Refine
Has Fulltext
- yes (6)
Year of Publication
- 2015 (6) (remove)
Document Type
- Peer-Reviewed Article (6) (remove)
Division
- Nachhaltiges Produzieren und Konsumieren (6) (remove)
The German government has set itself the target of reducing the country's GHG emissions by between 80 and 95% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. Alongside energy efficiency, renewable energy sources are set to play the main role in this transition. However, the large-scale deployment of renewable energies is expected to cause increased demand for critical mineral resources. The aim of this article is therefore to determine whether the transformation of the German energy system by 2050 ("Energiewende") may possibly be restricted by a lack of critical minerals, focusing primarily on the power sector (generating, transporting and storing electricity from renewable sources). For the relevant technologies, we create roadmaps describing a number of conceivable quantitative market developments in Germany. Estimating the current and future specific material demand of the options selected and projecting them along a range of long-term energy scenarios allows us to assess potential medium- or long-term mineral resource restrictions. The main conclusion we draw is that the shift towards an energy system based on renewable sources that is currently being pursued is principally compatible with the geological availability and supply of mineral resources. In fact, we identified certain sub-technologies as being critical with regard to potential supply risks, owing to dependencies on a small number of supplier countries and competing uses. These sub-technologies are certain wind power plants requiring neodymium and dysprosium, thin-film CIGS photovoltaic cells using indium and selenium, and large-scale redox flow batteries using vanadium. However, non-critical alternatives to these technologies do indeed exist. The likelihood of supplies being restricted can be decreased further by cooperating even more closely with companies in the supplier countries and their governments, and by establishing greater resource efficiency and recyclability as key elements of technology development.
To live a life of sufficiency in a consumerist culture may be one of the most ambitious experiments an individual could undertake. To investigate this challenge, we employed a social-practice approach. This article is based on 42 qualitative interviews asking respondents why and how they acted in a sufficient way within a Western infrastructure and culture. The results indicate that sufficiency-oriented people draw on particular meanings in everyday-life practices when adopting relevant resource-extensive actions. These understandings encompass an amalgam of environmentally friendly attitudes, positive social intentions, and/or personal commitments to thriftiness. We further identified a set of specific practices - including sharing, recycling, and reusing - as useful for the adoption of a sufficient lifestyle. For our respondents, many of these sufficiency practices occurred regularly in daily life and were rarely questioned. Using an additional survey, we show that these routines lead to less resource-intensive lifestyles and demonstrate how a small group of people has been able to habitually adopt sufficiency practices. However, the majority does not see a need for more frequent implementation of such routines because daily decision-making processes are widely focused on the consumption of products.
Der Beitrag widmet sich der Frage, wie suffizient private Haushalte im heutigen Wirtschaftssystem agieren können und welche Grenzen sich offenbaren. Private Haushalte sind neben den Unternehmen, staatlichen Institutionen und intermediären Organisationen eine zentrale Leistungsinstanz für die Produktion von Gütern und Dienstleistungen und nehmen damit die Versorgung der Menschen ein. Haushalte bieten viel Potential für die Verankerung von Suffizienzstrategien, trotzdem gibt es gewissermaßen genauso viele Herausforderungen und Barrieren rund um diesen Themenschwerpunkt. Die Vision dabei: Durch suffizienteren Konsum könnten Haushalte in ihrem privaten Entscheidungsraum langfristig zukunftsfähiger agieren. So würde der haushaltsspezifischer Ressourcenverbrauch gesenkt und suffizientere Unternehmenslösungen würden durch ausgewählte Konsumentscheidungen von Haushalten unterstützt werden. Von dieser Vision ist die Gesellschaft aktuell aber zugegebenermaßen immer noch weit entfernt. Trotzdem erscheint es wichtig, sich diesem Thema empirisch zu nähern, insbesondere um Potentiale und Herausforderungen eines suffizienteren Handelns in den heutigen Haushaltsund Gesellschaftsstrukturen zu skizzieren. Die Argumentation des Beitrags fußt deshalb auf den Ergebnissen aus 42 qualitativen, problemfokussierten Interviews mit Verbraucherinnen und Verbrauchern in ganz Deutschland. Der Beitrag schließt mit einem Fazit und skizziert die Antwort auf die Frage, ob und wie Haushalte suffizient sein können und welche Herausforderungen sich für die Zukunft ergeben.
A key challenge of the 21st century is to transform society into one that features sustainable patterns of production and consumption. To achieve this, transition processes need to be designed in key areas such as housing, mobility and nutrition. The design and large-scale implementation of sustainable product service systems (PSS) is regarded a promising approach for sustainability transitions. Real-life socio-technical experiments are an important infrastructure for designing PSS in collaboration with stakeholders and users. In this paper, we argue that transdisciplinary and action research methods are required for institutionalising an experimental set-up and developing PSS within such infrastructures. We present the Sustainable LivingLabs (SLL) research infrastructure and its methodology as an example of such experimental settings. It was collaboratively developed with key stakeholders in three consecutive research projects and applied to e.g. heating and space heating. We show new qualities of SLL in relation to existing LivingLabs and approaches for PSS design and present its methodological three-phase model (insight research, prototyping, field testing) of research. Our article contributes to knowledge on a methodological framework and tool-kit for PSS development in SLL with a clear focus on socio-ecological sustainability. Intermediate findings confirm the high influence of user practices on heating energy consumption and show starting points for PSS development: e.g. transformational products, home-automation combined with consulting along value chains. We hypothesise that developing PSS in user- and stakeholder-integrated settings supports acceptance and diffusion and, by taking into account users' social practices of utilising novelties, reduces rebound effects caused by incorrect application.
Social innovations, which transform resource intensive routines and practices into low-resource ones, combined with socio-technically designed transition paths, which are created around sustainability and environmental criteria, are milestones for implementation and diffusion of SCP (Sustainable Consumption and Production). This paper analyses such processes based on eight key components in order to evaluate and explain transformation and transition towards a sustainable lifestyle. Actors on all levels of society are included in this approach, creating a whole framework. Global megatrends, such as climate change, demographic change or resource scarcity will be put into relation with current policies and production trends, which play an important role for the development of transition pathways and future scenarios. This will enable us to work out guidelines and ideas on how to create a more sustainable society specifically.