Degrowth and techno-business model innovation: The case of Riversimple

There is an emergent understanding that humanity has precipitated an ‘Anthropocene’ such that we are now operating in a reduced space for humanity in which urgent action is required. This case study paper links degrowth, technological innovation, business model innovation and corporate governance. The arguments are illustrated with the case of an embryonic vehicle and mobility business called Riversimple. The paper shows that radical technology innovations in the vehicle itself are achieved by underlying principles that focus on mass decompounding, powertrain de-coupling, whole system design, and low-volume production systems. The characteristics of the technologies are fundamental to, and in part derive from, the business model adopted by the case, and the governance structures designed to avoid the primacy usually afforded to returns to financial shareholders. While the case is embryonic, the paper argues that an important possible contribution is the ability to commence a disruptive transition to a degrowth future from within existing legal frameworks, social practices, cultural expectations and physical infrastructures

Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to assess the rehabilitation performance of open cut coal mines

Mine sites are routinely required to rehabilitate their post-mining landforms with a safe, stable and sustainable land-cover. To assess these post-mining landforms, traditional on-ground field monitoring is generally undertaken. However, these labour intensive and time-consuming measurements are generally insufficient to catalogue land rehabilitation efforts across the large scales typical of mining sites (>100 ha). As an alternative, information derived from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) can be used to map rehabilitation success and provide evidence of achieving rehabilitation site requirements across a range of scales. UAV based sensors have the capacity to collect information on rehabilitation sites with extensive spatial coverage in a repeatable, flexible and cost-effective manner. Here, we present an approach to automatically map indicators of safety, stability and sustainability of rehabilitation efforts, and demonstrate this framework across three coalmine sites. Using multi-spectral UAV imagery together with geographic object-based image analysis, an empirical classification system is proposed to convert these indicators into a status category based on a number of criteria related to land-cover, landform, erosion, and vegetation structure. For this study, these criteria include: mapping tall trees (Eucalyptus species); vegetation extent; senescent vegetation; extent of bare ground; and steep slopes. Converting these land-cover indicators into appropriate mapping categories on a polygon basis indicated the level of rehabilitation success and how these varied across sites and age of the rehabilitation activity. This work presents a framework and workflow for undertaking a UAV based assessment of safety, stability and sustainability of mine rehabilitation and also provides a set of recommendations for future rehabilitation assessment efforts

Can't pay, must pay

The British have an expression for it, borne out of literally hundreds of years of continuous social evolution and cohabitation; it has that genteel familiarity that has usually succeeded in rendering the worst excesses of one of the most imperialist nations on earth acceptable: ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it’. Doubtless the Dutch, who probably hold the world record for apposite sayings, also have a similar expression and for broadly similar reasons

Economies of scale versus small is beautiful: a business model approach based on architecture, principles and components in the beer industry

This article defines business models for sustainability as contested and contextual, and provides a novel framework in terms of the architecture of the business, its principles and components for the analysis of such models. With this framework, a preliminary comparison using the engaged scholarship methodology is made between microbreweries and large multinational brewers. It is concluded that defining and determining comparative sustainability performance based on different business models results in ambiguities and contradictions that are not readily resolved, but a key determinant in the broad definition of business sustainability in the brewing sector is the degree of localism that the business model exhibits