| 1. |
- Viktorelius, Martin, et al.
(författare)
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Energy efficiency at sea : An activity theoretical perspective on operational energy efficiency in maritime transport
- 2019
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Ingår i: Energy Research & Social Science. - : Elsevier. - 2214-6296 .- 2214-6326. ; 52, s. 1-9
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The mitigation of emission from shipping will require improvements in energy efficiency. In order to achieve this, sociotechnical changes are required, affecting all stakeholders within the shipping sector. Ship crews and their everyday work practices will play an especially important role in the transformation of the sector. It is therefore crucial to understand how new energy efficient technologies and practices are being introduced and enacted onboard ships. The case study reported in this paper investigates an attempt to improve the operational energy efficiency in a shipping company that was made by installing an energy monitoring system and introducing an energy saving policy onboard the ships in the fleet. The analytical framework in this paper is inspired by cultural-historical activity theory which is suggested as a novel and useful practice-based approach in energy studies. It is used in analyzing the contradictions and tensions in the work practices onboard the ships that preceded and followed the implementation of the energy monitoring system and energy saving policy. The empirical results revealed how the initial demand for operational energy efficiency and the subsequent introduction of the new monitoring system and policy gave rise to tensions in the existing activity systems onboard which crew members then tried, but did not always manage, to reconcile. It is concluded that a better understanding of the sociotechnical change processes, associated with organizational energy conservation and energy management, can be achieved if the situated paradoxes of practitioners’ everyday practices are examined.
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| 2. |
- Kehoe, Laura, et al.
(författare)
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Make EU trade with Brazil sustainable
- 2019
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Ingår i: Science. - : American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). - 0036-8075 .- 1095-9203. ; 364:6438, s. 341-
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 3. |
- Akram, Asif, 1978, et al.
(författare)
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AEOLIX Living Labs Operational ImpactsAssessment
- 2019
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This document provides the AEOLIX impact assessment of living labs at the operational level. It is based on three main impacts namely business, environment, and socio-economic impacts. The three impacts are sub-divided further into sub-categories. The report collects data from twelve living labs involved in with AEOLIX. One of the main goals of AEOLIX was to reduce the costs for various logistics activities as implemented in twelve living labs. The expected benefits in the business area are from reducing the consumption of different resources, reducing the time used for various activities, and from increasing the productivity in certain areas. The economic or business benefits came along two dimensions: (i) in terms of time and (ii) in terms of money. In terms of time, AEOLIX facilitated reducing the time spent on various activities at the companies. In terms of money, AEOLIX helped to save the costs of specific logistics activities within the living lab. For the environmental aspect an overall value of 20% was set as target value for reduction in CO2 emission using AEOLIX. Only one of all living labs reached this target value, but there was anyhow a reduction found in all living labs. AEOLIX and its functions have also helped in reducing noise pollution at some of the living labs. In some cases, there was quite a considerable reduction. For the socio-economic aspects the job creation, SME empowerment, and the improved quality of life are addressed. This study has explored the impact of AEOLIX on job creation in terms of drivers’ and operators’ jobs. Since the AEOLIX implementation is still in its initial phases, respondents were unable to estimate how many jobs (drivers and/or operators) were created in the long run. SME Empowerment was measured as the increase in SMEs’ market share and the increase in direct collaboration between SMEs and large organizations. The results were meager both with regard to the market share and the extent of collaboration. The improved quality of life is measured in the way AEOLIX puts more focus on work, the less stress at work and a positive attitude towards people using it. The results reflect that AEOLIX has greatly helped employees to put more focus on work and to reduce stress levels. Managers consider this as a positive side of the return on investment (ROI) as the business processes are improved. AEOLIX impact on various socio-economic aspects is in principle positive but as this process is very slow to emerge it takes time to observe any changes in social aspects. Acceptance and trust on AEOLIX can be captured as a majority of the evaluation managers of the living labs found the AEOLIX functions (dashboard, connectivity engine and toolkit) useful to a great extent. The willingness to continue using AEOLIX functions and their usefulness are directly related to each other. This means that the more useful a function is, the more users are willing to continue using it. The AEOLIX platform, through various services and functions, has a positive impact on society in general and on workers in particular. Although this impact cannot be evaluated financially for the first year of the AEOLIX implementation, numerous studies show that a more satisfying and less stressful job, together with a more welcoming and stimulating environment, have an important economic impact in the long-term period. Therefore, the fact that AEOLIX has a positive impact on society will also prove to be an economic benefit for the different companies.
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| 4. |
- Boons, Frank, et al.
(författare)
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Comparing industrial symbiosis in Europe : towards a conceptual framework and research methodology
- 2015
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Ingår i: International perspectives on industrial ecology. - Cheltenham : Edward Elgar Publishing. - 9781781003565 - 9781781003572 ; , s. 69-88
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Industrial symbiosis (IS) continues to raise the interest of researchers and practitioners alike. Individual and haphazard attempts to increase linkages among co-located firms have been complemented by concerted efforts to stimulate the development of industrial regions with intensified resource exchanges that reduce environmental impact. Additionally, there are examples of both spontaneous and facilitated linkages between two or more firms involving flows of materials/energy waste. A striking feature of IS activities is that they are found across diverse social contexts and vary considerably in form (Lombardi et al., 2012); there are substantial differences in the ways in which IS manifests itself. Equally diverse are the activities of policy makers to stimulate such linkages. Such diversity can already be found within Europe, as became apparent in a first meeting among some of the present authors in 2009 (Isenmann and Chernykh, 2009). Researchers present there decided to create a network of European researchers on IS, with the explicit aim to develop a comparative analysis. We can thus provide insight to the relationship between the style of IS and its context and thereby the potential for policy makers in different contexts to learn from each other. Policy learning can be a tempting route to IS, but is fraught with difficulties if the influence of context is not appreciated (e.g., Wang et al., Chapter 6, this volume).
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| 5. |
- Vogl, Valentin, et al.
(författare)
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A just transition towards a coal-free steel industry: perspectives from labour
- 2019
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Ingår i: 14th Nordic Environmental Social Science (NESS). ; , s. 1-30
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Limiting global warming to ‘safe’ levels will require rapid and radical reductions of greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of the global economy. The discontinuation of incumbent industrial structures, that will be an unavoidable part of such sustainability transitions, will disproportionally burden certain groups. Recent events including the social and political unrest linked to the imminent deterioration of coal communities and the fuel tax protests of the ’Gilets Jaunes’ have loudly shown that distributional effects of climate transitions cannot be ignored. Trade unions and NGOs have for some time called for an inclusive transition and brought increased attention to the justice dimension of energy transitions. In this paper, we analyse potential social impacts in a concrete case: the planned transition from coal to hydrogen-based steelmaking in the Swedish steel industry. To this end, we conduct a series of semi-structured interviews to examine the role of trade unions and the national trade union federation in re-orienting the industry. By doing so we aim to widen the scope of the just transitions debate to include process industries and to explore the concrete meaning of a just transition in the case of the planned transition of the Swedish steel industry. We analyse, on the one hand, the capacity of trade unions to influence the transition process, and, on the other hand, the potential social impacts of the transition on the labour force and local communities. As the transition of the Swedish steel sector kicks into gear, we highlight a number of social issues that should be addressed both within industry and through policy. We conclude that it is important to early on: include stakeholders in the process, bring up social and political aspects of the transition, and acknowledge and address potential conflicting interests associated with it.
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| 6. |
- Petersson, Jesper, 1974
(författare)
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Blurring the shoreline: De- and re-infrastructuring and the changing colors of European flood policy
- 2021
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Ingår i: Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. - : SAGE Publications. - 2514-8494 .- 2514-8494 .- 2514-8486. ; 4:2, s. 623-644
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper provides a genealogy of the emergence of a common EU flood policy, including the scope and direction of this policy. Noticing how EU policy proposes green infrastructure (associated with using nature as a buffer zone in managing floods) as an alternative to grey infrastructure (implying fixed installations of concrete and cement), this paper adopts the theoretical lens of the so-called infrastructural turn, which advocates a relational investigation of infrastructure. By engaging this approach, the paper shows how flood infrastructure can contain very different compositions of (unruly) water and (settled) land. A narrative of a historically strong focus on guarding society from the powerful forces of nature through a fixed line of defense is increasingly giving way to more muddy states—quite literally—where society is expected to learn to live with flooding and show ecological consideration. To capture the EU’s, and especially the European Commission’s efforts to establish a pan-European flood infrastructure that accommodates this turn, the concepts of de- and re-infrastructuring are developed. These concepts act as heuristic devices to capture how policy performs some combinations between water and land as constituting an attractive and functional flood infrastructure, but constitutes other infrastructural relations of the aquatic and the terrestrial as undesirable and, hence, as malfunctioning. This performative act of distinguishing between what constitutes “good and proper” versus “bad and undesirable” infrastructure is referred to as a politics of infrastructure.
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| 7. |
- Clift, Roland, 1942, et al.
(författare)
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Managing Plastics: Uses, Losses and Disposal
- 2019
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Ingår i: Law, Environment and Development Journal. - 1746-5893. ; 15:2, s. 93-107
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The term ‘plastic’ refers to a wide range of different materials with diverse properties and uses. Plastics are essential in a modern industrial economy. Plastic pollution results from the ‘leakage’ of plastics into the unconfined environment at all stages of the product cycle, not just following use, so the highest priority to prevent continuing pollution is to ensure that all plastics remain within the economy. The ‘circular economy’ approach may reduce but cannot eliminate plastic pollution without effective measures to prevent leakage. Measures to prevent leakage must be based on understanding of how plastics are brought into and moved through the economy; of the practical options for reducing demand for fresh plastic, re-using and recycling plastic products, and managing final waste; and on prioritizing development of alternative materials for specific uses. Even if leakages of plastic into the environment are curtailed, the legacy of plastic pollution over the last seventy years will remain, particularly in the oceans. Marine plastic litter is a problem of the Global Commons and requires global action for its collection. Currently, landfilling of collected marine plastic debris is the only feasible option but, if economic uses can be found, this will partially offset future demand for fresh plastics.
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| 8. |
- Lachmann, Florina, et al.
(författare)
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Marine plastic litter on Small Island Developing States (SIDS): Impacts and measures.
- 2017
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This report was commissioned by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water management and written by analysts at the Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment (affiliated with the University of Gothenburg, Lund University, and Chalmers University of Technology). This report documents how marine plastic litter reaches even the most remote parts of the oceans with small island states, and how SIDS are especially vulnerable to its impact. The origin and composition of marine plastic litter and its impacts are described. Measures are discussed, both from state agencies and private corporations. Measures from existing RAPs on marine litter are reviewed and examples of private initiatives are mentioned. Also, the corresponding legal framework is given and side effects of marine litter measures on the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN are debated. THE VULNERABILITY OF SIDS SIDS are a set of island nations in the Caribbean Sea, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and the South China Sea. SIDS are exposed to disproportionate concentrations of plastic litter due to their location near the ocean gyres where marine litter accumulates and to often sub-performing waste management systems. ORIGINS AND COMPOSITION OF MARINE PLASTIC LITTER Because plastic make up most marine debris, the focus here is on plastic litter. Marine plastic litter washed ashore on SIDS originates from both distant countries overseas and the SIDS themselves. Buoyant plastic litter is globally distributed by ocean currents and is washed ashore on beach lines around the globe where it negatively impacts ecological and human systems. Plastics end up in the marine environment through leaks from the global value chains that run from the oil industry through various other industries to local retailers and consumers. A smaller but significant stream of plastic litter follows from the difficulties of many SIDS to establish and maintain efficient waste management systems. IMPACT OF PLASTIC LITTER ON ECOLOGICAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC VALUES Marine litter impacts the environment and organisms therein in various ways, including entanglement, ingestion, transfer of chemicals, or by otherwise altering habitats. The extent of the social and economic impact that plastic on countries is not currently well known. However, the dependence of SIDS on their natural resources through tourism and fisheries, make them economically vulnerable to plastic litter. MITIGATION AND REMEDIATION STRATEGIES For plastic that reaches SIDS, both remediation and mitigation, especially through waste management and recycling, become necessary. LEGAL AND POLITICAL FRAMEWORKS The legal framework for preventing and managing marine litter is present on all levels of governance. A declaration particularly relevant to marine litter on SIDS is the SAMOA Pathway, a declaration from the 3rd International Conference on Small Island Developing States in 2014 calling for measures to manage waste, including marine plastic litter. Multilateral agreements require party states to take actions, but these requirements are often generally formulated, and their achievements depend on the choices and participation of all parties. POLICY MEASURES PROPOSED BY REGIONAL ACTION PLANS There are 18 Regional Seas programmes under the United Nations Environmental Program for the protection of the marine environment. Some Regional Seas programmes have written strategies to guide their actions, the RAPs, i.e. a political agenda for marine litter management agreed on by member governments of the region. The contents of different RAPs show strong similarities. The analyses conducted here show that most measures suggested by RAPs are aimed at downstream processes, while fewer address the problem upstream. Additional measures are needed to solve such a global problem. VOLUNTARY AND COMMERCIAL INITIATIVES Marine litter requires an array of actions from local to global level, and is thus a matter of governance. Most measures suggested in RAPs and other work against marine litter involve government managers as well as businesses, NGOs, and voluntary initiatives. RECOMMENDATION: FUTURE COOPERATION Competence and enthusiasm for the issue on SIDS and elsewhere is growing, but more is needed. Solutions require international cooperation. Four recommendations for cooperation are highlighted here: 1. Prevent litter from entering the ocean and thus reaching SIDS: Support cooperation in regional and international agreements 2. Plastic material reaching SIDS should not be released into the environment: Technical cooperation and support for local waste management 3. If waste reaches the environment, collect it where appropriate: Support beach clean-up campaigns and other remediation measures 4. When waste has been collected, ensure that is has a value: Develop recycling markets and opportunities
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| 9. |
- Helgegren, Ida, 1986, et al.
(författare)
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Facilitating factors for community-managed wastewater systems in the Kanata metropolitan region, Bolivia
- 2021
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Ingår i: Sustainable Cities and Society. - : Elsevier BV. - 2210-6707. ; 75
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Provision of safe sanitation services is a major challenge in low and middle-income countries where adequate wastewater management is almost entirely lacking or insufficient. Community-managed wastewater systems are increasingly seen as part of the solution to this challenge. There is, however, a lack of in-depth understanding regarding how these communal systems are affected by external factors. Through a qualitative case study of the wastewater sector of the Kanata metropolitan region, Bolivia, this paper aims to contribute to filling this knowledge gap. A variety of data collection and analysis procedures resulted in two main outcomes. First, a shared common vision regarding the development of the wastewater sector and the role of community actors was highlighted as crucial for strengthening communal wastewater management. Secondly, facilitating factors that promote community-managed wastewater services were identified, i.e. financing possibilities, technical support, legal support, formal and informal networks, continuous dialogue, trust, compatibililty with local institutions, control of territory and availability of contractors and builders. The results provide guidance for both policymakers and development practitioners that aim to strengthen community-managed wastewater systems, as well as contribute to increased theoretical understanding.
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| 10. |
- Magnusson, Thomas, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Circular economy, varieties of capitalism and technology diffusion : Anaerobic digestion in Sweden and Paraná
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - Amsterdam, Netherlands : Elsevier. - 0959-6526 .- 1879-1786. ; 335
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The transition to a circular economy relies on systems that facilitate waste recovery and recirculation of resources. These systems are based on certain enabling technologies. The aim of this paper is to explain how socio-economic structures influence the diffusion of such technologies. It applies a framework built on societal embedding and varieties of capitalism to compare the diffusion of anaerobic digestion (AD) in Sweden in northern Europe and Paraná in southern Brazil. Both Sweden and Paraná have experienced accelerated diffusion of AD, but there are significant differences in the respective diffusion patterns. The comparative analysis points to a tradeoff between system complexity and speed of diffusion. It illustrates how AD can be presented as a solution to various problems, and it further shows how the specific problems that gain attention shape diffusion patterns. By showing how socio-economic structures influence the appointment of problem owners, their agency, and legitimate forms of institutional support, the analysis demonstrates how economic systems condition technology diffusion.
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