos cuidados ambientais e da inclusão social, economicamente viável e contribuir com a segurança energética. Como resultado final do trabalho, um conjunto de quatro cenários para a indústria do biodiesel no Brasil para 2030 foi então elaborado. Eles são: a) Tendencial (TD), onde se considera que a dinâmica atual da indústria do biodiesel continue a mesma; b) Passo a passo (PP), que traz sustentabilidade aos ganhos ambientais, com integração social e regional; c) Abundância (AB), que traz os ganhos da conservação ambiental aliados às vantagens de novas tecnologias em combustíveis e em motores, e à produção regionalizada de biodiesel; e D) Escassez (ES), representando a deteriorização da situação atual, com pouco cuidado ambiental, sem recuperação de terras degradadas e pouco avanços tecnológicos na produção de biodiesel. Os cenários PP e AB mostram alternativas para a indústria do biodiesel que inclui as dimensões de sustentabilidade. No entanto, os outros cenários também são plausíveis. Uma pesquisa Delphi avaliou a coerência e plausibilidade dos cenários. O cenário AB foi avaliado com um nível decoerência e plausibilidade maior que o Escassez. Isto pode sugerir que é mais fácil acreditar em avanços tecnológicos disruptivos do que nas consequências das mudanças climáticas.
This thesis aims to study alternatives to biodiesel industry in Brazil, for 2030, taking in account the sustainability dimensions, namely economic, environmental, ecological, social, national and international politics, territorial, cultural, and technological, through the development of scenarios. In order to carry on this work, it was necessary to develop a cross-disciplinary research, since sustainability requires a long run vision and a comprehensive approach. Brazil is a large country (851 Mha), with soil and weather conditions that are suitable to produce oilseeds, and available land for agriculture and pasture. Thus, a simulation, using linear programming models, was made in order to verify the alternatives of feedstock to produce biodiesel. It was observed that it is possible to decentralize the market, reduce land use, and regionalize production, making better use of the availability of existing oil and waste today. A methodological discussion was also necessary to include sustainable dimensions on the scenario methods. Therefore, the environment, economics, technology, social, territorial, national and international institutional, cultural and political aspects were considered to identify the driving forces to develop the scenario storylines. This proposition was tested in an in-depth interview with the biodiesel market stakeholders. Based on the findings of the two approaches, the simulations and the interviews, it was possible to obtain future alternatives, where the biodiesel production chain could be a catalyst for environmental improvement and social inclusion as well as being economically viable and contribute to energy security. The set of four scenarios for the biodiesel industry in Brazil, for 2030, was built as the final result of the work. They are: a) Business as usual(BAU) - considering the continuation of the current industry dynamics; b) Step-by-step (SBS), bringing sustainability to environmental gains, social and regional integration. It is based on environment conservation and better use of degraded and marginal lands; c) Abundance (ABC) that takes advantage of technological breakthrough added to environmental and regional bias on the biodiesel production; and d) Scarcity(SCR) - representing a deterioration of the current situation, with little environmental care, without recovering of degraded lands, and few technological advances in biodiesel production. The SBS and ABC scenarios show alternatives for the biodiesel industry that includes the sustainable dimensions. However, the other scenarios show possibilities that are also plausible. A Delphi survey assessed the coherency and plausibility of the scenarios. ABC scenario – was evaluated as more coherent and plausible than the SCR scenario. It may suggest that it is easier to believe in a technological breakthrough than the climate change consequences.
Denne afhandling har som formål at udvikle scenarier for biodiesel industrien i Brasilien i 2030, forhold til en række bæredygtige faktorer såsom: økonomi, miljø, økologi, sociale, nationale og international politik, territorialt, kulturelt og teknologisk, gennem udvikling af scenarier. For at udføre denne opgave, er der anvendt en tværfaglig forsknings tilgang, da bæredygtighed forudsætter en langsigtet horisont og en samlet strategi. Brasiliens størrelse (8,5 millioner km2), med jord og vejrforhold der er egnet til at både vegetabilske or animalske landbrugsprodukter gjorde en at en både overordnet og lokal tilgang blev anvendt. Således blev en simulering, ved hjælp af lineære programmerings modeller, lavet for at verificere alternativ råmaterialer til produktion af biodiesel. Det blev fundet, at sammenholdt med den nuværende situation er det muligt både at decentralisere markedet, reducere arealanvendelsen, og regionalisere produktionen, samt forbedre udnyttelsen af tilgængeligheden af eksisterende olie og residualt affald. Det var også nødvendigt at inkludere en metodediskussion for at medtage de bæredygtige dimensioner i udviklingen af de forskellige scenarier. Både miljø, økonomi, teknologi, sociale, territoriale, nationale og internationale institutionelle, kulturelle samt politiske aspekter blev identificeret som de drivende kræfter i udviklingen af scenarie storylines. Inklusionen af dette forslag blev efterprøvet i et dybdegående interview med interessenter på biodiesel markedet. Baseret på resultaterne af de to tilgange; simuleringer og interviews, var det muligt at udvikle fremtidige alternativer, hvor biodiesel produktionskæden kunne være en katalysator for miljøforbedring og social integration, og samtidig være økonomisk rentable og bidrage til energisikkerheden. På den baggrund blev fire scenarier for biodiesel industrien i Brasilien, for 2030, udviklet. Scenarierne er: a) Status quo (SQ) - en fortsættelse af den nuværende industri og forretningsmodeller; b) Trin-for-trin (TFT), skabende bæredygtige miljøgevinster, samt social og regional integration. TFT er baseret på miljøbevaring og bedre udnyttelse af næringsfattige og marginale jorder; c) Overflod (OVF), skabende bedre miljøbeskyttelse sammen med teknologiske gennembrud indenfor brændser og motorteknologi, samt og i regional produktion af biodiesel; og d) Knaphed (KNP) - der repræsenterer en forværring af den nuværende situation, med begrænset miljøbeskyttelse, uden genopretning af udpinte jorder, og få teknologiske fremskridt i produktionen af biodiesel. En Delphi-undersøgelse vurderede sammenhæng og sandsynlige scenarier. TFT og OVF scenarier viser alternativer for biodiesel industrien, der indbefatter bæredygtige dimensioner. Mens de øvrige scenarier viser muligheder, der også er plausible. OVF scenariet - blev evalueret som mere sammenhængende og troværdig end KNP scenariet. Dette kan tyde på, at det er lettere at tro på teknologiske gennembrud snarere end konsekvenser af klima forandringer.

Master of Arts
Department of Geography
John Harrington Jr
Agriculture is vital to the character of Kansas. It is threaded through the social, economic, and environmental systems that operate in Kansas and bring each system into interaction with one another. Loss of agriculture would mean drastic changes to traditional Kansas way of life due to the three pronged nature of agriculture in Kansas. Continuation of agricultural activity then is of great importance. Globalization, climate change, and environmental change pose threats to agricultural futures. This study is a meta-analysis of current literature in an attempt to assess the current state of sustainable agriculture in the state of Kansas. An emphasis was placed on climate as a driver of change and ways in which agricultural producers in Kansas may begin implementing sustainable adaptations. Barriers to implementing sustainable agricultural adaptations were also identified in the literature. Broadly speaking analysis focused on barriers created through policy and barriers created through gaps in knowledge and weak or missing connections, or cognitive barriers. Information gathered in the course of the literature analysis was used to generate two potential future agricultural scenarios for Kansas. Scenarios can be used to aid policy makers in assessing potential impacts of environmental change and interactions between different systems and scales. Two separate scenarios, Business-As-Usual and Sustainable-Adaptive, were developed with distinct characteristics. The Business-As-Usual scenario represents a future that is framed similar to the current situation. Changes built into the scenario stem from the projected changes to climate. The remainder of the narrative describes a future that has pursued developmental pathways driven by current policy and market forces. In contrast, the Sustainable-Adaptive scenario represents a Policy Reform scenario in which there is strong guidance through policy towards a developmental pathway that focuses on sustainable agricultural methods. This scenario describes a future in which environmental degradation is slowed or even reversed. Continued future work may focus on the role of water availability, community level impacts of sustainable adaptations, and the integration of stakeholder values as another layer of complexity in future scenarios.

Research relating to the potential impacts of climate change on UK housing has increased in recent years. The future performance of dwellings that are currently considered sustainable may change under a changing climate. For example, well insulated, air tight homes that are energy efficient and comfortable now may be at risk of overheating in the future. Decision-making for sustainable house designs may become more challenging regarding dwellings that will perform well now and be resilient to climate change risks, such as overheating, in the future. This study evaluates the effect of overheating risk and future climatic uncertainty in designing UK dwellings. The main focus of the research is on the thermal performance of the external building envelope. The foremost aim is to future proof current designs in order to provide the best possible thermal comfort under likely warmer weather conditions produced by climate change. This research examines a number of constructional design options to reduce energy consumption and improve thermal comfort on the basis of climate change predictions up to 2080. The study develops a methodology by means of computer simulations to assess and predict the performance (in terms of total energy input, both heating and cooling, required to maintain thermal comfort) in a range of current, ‘high performance’ construction systems used on simple and typical UK house models in London and Manchester. The findings of this study show that UK sustainable homes, in their present format, are susceptible to a future overheating risk. It is argued that the substantial part of the overheating risk can be alleviated by the integration of modern smart materials and conventional design solutions, such as shading devices and earth-to-air heat exchangers (EAHE). The research also proposes a new method of integrating phase change materials into the building envelope to reduce domestic cooling loads and overheating hours in the coming decades.

Jordan is one of the most water-scarce countries in the world and contains very limited reserves of traditional energy resources. In fact, the country is classified as extremely water scarce according to FAO, with a water availability of less than 100 m3 per person annually. Additionally, in 2017, 94% of total primary energy resources were imported. In parallel, the Kingdom’s population has more than doubled since 1997, due mainly to regional instability, putting a further strain on resources. Furthermore, climate change will only exacerbate water scarcity issues in the coming years. The objective of this thesis is to identify future scenarios for increased energy independence in Jordan and to examine the effect of desalination on the associated increase in water consumption for power generation. This intersection between water and energy resources is known as the Water-Energy nexus. Nexus planning is a holistic strategy that aims to create synergies between sectors, whereas traditional planning can in some cases put them at odds with each other (UNECE, 2015). The methodology is widely used for regional- or national-scale intersectoral planning and serves as the underlying motivation for this investigation. A model of Jordan’s power system on the national level was built using the Open Source Energy Modeling System (OSeMOSYS) with eight scenarios to 2050. OSeMOSYS uses linear programming for cost optimization in long-term planning. The program seeks to minimize cost based on the given data and constraints input by the modeler. Because the Jordanian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR), has set a target for 40% of all energy to be supplied by domestic resources by 2025, several scenarios were created with varying domestic resource targets by that year. As a case study for desalination, The Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance Project (RSDSP) was used. The RSDSP is a massive desalination and hydropower project that, if constructed, will connect the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. The results of the scenarios have demonstrated that a 100% domestic power supply is, in fact, feasible by 2025. To achieve that, renewables, specifically wind and solar, will supply much of the added domestic resource capacity. At the same time, combined cycle power plants will also remain an integral part of the energy mix in order to provide dispatchable power production, as battery storage was found not to be cost effective. Large scale desalination, in the context of the RSDSP, was shown to be net freshwater positive in all scenarios. Thus, it is highly recommended that the project be constructed in order to provide a sustainable and reliable water source for the region. Together, the results of this project provide pathways for a sustainable and secure future for the energy and water sectors in Jordan.

The aviation industry stands for about 2% of the global CO2 emissions and constitutes a large portion of what the individual can affect by their own decision making. A direct round-trip Stockholm to New York consumes about 50% of an individual's annual CO2 budget. This paper studies what role carbon offsetting has in the transition towards sustainable aviation. Sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), electrical aviation and abstaining from flying are also considered as potential approaches to making aviation more sustainable. The research method is both empirical and theoretical. Empirically, a Carbon Offsetting Assessment Framework evaluates airlines’ and online travel agencies’ (OTAs’) work with carbon offsetting and SAF. This is done from a Sweden-centric perspective. The airlines BRA, KLM and SAS score highest. Theoretically, a discussion of the dynamics of the aviation industry’s transition into sustainability is carried out through the multi-level perspective (MLP). Carbon offsetting is considered the best short-term solution for sustainable aviation due to availability and costefficiency. SAF is currently too expensive and the usage too low to yield significant emission reductions but is a promising mid-term solution. In the long-run, electrical aviation is the solution that has the potential to lower direct emissions to almost zero but it relies on major energy storage development and is not commercially viable today. The study also explains why carbon offsetting not should be used as a letter of indulgence but still is a good way to be certain that climate positive actions happen now and not are postponed or not happen at all.
Flygindustrin står för ungefär 2% av de globala CO2-utsläppen och utgör en stor andel av vad individen kan påverka genom sitt eget beslutsfattande. En direktresa tur- och retur Stockholm till New York konsumerar ungefär 50% av en individs ärliga CO2-budget. Den här studien undersöker vilken roll klimatkompensation har i en övergång mot hållbart flyg. Hållbart flygbränsle (SAF), elflyg och att avstå från att flyga har också utvärderats som potentiella tillvägagångssätt för att göra flyget mer hållbart. Studiens forskningsmetod är både empirisk och teoretisk. En modell för att empiriskt utvärdera flygbolags och onlineresebyråers (OTAs) arbete med klimatkompensation och SAF appliceras på en Sverigecentriskt urval av aktörer. Flygbolagen BRA, KLM och SAS får högst poäng. Vidare förs en teoretisk diskussion om dynamiken i flygbranschens övergång mot hållbart flyg genom “the multi-level perspective” (MLP). Klimatkompensation anses vara den bästa kortsiktiga lösningen för hållbart flyg eftersom det är tillgängligt och kostnadseffektivt. SAF är idag för dyrt och användandet för lågt för att resultera i betydelsefulla utsläppsminskningar men är icke desto mindre en lovande teknik på medellång sikt. På lång sikt är elflyg lösningen som har potential att minska direktutsläpp till nästan noll men det står och faller med avsevärd teknikutveckling inom energilagring och är inte kommersiellt tillgängligt idag. Studien förklarar också varför klimatkompensation inte borde användas som ett avlatsbrev men att det fortfarande är ett bra sätt att försäkra sig om att klimatpositiva handlingar sker idag och inte blir uppskjutna eller uteblir.

This study explored the nature of Future Session workshops in current Japan by identifying the motivations, conducting analysis from the point of view a deliberative democracy, and examining the potentials for developing future visions of society. Four workshops were targeted that dealt with a wide range of societal problems and commonly challenged existing societal structures. The study found that the workshops were motivated by the doubt over the current direction of the society, a demand for a crosscutting cooperation between different fields, and a need to foster proactive actors through participatory workshop processes. Accordingly, it is argued that “deliberative democracy of workshops” based on dialogue and collaboration rather than confrontational communication and competition constitutes a Japanese deliberative democracy. The study also shows that the created projects and processes of deliberation contained many critical perspectives towards the dominant societal structure and norms. Finally, it is concluded that the process of actualizing the projects should be reflected carefully and the potential of these methods depends on the overreaching objective of its use.

In the beginning of the 20th century, there were 87 million elderly people aged 65 and older. However, by the years 2030 and 2050, elderly people in China will rapidly growth to 243–252 million and 352–398 million, respectively. (Zeng, Y., 2010) The population aging transition will take place in China with this staggering rapidity, compared to European societies. Predictably, as for this aging pressure, Chinese society still needs more time to react to it. Ageing is not only a challenge for the society but also a big challenge for design. Along with the increasing numbers of the elderly, they cannot be ignored by design any more. The discussion here aspires to move the design mindset beyond accessibility or in other words ‘Design for disability’, and introduce ‘Design for capability’ as a process of social innovation. In the paper, the design research will focus on meta-design, as well as participatory design and social innovation as auxiliary research, for designing a ‘seed’ as a change agent. The ‘seed’, as a meta-design solution, can be described as ‘a shared design endeavor aimed at sustaining emergence, evolution and adaptation’ (Giaccardi, E., 2005). It offers a framework for both designers and users to change original mindsets in the practice. (Giaccardi, E., 2005) Furthermore, the following question will be carried through the whole research: how to reposition ourselves as designers on the intersection of meta-design, design for social innovation and participatory design? What is the design approach to generate tools that can encourage inactive elderly citizens as ‘passive receivers’ to transform as ‘active participants’? How can the tools studied here contribute in a synergic relationship within stakeholders as a mean to make elderly citizens’ urban living more sustainable in terms of participating, learning and expressing actively?

Dissertação de Mestrado em Design, com a especialização em Produto apresentada na Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre.
Mobilidade individual – não só é uma manifestação da necessidade humana, como também é um pré-requisito para a capacidade funcional e económica da sociedade atual. A mobilidade espacial, e posteriormente, a escolha de um meio de transporte, é de importância fundamental no que se diz a este respeito. O transporte de passageiros nas cidades europeias, como Lisboa, é atualmente ainda caracterizada pela predominância de automóveis, por motivos de disponibilidade constante e alta flexibilidade. Deste modo, estreitamente relacionados estão os inúmeros impactos ecológicos, econômicos e sociais, como poluição sonora, uso da terra, emissão de poluentes atmosféricos e, não menos importante, as emissões de gases de efeito estufa nocivos. Para neutralizar essas consequências negativas do aumento de tráfego, conceitos de mobilidade sustentável, estreitamente ligados ao desenvolvimento sustentável, precisam mudar mais ainda para o foco de interesse público. Carros de autosserviço, ou car sharing, podem oferecer uma abordagem altamente promissora, e ainda assim preservar a mobilidade individual. Para retratar uma contribuição positiva para um ambiente cada vez mais sustentável e inovador em Lisboa, um conceito de car sharing sustentável foi criado no âmbito da dissertação de mestrado. Um sistema de produto/serviço foi criado de acordo com um processo de desenvolvimento de produto ecológico holístico, com o objetivo de reduzir a poluição atmosférica, barulho e tráfego, causados pelo transporte na cidade. Para resolver a questão se um conceito de car sharing pode ser uma solução sustentável para o aumento de problemas do tráfego na Grande Lisboa, uma metodologia qualitativa mista foi usada. Com base em uma análise da literatura atual e pesquisas por entrevistas, a contextualização teórica foi discutida para uma compreensão mais profunda sobre a importância de um conceito sustentável de car sharing. Análise de estudo de caso de sistemas de produtos/serviços existentes também foi constituído como uma fonte de informação complementar. Além disso, baseado no conceito desenvolvido, uma metodologia qualitativa interventiva, a investigação ativa, contribui para a resolução da pergunta de pesquisa.
ABSTRACT: Individual mobility – not only expression of human need, but also a prerequisite for the functional and economic capability of today’s society. The spatial mobility and, subsequently, the choice of a transport mode is of central significance in this respect. The passenger transport in European cities, such as Lisbon, is nowadays still characterized by a predominance of automobiles, for reasons of constant availability and high flexibility. Closely connected thereby are numerous negative ecological, economic and social side effects, such as noise pollution, land use, traffic accidents, air pollutant emissions and not least the emissions of harmful greenhouse gases. To counteract these negative consequences of increasing traffic, sustainable mobility concepts, closely linked to sustainable development, have to shift more and more into the focus of public interest. The property-less car use, the so-called car sharing could offer a highly promising approach while preserving the individual mobility. To depict a positive contribution for an increasingly sustainable and innovative environment in Lisbon, a sustainable car sharing concept has been designed within the scope of this master dissertation. A product-service system was designed according to a holistic environmentally friendly product development process with the aim to reduce air pollution, noise and traffic caused by transportation in the city. To solve the question, whether a car sharing concept can be a sustainable solution for the increasing traffic problems in Greater Lisbon, a mixed qualitative methodology was used. On the basis of the evaluation of current literature and surveys by interviews, the theoretical contextualization has been discussed for a deeper understanding of the importance of a sustainable car sharing concept. Case study analysis of existing product-service systems also constituted as a complementary source of information. Based on the developed concept, a qualitative interventional methodology, the active research, furthermore contributed in replying to the research question.
N/A

The Sustainable Forests (Timber) Act 2004 (Vic) was designed as a framework for ecologically sustainable forest management (ESFM) of Victorian public forestry. It includes the principles of ecologically sustainable development (ESD). These principles are included in a range of natural resource management and conservation Acts around Australia. A separate regulatory framework applied to private forest management is also designed to support sustainable forest management. This study examines both the public and private sector forestry management in Victoria to appreciate the extent to which the existing framework for ESFM addresses the ESD principles. A critical realist research paradigm is adopted via regulatory theory, using four filtering mechanisms to assess the effectiveness of the current framework, including measuring and monitoring, compliance, ESD balance and governance standards. The thesis reports on two studies, that being public and private forestry. Within the two Victorian studies, an organisational perspective is also provided by way of analysis of the strategies and roles of VicForests (public) and Hancock Victorian Plantation Pty Ltd (HVP - the largest private forestry entity in Victoria.) Referring to regulatory theory and empirical evidence, an adapted regulatory mode using a precautionary risk management structure is proposed. This approach required application of sustainability criteria and indicators currently used to meet reporting obligations. The adapted regulation that resulted uses trigger points for an adaptive management response regulatory model. This model identifies the responsible parties for determining sustainability objectives and applying principles of ecologically sustainable development, data collection processes and review of data against criteria in order to activate the trigger and the resultant adaptive response. The end result is to evaluate data in order to determine when and how to activate a trigger for an adaptive response which is proportionate to the level of risk. The adapted model emphasises accountability and transparency, utilising bespoke sustainability criteria and indicators to inform each stage of the regulatory process. This model demonstrates the importance of using criteria and indicators in natural resource regulation, and that simply inserting sustainability principles and objectives into regulation is not sufficient to achieve worthwhile sustainability outcomes. This thesis concludes by evaluating this alternative model for implications to practice, policy and future research and its potential use in other resource sectors. Implications are drawn that this adapted framework could be a transferable template for other forestry jurisdictions and (with modifications) other natural resource sectors
Doctor of Philosophy

The current population in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is more than 7 million. Due to pressures of increasing population, the developing economy and climate change, the future security of water supply is far from satisfactory. There is also pressure to connect a large number of customers currently not connected to the HCMC water supply reticulation grid. Current water resources management tends to be fragmented and focused purely on supply side management. It is not economically and environmentally sustainable to focus purely on augmenting supply to meet increasing demand. Sustainable water resources management requires a broader more holistic approach. Government's plans to improve current and future water management issues are examined in the context of two case studies, one from Australia (a developed country) and one from the Philippines (a developing country). The sustainable water management approaches adopted by these two case studies sit at either end of the s pectrum of options. One is closer to a centralized government planning model and the other is a more radical privatisation flavoured model. The thesis investigates the current water demand and supply balance for residential, commercial and industry; and propose a balanced strategy to meet the HCMC's demand until year 2020. The amount of water savings are calculated by implementing a suite of water conservation initiatives. The proposed initatives will substantially narrow the gap between the planned supply and forecasted demand, thus providing a acceptable reasonable supply security for the community.

Study project (MBA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2003.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This assignment tries to provide insight into the reasons required for the formulation of sustainability performance indicators. It develops two sets of performance indicators for government and business respectively, to be used in an attempt to create a sustainable South Africa. It is approached in a very distinctive manner with two specific focus areas. Firstly, it examines the requirements of government, as this allows for the creation of a foundation upon which business can prosper, and examines the requirements with which to create this foundation. Secondly, once a sound foundation is laid, this paper examines the requirements of business that is believed to provide guidelines for shaping their sustainability. All this is done against a backdrop of the principles of good governance endorsed both internationally and in South Africa.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie dokument probeer om lig te werp op die redes vir die formulering van prestasie aanwysers vir volhoubare ontwikkeling, en struktureer twee stelle aanwysers vir die regering en besighede, om hulle volhoubaarheid te ondersteun in Suid-Afrika. Daar is twee spesifieke fokusareas. Eerstens word verwys na die regering, en die vereistes waarop die fondasie gebou kan word waarop besighede kan floreer. Tweedens word gekyk na wat van besighede verlang word om verder volhoubare riglyne te omhels. Dit word alles gedoen teen die agtergrond van goeie regerings-en besigheidspraktyke, wat tans internasionaal en plaaslik beoefen word.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project
Marine Corps forward operating bases (FOBs) operate in austere conditions where the reliance on resupply from main bases is a necessity. A FOB in Afghanistan requires at least 300 gallons of diesel fuel a day, in which each gallon delivered requires 7 gallons of fuel to get it there by convoy. Extensive resupply convoys offer a tactical disadvantage, especially when there is one Marine casualty for every 50 convoys. Private sector innovations in energy efficiency can offer a solution to inefficient energy use and Marine casualties from IEDs – improvised explosive devices. Data analysis of private sector innovations in the fields of flexible solar, fuel cells, and atmospheric water generation, provide direction into the future of sustainable forward operating base design. Each of the proposed innovations outscore current systems by vast margins in a weighted energy efficiency scale and therefore have the potential to elevate the energy efficiency of forward operating bases. Energy efficiency, in the case of the Marine Corps, is a combat multiplier. If they are able to free themselves from the burden of their increased energy use, they gain the ability to operate more aggressively, push deeper, and fight as a lighter, more lethal force.

Enacting environmentally sustainable practices among ski resort areas within the U.S. has become an issue of mounting concern and attention. The state of Utah generates seven billion dollars a year from its tourism industry, with the majority coming from visitation to Utah’s fourteen ski resort areas. The state of Utah is highly tourism dependent and deems this sector as a central factor in the state’s economy. Thus, good environmental practices among these ski resort areas is not only important in their daily operations, but also to local community businesses and stakeholders who depend on a consistent influx of tourism dollars to remain economically viable. The ski resort areas of Utah vary in their level of implementation, reporting, and marketing of their specific environmental practices, and initiatives. This has led to gaps in reporting by each ski resort area and a lack of understanding among local business owners and community members in regards to what current environmental efforts are being undertaken by these resort areas, as well as their plans for the future. A qualitative study aimed at exploring the current level and future plans for the implementation of environmentally sustainable practices among Utah’s ski resort areas should help to create a more in-depth understanding of what each resort is doing to address this issue. It also serves to create a baseline summary report of the state of Utah’s ski resort area environmental practices as a whole. Fifteen key informant interviews were conducted throughout the ski resort areas of Utah with resort employees ranging from sustainability coordinators and marketing managers, to operations and budget directors. Methodologies used for the study and some of the preliminary findings are presented. These findings will focus on the current and future implementation of environmentally sustainable practices at each Utah ski resort area. Results from this study are intended to bridge the lack of communication amongst ski resort areas and local community members and businesses. This can help in creating a more interdisciplinary approach to this issue and generate new ideas and angles in approaching environmental sustainability among ski resort areas.

In the last 50 years, Pacific Island Countries (PICs) have experienced unprecedented levels of urban development. During this time, the general failure of traditional industrialised planning models to be successfully adapted in PICs has resulted in the need to explore alternative models for urban settlement in the Pacific. In this way, the incorporation of tree based agricultural systems (agroforestry) into urban settlements has considerable potential to address many of the problems associated with rapid urbanisation such as food security, waste management, environmental degradation and unemployment. Research in the Pacific has already shown how urban agroforestry systems can improve food security, increase access to nutritional foods, recycle organic waste, create employment and protect fragile ecological systems. However, in Pacific towns and cities urban agroforestry systems are rarely developed beyond a homegarden setting. The growth of urban centres in the Republic of Kiribati is an example of the challenges confronting many rapidly urbanising PICs. With infertile soils, severely restricted land and water resources and an emerging economy, Kiribati is a developing nation where sustainable development faces some of its greatest challenges. Due to rapidly expanding urban populations, the Kiribati Government is currently investigating the development of future planned urban settlements. In such a scenario, potential exists to extend urban agroforestry systems beyond a homegarden setting and explore alternative models for sustainable urbanisation in the Pacific. This research uses a mixed methods case study approach to investigate the potential role of food producing urban agroforestry systems in future planned urban settlements in Kiribati. More specifically, qualitative procedures are used to explore issues surrounding the promotion and development of urban agroforestry systems in future planned urban settlements while quantitative procedures are used to analyse the nutritional contribution of these systems. Findings from this study show that although urban agroforestry is a highly sustainable land use it faces two main challenges in Kiribati: (i) people’s perception that urban agroforestry systems are a relatively low value land use and (ii) the general inability of the Kiribati Government to effectively regulate urban land uses. However, in the event that urban agroforestry systems were deliberately included at a settlement wide scale beyond a homegarden setting, this study highlights the initial importance of equally allocating productive lands to individual households. Furthermore, the results emphasise the value of simple on-site composting technologies as components of the broader urban agroforestry system. Finally, the marginal nature of the atoll environment is evident in findings on the nutritional contribution of urban agroforestry species in future planned urban settlements. In summary, while considerable constraints must be overcome to ensure the long term viability of planned urban agroforestry systems at a whole of settlement scale, it is argued that such an approach is one of the most cost effective, culturally acceptable and environmentally responsible methods for addressing a range of urban issues in the Pacific and is therefore an essential component to the design of future planned urban settlements in Kiribati.

In the last 50 years, Pacific Island Countries (PICs) have experienced unprecedented levels of urban development. During this time, the general failure of traditional industrialised planning models to be successfully adapted in PICs has resulted in the need to explore alternative models for urban settlement in the Pacific. In this way, the incorporation of tree based agricultural systems (agroforestry) into urban settlements has considerable potential to address many of the problems associated with rapid urbanisation such as food security, waste management, environmental degradation and unemployment. Research in the Pacific has already shown how urban agroforestry systems can improve food security, increase access to nutritional foods, recycle organic waste, create employment and protect fragile ecological systems. However, in Pacific towns and cities urban agroforestry systems are rarely developed beyond a homegarden setting. The growth of urban centres in the Republic of Kiribati is an example of the challenges confronting many rapidly urbanising PICs. With infertile soils, severely restricted land and water resources and an emerging economy, Kiribati is a developing nation where sustainable development faces some of its greatest challenges. Due to rapidly expanding urban populations, the Kiribati Government is currently investigating the development of future planned urban settlements. In such a scenario, potential exists to extend urban agroforestry systems beyond a homegarden setting and explore alternative models for sustainable urbanisation in the Pacific. This research uses a mixed methods case study approach to investigate the potential role of food producing urban agroforestry systems in future planned urban settlements in Kiribati. More specifically, qualitative procedures are used to explore issues surrounding the promotion and development of urban agroforestry systems in future planned urban settlements while quantitative procedures are used to analyse the nutritional contribution of these systems. Findings from this study show that although urban agroforestry is a highly sustainable land use it faces two main challenges in Kiribati: (i) people’s perception that urban agroforestry systems are a relatively low value land use and (ii) the general inability of the Kiribati Government to effectively regulate urban land uses. However, in the event that urban agroforestry systems were deliberately included at a settlement wide scale beyond a homegarden setting, this study highlights the initial importance of equally allocating productive lands to individual households. Furthermore, the results emphasise the value of simple on-site composting technologies as components of the broader urban agroforestry system. Finally, the marginal nature of the atoll environment is evident in findings on the nutritional contribution of urban agroforestry species in future planned urban settlements. In summary, while considerable constraints must be overcome to ensure the long term viability of planned urban agroforestry systems at a whole of settlement scale, it is argued that such an approach is one of the most cost effective, culturally acceptable and environmentally responsible methods for addressing a range of urban issues in the Pacific and is therefore an essential component to the design of future planned urban settlements in Kiribati.

The purpose of this study is to investigate one of the European Structural Fundprogrammes, Interreg V Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak (ÖKS) and the priority areaTransportation. The programme gives financial support to transportation projectsaiming to develop sustainable (environmentally friendly) transportation alternativesand solutions. Through studies and theories on cross-border collaboration (CBC) and goals forsustainable transportation a major need of joint strategies for solving shared problems,such as environmental concerns has been demonstrated. This approach ofcollaboration projects as a pillar for sustainable development has been the foundationof how the current Interreg programme has been studied and the starting point for thisresearch. The study aims to clarify the relationship between the overall view uponcooperation and joint development programmes (within areas stretching over nationaland administrative borders, such as transportation) and the specific Interregprogramme. A programme which during current period (2014-2020) experienced adrastic decline of number of applicants. In order to further understand the context thecurrent study has trough empirical research defined added values (advantages) of theCBC but also identified the perceived difficulties and barriers (disadvantages). Thefounding’s have further been compared and supplemented with perspectives fromrelevant actors engaged in transportation development. This material has beencollected through qualitative interviews enabling a vital and good understanding ofconcerned actors and their view of advantages and disadvantages with CBC. Theanalysis has also enabled the conclusion that the general view among the actors is thatcollaboration projects are necessary for a sustainable development. However, studiedprogramme with declined number of applicants did not succeed in attracting desiredparticipants. Consequently, the actors were also asked to share their view upon thedecline of applicants for current Interreg period. One identified explanation wasrelated to the administrative burden which was perceived too heavy by the actors. Inaddition, the financial part was perceived to be too low or poorly designed. Theknowledge about the programme was also found to be limited among some of theactors. To be able to involve more participants in the future it has been concluded thatimprovements within the three areas of defined obstacles have to be implemented. This investigation and findings aim to contribute to increased insights andunderstanding of the cross-border cooperation process in order to be able to reach andinvolve relevant actors in the most favourable way for successful future projects anddesired sustainable development.

It can be argued that the growing threat of climate change, of a culture of capitalism and consumption established in today’s society, drives networks of people to form unions and not to follow standard production and consumption systems, of which Änggärdet is a representation. This thesis project aims to create a desirable and sustainable future scenario for Änggärdet in 2030 based on a backcasting methodology. Additionally, this project aims to build a vision and potential future solutions and concepts for Änggärdet sustainable development. To do so, research has been done in the form of a literature review and empirical data collection through surveys and workshop tools. A vision was formulated while not setting ambitious goals and therefore having a high degree of plausibility. Findings show that developing a future solution requires a greater need to involve stakeholders, further evaluate internal limitations, and account for two accelerating forces. Furthermore, six-short term goals can be set as part of the development initiation. Finally, an awareness and an understanding of present and long-term challenges exist amongst members of Änggärdet. The study enables Änggärdet to train and develop skills in terms of sustainable production and consumption and encourages collaboration between Flen Municipality and Änggärdet to influence and raise awareness amongst the surrounding residents and companies.
Det kan argumenteras för att det växande hotet om klimatförändringar, och om en kultur av kapitalism och konsumtion som etablerats i dagens samhälle, driver nätverk av människor till att bilda sammanslutningar och till att inte följa modula produktions- och konsumtionssystem. I denna rapport är Änggärdet - en gårdsgemenskap, en representation av ett alternativ till en social rörelse. Denna masteruppsats syftar till att skapa önskvärda och hållbara framtidsscenarier för Änggärdet till år 2030. Änggärdets huvudsyfte är att gemensamt utveckla en hållbar livsstil och att bidra till övergången till | ett hållbart och motståndskraftigt samhälle. Änggärdet vill även skapa en livsstil som har ett mindre beroende av konsumtion och ett större beroende av ett mer kreativt och enhälligt samhälle. I linje med gårdens vision syftar denna studie till att bygga en vision och potentiella framtida lösningar och koncept för Änggärdets hållbara utveckling. För detta ändamål tillämpas två kombinerade backcasting-modeller; ett metodologisk ramverk för backcasting och en modulär deltagande backcasting. För att utföra detta har forskning genomförts i form av litteraturöversikt och empirisk datainsamling baserade på workshop- och undersökningsinstrument. En vision formulerades, utan krav på ambitiösa mål, vilket bidrog till en hög grad av rimlighet. Resultaten demonstrerar att, för att en framtida lösning ska utvecklas, finns ett större behov av att involvera intressenter, att vidare utvärdera interna begränsningar och att ta hänsyn till två accelererande drivkrafter. Vidare kan sex kortsiktiga mål användas som en del av den initierade utvecklingen. Slutligen råder en medvetenhet och en förståelse för nuvarande och långsiktiga utmaningar bland Änggärdets medlemmar. Föreliggande studie ger Änggärdet möjligheten att utbilda och utveckla färdigheter, gällande hållbar produktion och konsumtion, och uppmuntrar även till samarbete mellan Flen kommun och Änggärdet. Detta för att influera och öka medvetenheten hos de omgivande invånarna och företagen.