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A global collaborative accounting network to calculate the resource use of products and services
(2015)
"Sufficiency" is beginning to emerge as a new value throughout Western societies and the question asked in this article is: Can we observe cases with actual opportunities to link successful business strategies of incumbents to principles of sufficiency? Thus, how feasible is sustainable entrepreneurship for incumbents? As an innovative conceptual approach, it will be analyzed how brand claims function as narrative translation mechanisms in situations where tensions emerge between corporate narratives and unexpected societal trends, e.g. the emergence of sufficient lifestyles. It will be shown that even though these are still a niche phenomenon, a focus on powerful brands and the narratives connected to them are an important element in understanding the role of incumbents in transitions to sustainability.
Heating behavior of households is key for reducing domestic energy demand and mitigating climate change. Recently, various technical devices have been developed, providing households with feedback on their heating behavior and supporting energy conservation behavior.
The impact of such devices on overall energy consumption depends on (1) the impact of a device within a household, (2) the diffusion of devices to other households and the number of adopters, and (3) the diffusion of the induced behavioral change beyond these households. While the first two processes are currently established in assessments of sustainable household devices, we suggest that adding behavior diffusion is essential when assessing devices that explicitly target behavioral change. We therefore propose an assessment framework that includes all three processes. We implement this framework in an agent-based model by combining two existing simulation models to explore the effect of adding behavior diffusion. In three simulation experiments, we identify two mechanisms by which behavior diffusion (1) spreads the effect of such devices from adopters to non-adopters and (2) increases the average speed of behavioral change of households. From these results we conclude that behavior diffusion should be included in assessments of behavior-changing feedback devices.
The efficiency strategy to exploit the potential for energy savings in buildings still is applied rather slowly in most countries. In addition, there are indications that energy savings are partly compensated particularly by wealth but also rebound effects, the "empty nest" (persistence of elderly people and couples in family homes), and cohort effects (e.g. vintages of people or buildings). In Germany, as in other European countries, the existing trend in housing is a continuously growing floor space per capita. Over the last decades it expanded from about 20 m2 in 1960 to currently 45 m2 per person. Forecasts expect a further increase to more than 50 m2 per person. Obviously, more floor space needs more energy for space heating and cooling, ventilation, and lighting, but it also allows the household to operate more and or bigger appliances, all of which increase energy consumption.
On the other hand, housing projects emerge offering relatively small private living spaces in combination with various shared spaces to use. Many of them are based on private initiatives. But what is the motivation behind it? And is there a higher need for new living concepts in the future?
The proposed paper presents main drivers of increasing floor space per capita in Germany and discusses the question if more space is necessary for higher comfort. It presents different examples of housing concepts that strive to achieve good living with less space and suggests a "building typology of sufficiency".
Finally, the paper discusses qualitatively to which extent these housing concepts can lead to less energy use and emissions. In this way sufficiency could be best friend with efficiency and tackle wealth, rebound, and other effects that counter-act efficiency progress. But therefore, as the paper concludes, politics and policies should recognise sufficiency as a field of action instead of referring to individual decisions and lifestyles.
Im Rahmen einer strategischen Partnerschaft zwischen Deutschland und Brasilien verfolgt die Zusammenarbeit für Nachhaltige Entwicklung (ZnE) das beidseitige Interesse, die Klima- und Biodiversitätsziele Brasiliens zu erreichen. Die Schwerpunkte der deutsch-brasilianischen Zusammenarbeit liegen auf den Bereichen Schutz und nachhaltige Nutzung der brasilianischen Tropenwälder und Erneuerbaren Energien und Energieeffizienz.
Im Schwerpunkt Energie kooperieren GIZ und KfW im Auftrag des BMZ seit 2009 mit brasilianischen Partnern. Die Zusammenarbeit beruht hierbei auf zentralen Hypothesen bezüglich zu erwartender Wirkungen im Hinblick auf die brasilianische Energiematrix, die Reduktion von Treibhausgasemissionen, die Schaffung geeigneter Rahmenbedingungen für erneuerbare Energien und Energieeffizienz, sowie die Entstehung neuer Märkte.
Ziel ist, mit den von deutscher Seite eingesetzten Ressourcen einen höchstmöglichen Mehrwert in den Bereichen Klimaschutz und Biodiversität zu erreichen. Ein zusätzlicher Aspekt der Zusammenarbeit ist die Förderung neuer Märkte für international wettbewerbsfähige Zweige der deutschen und europäischen Wirtschaft.
Inwieweit die unternommenen Maßnahmen zu den erwarteten Wirkungen beitragen, und wie sie weiterentwickelt werden könnten, wurde im Rahmen dieser Studie in Zusammenarbeit mit dem brasilianischen Partnerinstitut COPPE der Universität Rio de Janeiro anhand von ausgewählten Projekten aus verschiedenen Technologiebereichen untersucht. Diese Studie dient neben der kritischen Betrachtung von abgeschlossenen und laufenden Vorhaben der ZnE auch der künftigen strategischen Ausrichtung der technischen und finanziellen Zusammenarbeit zwischen Deutschland und Brasilien.