Will They Die Another Day? A Decision Support Perspective on Reusing Electric Vehicle Batteries

The diffusion of electric mobility suffers from an immature and expensive battery technology. Reusing electric vehicle batteries (EVBs) is a prospective opportunity for lowering the total costs of ownership of electric vehicles and using scarce natural resources more efficiently. However, to determine how to reuse a battery is a complex decision problem. In this study we set out to develop a design theory for a class of decision support systems (DSSs) that implement two main functions: First, a consideration set of feasible reuse scenarios is compiled based on an assess-ment of a battery’s structure and condition. Second, an offering is configured based on bun-dling batteries with customized services. We conclude with an outlook to our ongoing design science project that will, amongst others, explore to what extent systems instantiated from the design theory can remedy adverse effects caused by the ‘lemon market’ properties of the sec-ond-hand battery market

Greening the Economy While Centering Justice: A Case Study of Green Business Incentives in Riverside, California

This applied research project proposes incentives the City of Riverside could implement to attract green businesses in a policy memo and analyzes whether these incentives are aligned with the principles of just transition. Centering on the intersection between justice and sustainability, this project examines challenges and contradictions in the promotion of sustainability initiatives and transformative environmental change through the case study of Riverside. Analyzing the incentives proposed for Riverside through the lens of justice reveals how green business incentive policies must be altered to achieve a regenerative economy, and expands upon existing green economy, business incentive, and just transition scholarships. Three incentives are proposed, a skills development program at Riverside City College, a green business resource center, and a green innovation zone. Of these three incentives, the skills development program was the only one found to be fully in line with the principles of just transition. This project reveals that most green business incentives are not currently aligned with the principles of just transition, but that it is possible for them to be. The City of Riverside could center justice and equity by involving the community in the creation of the green business resource center, including Indigenous voices in the conversation shaping the green incentive zoning policy, and developing a metric to evaluate the incorporation of justice in its policies. This project indicates that green business incentives should center justice and that ensuring they do so brings society closer to a regenerative economy

Conceptualizing and measuring Green IT Readiness in Finnish companies. Application area: electronic invoice

IT has a dual role in the current climate change actions. Its emissions, 2 % of the annual global CO2e, equal to the much critiqued aviation industry. On the other hand, it can be used to reduce emissions in other sectors. The new area of study, Green IT, focuses on these abilities. The purposes of this research are twofold. Firstly, the goal is to determine Finnish businesses Green IT Readiness -levels. It means companies’ maturity in integrating environmental viewpoint to IT related activities throughout its lifecycle. The G -Readiness framework is also used to test the role of eco-sustainability in adoption of e-invoicing. The second part of the research is about IT’s enabling role in reducing carbon footprint of invoicing as invoices are turned from paper to electronic format. According to the research, the respondent companies’ G -Readiness seems to be mediocre. The framework with four measures (Attitude, Paperless Office, Management and Virtualization) was studied through a survey and tested using Partial Least Squares analysis (PLS). The study concludes that G -Readiness is currently being characterized as an attitude rather than a set of planned and coordinated tasks. Interestingly, the study indicates that environmental considerations do not explain adoption of e-invoicing. The case study on carbon footprint of invoices indicates that an e-invoice is four times more environmentally friendly than a paper invoice. The most reductions arise from increased productivity of IT enabled work, which is measured by office worker’s carbon footprint. Use of paper products and traditional mail delivery were also found to have noticeable impact, while technology and the use of it generated only a fraction of the footprint. The footprint of an office worker had not been accounted for in the previous research. Thus this finding produced totally new information to the field. The findings raise an important point about the link between eco-sustainability and productivity. Adoption of e-invoicing increases productivity and reduces emissions, but businesses have not truly accounted for this link. This indicates that many IT enabled process improvements could easily be accounted for in sustainability reporting. To reach the highest possible reductions in emissions, companies should integrate the eco-sustainability and productivity link to value chain thinking rather than focus on single processes alone

An Explorative Study for Business Models for Sustainability

Sustainability now becomes one of the key issues in innovating existing environments, where we live, and behaviours of people, how we live. There have been a lot of new attempts and initiatives for promoting the sustainability by government, industries, and communities. However, for the survival and successful adoption of the innovative efforts to real world, they need to be institutionalized or established as stable formal/informal institutions or business models. Especially, the efforts in private sectors, incumbents or entrepreneurs, should develop and find out, even through trial and errors, a viable business model for the sustainability. This paper reviews the various initiatives from the business model perspective, analyze the characteristics of the sustainability business models and suggest key dimensions to design new business models for sustainability