Promoting discount schemes as a nudge strategy to enhance environmental behaviour

This paper presents the effects of nudging and of direct instruments on the consumer choice for reusable cups instead of disposable cups. The instruments include a financial incentive (discount schemes for consumers bringing their own cup) and communication about the scheme. The required conditions for the shop policy to be effective (i.e. induce a change in consumer behaviour through direct and indirect communication) are also evaluated. An original database was compiled from structured observations over 223 Hong Kong coffee shops, where 522 data points were collected. The research questions are answered using two strategies. First, logistic econometric approaches estimate the effects of the policies on consumer behaviour. Secondly, a qualitative comparative analysis identifies the required conditions for the consumers to use reusable cups. The results show no significant effect of the financial incentive on the targeted consumers but positive and significant effects on the other consumers who switch to in-shop reusable cups instead of disposable cups. Through effective communication about the “environment-friendly” shop policy, coffee shops affect the consumer behaviour towards reusable cups positively. I observe that nudges have higher effects than financial instruments on consumer behavioural change even when the settings account for strong conservative behaviours. The analysis of coffee shop typologies reports that coffee shops targeting a wealthier audience are more likely to achieve policy goals through nudge strategy.status: Published onlin

Discount scheme to enhance environmental behaviour

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Sustaining growth by Recycling

This paper quantifies the effect of waste recycling on GDP in OECD countries from 2000 to 2012. We focus on national levels and use external instruments to control for the endogeneity between GDP and waste recycling. Specifically, we examine the influence of labour, material flow and research and development (R&D) as drivers of this relationship. While R&D is often seen as key factor for a sustainable development, labour and material trades are of a higher importance for sustaining growth through recycling. Empirical results show a positive and statistically significant effect of waste recycling on the economy. An increase of 1% of the recycled waste raises GDP by up to 0.06%. Waste management, if well planned, can be a catalyst for a stagnating economy. Furthermore, our results show that the benefits of waste recycling are given rise through labour and resource flow channels. Governments are encouraged to initiate recycling investment accordingly, as such initiatives will not only improve the environment but also generate positive social welfare and pushes the transition to a circular economy.status: publishe

Waste Management and Circular Economy in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of the most populous cities in the world with a density of 130,000 people per square kilometer, generating more than 6 million tons of trash per year. Waste management is particularly difficult due to the geography of the archipelago which, like other island regions, lacks space. What strategies are implemented for treating trash and wastewater? What are their limits? A researcher in Hong Kong’s circular economy, Julie Metta (City University of Hong Kong), whom we met during Tara’s stopover, describes the situation.status: Published onlin

Pop-Machina: The breakthrough of the circular maker movement in Europe

Kris Bachus and Julie Metta from the HIVA Research Institute of KU Leuven, Belgium, present Pop-Machina, a Horizon 2020 Innovation project that promotes circular maker communities in urban areasstatus: Published onlin

Hong Kong’s Green Innovations Impact its Energy Market

Hong Kong is standing at the forefront of Asian cities' initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make their buildings and infrastructure more environmentally friendly. This development has huge impacts on the energy economy of the Chinese Special Administrative Region which is generating the bulk of its electricity from fossil sources. The short paper by Julie Metta and Jan Deller analyses the current dynamics and implications of green technology for Hong Kong's energy market, looking at the nexus of political, regulatory, economic and environmental issues.status: Published onlin

Mapping the circular maker movement: from a literature review to a circular maker passport

The Pop-Machina project is an EU-funded research project aiming to explore how the maker movement can contribute to cities’ transition to the circular economy. This report provides a response to Task 2.1. Based on an intensive bibliometric review and experts and practitioners interviews, the deliverable draws a collection of definitions to characterise the circular maker movement. A set of original tools, including a decision tree, a taxonomy, indicators and maps of the circular maker movement are developed to delineate the circular maker movement, with a focus on the Pop-Machina seven pilot cities. Eventually, pilot story-boards present the current status of the circular maker movement in the city, with the disclosure of the circular maker passports, characterising the movement in each pilot.status: Published onlin

A Fair society or a Fare society?

The global economy is currently organized in an environmentally damaging way: goods are produced, used, and discarded. The shared economy and the platform economy offer alternatives, but not solutions. The key to a more sustainable economy could lie in the combination of the two.status: Published onlin

Reducing the footprint of tourist transportation within an island context: readiness and emission abatement

International audienc

Make it a circular city:Experiences and challenges from European cities striving for sustainability through promoting circular making

A growing number of cities are deploying circular economy practices to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Makerspaces are community-driven initiatives enabling the collaboration between a city's diverse stakeholders in that objective. They can enhance the citizens' contribution to circularity by engaging them in circular ''making'' activities (e.g., reuse, repair, sharing) and by providing them with novel means, skills, and knowledge in these activities. However, cities face various challenges during the process of engaging citizens to create a vibrant circular city. Based on an in-depth analysis of experiences and challenges in seven European cities, which attempted to embrace the SDGs through circular making activities, this paper presents ten engagement-related challenges and five strategies to overcome them. Integrating these challenges and strategies in a strategy-challenge matrix offers several recommendations for cities striving to address SDGs through establishing and maintaining circular makerspaces