Kapitel 24. Theorien des Wandels und der Gestaltung von Strukturen

Abschnitt 5 nimmt eine Bestandsaufnahme von Theorien vor, die in einem weiten Sinne Wandel untersuchen. „Theorien des Wandels“ ist ein Überbegriff für all diejenigen Theorien, die helfen, aktuelle Dynamiken der Klimakrise zu verstehen und sowohl die stattfindenden als auch die notwendigen Transformationen zu fassen

Kapitel 2: Perspektiven zur Analyse und Gestaltung von Strukturen für ein klimafreundliches Leben

Kapitel 2 systematisiert entlang von vier Perspektiven in den Sozialwissenschaften weit verbreitete Theorien zur Analyse und Gestaltung von Strukturen klimafreundlichen Lebens. Das Kapitel möchte Leser_innen des Berichts bewusst machen, mit wie grundlegend unterschiedlichen Zugängen Forscher_innen Strukturen klimafreundlichen Lebens analysieren. Dies ist wichtig, um zu verstehen, dass es nie nur eine, sondern immer mehrere Perspektiven auf Strukturen klimafreundlichen Lebens gibt. Dieses Bewusstsein hilft, die Komplexität der Sozialwissenschaften und damit die Komplexität der Aufgabe – Strukturen für ein klimafreundliches Leben zu gestalten – zu erfassen. Unterschiedliche Zugänge zu sehen, bedeutet auch, ein besseres Verständnis von konfligierenden Problemdiagnosen, Zielhorizonten und Gestaltungsoptionen zu entwickeln und – idealerweise – damit umgehen zu können

The valuation of public and private benefits of green roof retrofit in different climate conditions

Green roofs represent a suitable option for industrial buildings refurbishment, providing private and social benefits. Nowadays, in Italy green roof technology is still uncommon, because of high installation cost that drives the choice towards more traditional performing solutions, such as cool roofs (CRs). Thus, a thorough valuation of green roofs benefits in urban contexts is required to encourage their diffusion. This paper aims to valuate private and social costs and benefits generated by extensive green roofs (EGRs) compared with cool roofs in three Italian cities: Trieste, Ancona and Palermo. These contexts are characterized by different Mediterranean climate conditions (North, Centre and South Italy); moreover, residential areas overlooking industrial settlements take place in each of them, so it is possible to hypothesize a potential enhancement of landscape value in these properties, allowing to compare aesthetic benefits due to green roofs upon industrial buildings. The study has been based on literature review and on simulation of energy performances of EGR and CR alternatively considered as refurbishment solution for a reference industrial building taking place in each industrial settlement. For the social side, the externalities deriving from EGRs and CRs, such as aesthetic enhancement, biodiversity preservation and natural habitat provision, carbon reduction, air quality improvement, stormwater control, have been monetized according to available data for the cases of study. The analysis demonstrates that a private investor has a poor convenience to implement EGR rather than CR. On the other, a positive Net Present Value (NPV) derives from social cost-benefit analysis comparing EGR and CR, due to the EGR positive externalities. The valuation of the positive externalities let the calculation of economic incentives amount to promote the diffusion of green roofs in the Mediterranean area. On this basis, an annual reduction of local property tax has been considered as incentive form. Further, a sensitivity analysis with Monte Carlo simulation of both private and social benefits evaluation has been performed for each of three case studies. This technique properly evaluates the final effects on private investments in the presence of random unpredictable variables, depending either on climate conditions or on market observation, that influence their economic affordability. Finally, through the comparison of the three contexts, an overall discussion about of the influence of climate and urban conditions on the economic analysis has been conducte

COVID-19: the impact of a global crisis on sustainable development teaching

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global crisis, one which also influences the ways sustainability is being taught at universities. This paper undertakes an analysis of the extent to which COVID-19 as a whole and the lockdown it triggered in particular, which has led to the suspension of presence-based teaching in universities worldwide and influenced teaching on matters related to sustainable development. By means of a worldwide survey involving higher education institutions across all continents, the study has identified a number of patterns, trends and problems. The results from the study show that the epidemic has significantly affected teaching practices. The lockdowns have led to a surge in the use of on-line communication tools as a partial replacement to normal lessons. In addition, many faculty teaching sustainability in higher education have strong competencies in digital literacy. The sampled higher education educations have—as a whole—adequate infrastructure to continue to teach during the lockdowns. Finally, the majority of the sample revealed that they miss the interactions via direct face-to-face student engagement, which is deemed as necessary for the effective teaching of sustainability content. The implications of this paper are two-fold. Firstly, it describes how sustainability teaching on sustainable development has been affected by the lockdown. Secondly, it describes some of the solutions deployed to overcome the problem. Finally, the paper outlines the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic may serve the purpose of showing how university teaching on sustainability may be improved in the future, taking more advantage of modern information technologies