Fostering energy efficiency dynamics through ex-ante strategic niche management: the UK perspective

The United Kingdom building sector has been challenged to retrofit a huge stock of existing buildings in order to increase its adaptive capacity for climate change impacts. Addressing such challenges will require systematic structural changes in both, socio-technical and socio-political infrastructure. A numbers of studies have suggested the approach of strategic niche management of transition for sustainable technological regimes. Accordingly, any such transition would follow processes: early stages of niche formation; creation of policy mechanism required to harness the niches; niche expansion into incumbent regime; and the regime transition into more sustainable technological regime. Following this, the UK Government has introduced a raft of initiatives; one of which is “Green Deal” to enable buildings to become energy efficient through retrofit technologies, ultimately contributing towards the national goal of achieving 80% reduction in carbon emission by 2050. This paper serves three purposes. First, the paper introduces multi-level socio-technical system for construction/retrofitting in building industry. Second, the ex-ante strategic niche management approach has been used to analyse the dynamic of “Green Deal” initiative. Thereby the paper would critically assess technological, organisational and institutional reforms undertaken for the initiative in the processes for sustainable socio-technical transition. Third, the paper would contribute towards strategic niche management literature which lacks in practical examples of using it as an ex-ante tool for niche building and regime transition

Cities Building Community Wealth

As cities struggle with rising inequality, widespread economic hardship, and racial disparities, something surprising and hopeful is also stirring. In a growing number of America's cities, a more inclusive, community-based approach to economic development is being taken up by a new breed of economic development professionals and mayors. This approach to economic development could be on the cusp of going to scale. It's time it had a name. We call it community wealth building

A Resilient Power Capital Scan: How Foundations Could Use Grants and Investments to Advance Solar and Storage in Low-Income Communities

This report, one in a series of reports by Clean Energy Group and Meridian Institute on advancing resilient power in low-income communities, seeks to address how foundations can best develop a portfolio of capital interventions—from grants to impact investments—that together would successfully scale up the solar+storage/resilient power market to benefit low-income populations and to advance their missions. It provides a capital scan of foundation opportunities and actions to guide foundation financial support for this market

How clean is clean? Incremental versus radical technological change in coal-fired power plants

In the discussion on innovations for sustainable development, radical innovations are frequently called for in order that the transformation of society to a system perceived as sustainable can succeed. The reason given for this is the greater environmental efficiency of these innovations. This hypothesis is, however, not supported by empirical evidence. Against the background of a globally increasing use of coal-burning power plants and the environmental impacts to be expected, the hypothesis that radical innovations are superior to incremental innovations is reviewed on the basis of fossil fuel power plants. This paper examines the diffusion of incremental and radical innovations in the field of power plants and the basic obstacles with which these innovations were confronted. To give an example, Pressurised Pulverised Coal Combustion (PPCC) as a radical innovation and supercritical coal-fired power plants as an incremental innovation are compared. An ex-post analysis of the German R&D portfolio in the past three decades in the field of power plants environmentally shows that technologies which were radical innovations had great difficulties in becoming accepted by possible investors. The future potential of radical innovations in the field of power plant technology is to be regarded as relatively low, especially due to comparatively high cost-pressure, the reluctance of utilities to take risks and the temporal dynamics of technological progress facilitating incremental innovations on the basis of conventional reference technology. The conclusion for future R&D work in the sector of large-scale power plants is that an innovation is more likely to succeed the more it follows established technological trajectories. In the context of energy market liberalisation, hardly any radical innovations are expected in this field of technology. The findings of this paper may also be helpful in evaluating risks or probabilities of success of technologies being developed. As an example technological trajectories currently favoured in CO2 capture are discussed. --Radical innovations,incremental innovations,carbon capture storage,coal power plants

The disrupters: Lessons for low-carbon innovation from the new wave of environmental pioneers

We need disruptive forms of innovation 13 cheaper, easier-to-use alternatives to existing products or services, often produced by non-traditional players for previously ignored customers. This report tells the stories of eight such "disrupters" and draws wider lessons for low-carbon innovation. Its recommendations include: 1. Government should provide an enabling policy framework within which low-carbon innovation ca

Kokeilujen rooli suomalaisessa rakennetussa ympäristössä

Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena oli systemaattisesti kartoittaa ja tarkastella rakennetun ympäristön vähähiilisyys- ja/tai sosiaalinen oikeudenmukaisuus kokeiluja Suomessa sekä ymmärtää, miten kunnat osallistuvat kokeiluihin ja millaisia haasteita kunnat kohtaavat siihen osallistuessaan. Oikeudenmukaisten ja vähähiilisten rakennusten ja asumisen muotojen selvittämiseksi kartoitettiin systemaattisesti 1 386 kohdetta 15 tietokannassa. 204 rakennetun ympäristön vähähiilisyys ja/tai oikeudenmukaisuus kokeilua tunnustettiin ja analysoitiin. Kuntien osallisuutta ja kohtaamia haasteita lähestyttiin tapaustutkimuksella neljästä suomalaisesta kaupungista (Helsinki, Joensuu, Turku ja Vantaa). 14 kokeilujen parissa työskentelevää henkilöä haastateltiin ja lisäksi kerättiin 1 839 sivua tapauskaupunkeihin liittyviä asiakirjoja. Haastatteluja ja dokumentteja analysoitiin abduktiivisesti kuntien osallisuuden tapojen ja kuntien edustajien kohtaamien haasteiden selvittämiseksi. Tutkielman tulokset osoittavat, että kokeiluissa keskitytään niche-markkinoiden rakentamiseen ja kehittämiseen sekä teknologioiden testaamiseen. Keskittyminen sosiaaliseen oikeudenmukaisuuteen ja ihmisten käyttäytymiseen on vähäisempää. Vaikka kokeiluissa oli joitain päällekkäisyyksiä vähähiilisen ja sosiaalisen oikeudenmukaisuuden välillä, kokeiluilla ei pyritty lisäämään oikeudenmukaisuutta, vaan pikemminkin toteuttamaan vähähiilisyyttä sosiaalisesti oikeudenmukaisella tavalla. Kunnat keskittyivät voimakkaasti niche- markkinoiden rakentamiseen ja kehittämiseen, ja kokeilujen sujuvoittamiseen. Kunnat eivät juurikaan tehneet kokeiluja omassa toiminnassaan ja keskittyivät kokeiluprosessiin rakennetun ympäristön vähähiilisen ja oikeudenmukaisen siirtymän sijaan. Lisäksi näissä toimissa havaittiin heikosti uutuusarvoa, joustavuutta ja kykyä antaa kokeiluhankkeiden epäonnistua. Tutkielmassa ilmenee myös, että kestävyyskokeilujen ja kestävyysmuutosten väliset yhteydet eivät ole niin suoraviivaisia kuin tutkimuksen viitekehys esitti. Vaikka useita havaintoja kestävän kehityksen kokeiluista tehtiin, on edelleen tarve lisätutkimuksille, jotta ymmärrettäisiin paremmin rakennetun ympäristön sosiaalisesti oikeudenmukaisten ja vähähiilisten kokeilujen ominaisuuksia ja kyettäisiin vauhdittamaan rakennetun ympäristön kestävyyssiirtymää.This thesis aimed to systematically map and review built environment low carbon and/or social justice experiments in Finland and understand how municipalities engage in experimentation and what challenges municipalities face when engaging in it. To find what forms of experiments for socially just low carbon buildings and housing can be found in Finland, 1 386 objects in 15 databases were systematically mapped. 204 unique built environment low carbon and/or social justice experiments were recognized and further reviewed. Municipality engagements and challenges in experimentation were approached through a case study of four Finnish municipalities Helsinki, Joensuu, Turku, and Vantaa. 14 case city officials and other persons working with experimentation were interviewed, and 1 839 pages of case-city-related documents were gathered. Triangulation was used to analyze the interview transcripts and additional documents in an abductive manner to find what kind of policy engagements for experimentation municipalities participated in and what kind of challenges the municipality representatives identified when doing so. This thesis discovered that there is a large focus on building and nurturing niches and testing technologies with a lack of focus on profound social justice and the behavioral side of the sustainability transitions. The sustainability experimentation in the built environment was technology-focused and lacked profound social justice aspects. Even though there were some overlaps between low carbon and social justice in the experiments, the experiments did not seek to increase social justice but rather to do low carbon in a socially just way. Municipalities strongly focused on building and nurturing niches and experimentation as a process. Municipalities did not do much experimentation in their operations and focused on the experimentation process rather than the subject matter. Also, the municipality experimentation engagements were characterized by a lack of novelty, flexibility, and uncertainty. This thesis also reveals that the links between sustainability experimentation and sustainability transitions may not be as straightforward as the scientific models and frameworks present. Though this thesis made several findings about sustainability experimentation, there remains a particularly urgent need to develop and conduct additional studies. They are needed to understand better the phenomena in the socially just low carbon experimentation in the built environment to enable just transition to low carbon buildings and housing

The Rise of Innovation Districts: A New Geography of Innovation in America

As the United States slowly emerges from the great recession, a remarkable shify is occurring in the spatial geogrpahy of innovation. For the past 50 years, the landscape of innovation has been dominated by places like Silicon Valley - suburban corridors of spatially isolated corporate campuses, accessible only by car, with little emphasis on the quality of life or on integrating work, housing, and recreation. A new complementary urban model is now emerging, giving rise to what we and others are calling "innovation districts." These districts, by our definition, are geographic areas where leading-edge anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with start-ups, business incubators, and accelerators. They are also physically compact, transit-accessible, and technicall