The Politics of Selection: Towards a Transformative Model of Environmental Innovation

As a purposive sustainability transition requires environmental innovation and innovation policy, we discuss potentials and limitations of three dominant strands of literature in this field, namely the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP), the innovation systems approach (IS), and the long-wave theory of techno-economic paradigm shifts (LWT). All three are epistemologically rooted in an evolutionary understanding of socio-technical change. While these approaches are appropriate to understand market-driven processes of change, they may be deficient as analytical tools for exploring and designing processes of purposive societal transformation. In particular, we argue that the evolutionary mechanism of selection is the key to introducing the strong directionality required for purposive transformative change. In all three innovation theories, we find that the prime selection environment is constituted by the market and, thus, normative societal goals like sustainability are sidelined. Consequently, selection is depoliticised and neither strong directionality nor incumbent regime destabilisation are societally steered. Finally, we offer an analytical framework that builds upon a more political conception of selection and retention and calls for new political institutions to make normatively guided selections. Institutions for transformative innovation need to improve the capacities of complex societies to make binding decisions in politically contested fields

Cumulative material flows provide indicators to quantify the ecological debt

There is ample evidence that an unabated growth in material consumption is likely to pass the earth system's source and sink capacities. In the face of limited resources, distributional questions increasingly gain importance. Material flow accounting is a methodological tool to trace biophysical patterns of disproportionate resource consumption across countries and the debt towards the environment, other parts of the world, and towards future generations through the excessive consumption of natural resources. At the core of this article, we address different developments of material use for individual countries and world regions from 1950 to 2010. During this phase, fossil fuel-based industrialization triggered an unprecedented growth in material consumption, mainly in the wealthy world regions of Europe, Australia, North America, and partly in the countries of the former Soviet Union, while low resource consumption persists in other regions. We thus calculated cumulative resource use from 1950 to 2010 to show the extent of this wealth built up upon countries' own resources, or through imports from other countries or world regions. We use the degree of net-import dependency of individual countries as a proxy for the ecological debt, and relate it to the domestic resource extraction in a country. Our observations show that there was a highly uneven distribution of resource extraction and use in the 60 years analyzed, which has important implications for future global resource policies. Keywords: Ecological debt, material flow accounting, international trade, global resource use Résumé I

Development of a Sankey Diagram of Material Flows in the EU Economy based on Eurostat Data

Europe relies on reliable and robust knowledge on materials stocks and flows to promote innovation along the entire value chain of raw materials. The concept of the circular economy, recently adopted by the European Commission, aims at maintaining the value of products, materials, and resources in the economy for as long as possible, and minimize waste generation. One of the prerequisites for better monitoring materials use across the whole life-cycle is a good understanding of material stocks and flows. The goal of this report is thus to show how readily available statistical information can be used to generate a Sankey diagram of material flows and their circularity in the 28 member states of the European Union (EU-28). Despite several data challenges, it is possible to develop a visual representation of material flows and their level of circularity in the EU-28 as well as for individual member states for the period 2004 to 2014 (with future updates possible as new statistical data sets become available). The focus is on non-energy and non-food materials in line with the European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials (EIP-RM). This includes material flows used for their material quality including, e.g., metals, construction minerals, industrial minerals, and biomass like timber for constructions or fibres for paper or textiles. Materials used for their energy content like fossil fuels, fuel wood, feed or food are excluded. A combination of regularly available data sources including economy-wide material flow accounts (EW-MFA) and EU waste statistics are used to generate a Sankey diagram showing the flows and net additions to stocks of four major material categories (metals, construction minerals, industrial minerals, and biomass (timber and products from biomass)). In 2014, the turnover of non-energy and non-food materials in the EU economy is found at 4.8 Gt (direct material input + recycling and backfilling). Recycled materials make up around 0.7 Gt (15%) of all materials used in the EU-28 in 2014. Socioeconomic stocks are growing in the EU-28 at about 2.2 to 3.4 Gt each year (net additions to stocks during the period from 2004 to 2014). For example, in 2014 around 51% (2.3/4.5 Gt) of all non-energy and non-food materials used domestically within the EU were added to stocks. Stock accumulation limits the potential for current recovery because material stocks are not immediately available for recycling (but will become available in the future when products providing useful services to the EU economy reach their end-of-life). In 2014, total waste generated from non-energy and non-food materials use in the EU-28 amounted to 2.2 Gt. Some 1.9 Gt of this waste was treated in the EU-28. The largest share of this waste (about 41%) was subject to landfilling operations. About 33% of the waste treated in the EU-28 in 2014 was sent to recycling operations (recovery other than energy recovery and backfilling) and 10% was used in backfilling. The EU is largely self-sufficient for construction minerals and industrial minerals, somewhat import dependent for biomass (for materials purposes), but highly import-dependent for metals. Sankey diagrams for eight individual member states including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Spain, France, Germany, and Italy are generated and compared with each other. Overall material throughput is highest for Germany, France, and Italy. Belgium’s economy depends on imports of a large number of raw materials, while several other EU countries domestically produce construction minerals and industrial minerals. Metals are imported by all member states although some EU countries (e.g., Finland) also have limited metal mining activities. In the eight EU member states examined, recycling and backfilling ranges between 11% and 68% at end-of-life (output side) and 6% and 27% when compared to overall material inputs (input side). Germany is used as a case study to show how the proposed visualization framework can be used to generate member state Sankey diagrams for multiple years. Further research is needed to confirm these findings, fill in data gaps (e.g., trade in waste products), and better estimate selected flow parameters. However, the proposed assessment and visualization do provide a reasonable first picture of raw material uses and their flow magnitudes (by major material categories) in Europe, and how these evolve over time. The resulting Sankey diagrams will feed into the EC's Raw Material Information System's (RMIS) MFA module (currently in development) to better visualize related material flows for the EU and at individual country level. The level of circularity can be measured considering different groups of raw materials. Because for materials used for energy purposes materials recovery is mostly not possible, we recommend including resource categories including fossil energy materials and biomass for food and energy purposes in future studies to obtain a more holistic picture of raw materials use in the EU.JRC.D.3-Land Resource

Green Facades – How they Matter for Working Environments, Public Spaces and the Livability of a City

Sustainable urban development is the focus of many research initiatives, especially due to increasing urbanization and climate change. Buildings and their renovation are central to the European "Green Deal". In the new Austrian climate and energy program, the topic of buildings comes first with a target renovation rate of 3%. Current climate change adaptation strategies call for an increase in greening of existing buildings and on facades. Public spaces are shaped by the surrounding buildings. The facades and roofs of these buildings can have a high potential to mitigate urban heat island effects. Social change and innovation in working cultures result in reshaping working environments and the need for public space. Large-scale glass buildings are widely considered architectural highlights, but pose problematic challenges to urban spaces. Glass has a significant impact on the microclimate inside the building and in the immediate outdoor environment: a concentration of radiant energy and high indoor temperatures put a strain on the energy balance and the well-being of the occupants. The retrofit greening of glass facades is a gap in building expertise and there is a lack of standard applications for the retrofit shading and insulation of glass buildings to obtain associated microclimatic benefits. The project GLASGrün aims to develop, implement, test and monitor modular vertical greening standards for active external shading by deciduous plants on commercial buildings with large glazed facades. Transferable modular-based designs are to be developed. Additionally, sociological surveys on acceptance and perception will be implemented. GLASGrün generates quantitative data on energy, temperature and microclimate balance as well as qualitative data on the perception of the building situation before and after greening interventions and on public awareness. New findings on the acceptance and well-being of employees and customers, on purchasing behavior and market-economic parameters will be available. GLASGrün is developing guidelines for constructive solutions, submission processes and care and maintenance management plans for the systems under consideration and for the vertical green standards tested, which are scalable and transferable and form an economic basis for future adaptations of further buildings as well as for their maintenance. A socio-ecological transformation faces the challenge of how integrated solutions can be developed in dialogue with the users and to what extent these produce the desired effects such as greenhouse gas reduction or better indoor climate. On the other hand, the best solutions in the technical sense can also fail due to social barriers: the acceptance of decision-makers, a lack of willingness to cooperate on the part of employees, or a loss of image in the neighborhood, to name just a few examples. Acceptance depends amongst other factors on both the concrete technical implementation and the process of introduction. Thus, acceptance is not a static variable, but is in a relationship with the technical solution options themselves. Public spaces are key to the discussion on sustainable urban development in their function against urban heat islands. Their diversity of uses and users allows for both a broad discussion and start of discourses and the testing of innovative sustainable measures, in this case greening of facades on buildings perceived in public space. In this paper we will present 2 case studies in Austria with the first results of interviews with employees and users of glass facade buildings and the users of public space

Investigating patterns of local climate governance: How low-carbon municipalities and intentional communities intervene in social practices

The local level has gained prominence in climate policy and governance in recent years as it is increasingly perceived as a privileged arena for policy experimentation and social and institutional innovation. However, the success of local climate governance in industrialized countries has been limited. One reason may be that local communities focus too much on strategies of technology-oriented ecological modernization and individual behavior change and too little on strategies that target unsustainable social practices and their embeddedness in complex socioeconomic patterns. In this paper we assess and compare the strategies of "low-carbon municipalities" (top-down initiatives) and those of "intentional communities" (bottom-up initiatives). We were interested to determine to what extent and in which ways each community type intervenes in social practices to curb carbon emissions and to explore the scope for further and deeper interventions on the local level. Using an analytical framework based on social practice theory we identify characteristic patterns of intervention for each community type. We find that low-carbon municipalities face difficulties in transforming carbon-intensive social practices. While offering some additional low-carbon choices, their ability to reduce carbon-intensive practices is very limited. Their focus on efficiency and individual choice shows little transformative potential. Intentional communities, by contrast, have more institutional and organizational options to intervene in the web of social practices. Finally, we explore to what extent low-carbon municipalities can learn from intentional communities and propose strategies of hybridization for policy innovation to combine the strengths of both models

Facilitating low-carbon living? A comparison of intervention measures in different community-based initiatives

The challenge of facilitating a shift towards sustainable housing, food and mobility has been taken up by diverse community-based initiatives ranging from ‘top-down’ approaches in low-carbon municipalities to ‘bottom-up’ approaches in intentional communities. This paper compares intervention measures of these two types, focusing on their potential of re-configuring daily housing, food and mobility practices. Taking up critics on dominant intervention framings of diffusing low-carbon technical innovations and changing individual behaviour, we draw on social practice theory for the empirical analysis of four case studies. Framing interventions in relation to re-configuring daily practices, the paper reveals differences and weaknesses of current low-carbon measures of community-based initiatives in Germany and Austria. Low-carbon municipalities mainly focus on introducing technologies and offering additional infrastructure and information to promote low-carbon practices. They avoid interfering into residents’ daily lives and do not restrict carbon-intensive practices. In contrast, intentional communities base their interventions on the collective creation of shared visions, decisions and rules and thus provide social and material structures, which foster everyday low-carbon practices and discourage carbon-intensive ones. The paper discusses the relevance of organisational and governance structures for implementing different types of low-carbon measures and points to opportunities for broadening current policy strategies

Investigating patterns of local climate governance: how low-carbon municipalities and intentional communities intervene into social practices

The local level has gained prominence in climate policy and governance in recent years as it is increasingly perceived as privileged arena for policy experimentation and social and institutional innovation. Yet, the success of local climate governance in industrialised countries has been limited so far. One reason may be that local communities focus too much on strategies of technology-oriented ecological modernisation (EM) and individual behaviour change and too little on strategies that target unsustainable social practices and their embeddedness in complex patterns of practices. In this paper we assess and compare the strategies of ‘low-carbon municipalities’ (top-down initiatives) and those of ‘intentional communities’ (bottom-up initiatives). We are interested to find out to what extent and in which ways each community type intervenes in social practices to curb carbon emissions and to explore the scope for further and deeper interventions on the local level. Employing an analytical framework based on social practice theory we identify characteristic patterns of intervention for each community type. We find that low-carbon municipalities face tenacious difficulties in transforming carbon-intensive social practices. While offering some additional low-carbon choices, their ability to reduce carbon-intensive practices is very limited. Their focus on efficiency and individual choice shows little transformative potential. Intentional communities, by contrast, have more institutional and organisational options to intervene into the web of social practices. Finally, we explore to what extent low-carbon municipalities can learn from intentional communities and propose strategies of hybridisation for policy innovation to combine the strengths of both models

Saving resources and the climate? A systematic review of the circular economy and its mitigation potential

To achieve the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement, transformative actions are needed. The circular economy (CE) is one concept that gained popularity in recent years, with its proclaimed selling point to combine economic development with benefits to businesses, society, and the environment. However, definitions of CE diverge, applications appear across vastly different settings, and overall there is a lack of understanding of how much CE strategies can contribute to climate change mitigation (mitigation). We systematically screened 3244 records in Web of Science and Scopus, restricted to papers in English. We then selected studies against pre-determined eligibility criteria that, had to (1) refer explicitly to CE or closely related concepts (e.g. performance economy, cradle-to-cradle, material or product efficiency); and (2) refer to a climate change mitigation potential. We identified 341 studies, summarized, and grouped into six sectors (industry, waste, energy, buildings, transport, and agriculture). These sectors are not completely mutually exclusive, but partially overlapping. Nonetheless, sectoral classifications relate to existing categorizations and map well with international assessments of climate change mitigations, such as those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Our review sets out to summarize the results of the scientific literature on the extent to which CE strategies can contribute to mitigation. Even though our query explicitly required a consideration of climate change, only 10% of all studies contributed insights on how the CE can support mitigation. We find that the highest saving potential is evidenced in the industry, energy, and transport sector; mid-range savings in the waste and building sector; and lowest gains are to be expected in agriculture. The majority of studies investigate incremental measures claiming but not demonstrating climate change mitigation. Most studies indicate potential but implementation remains weak. Assessments should move from attributional to consequential analysis to avoid misleading policy makers.EC/H2020/741950/EU/Understanding the Role of Material Stock Patterns for the Transformation to a Sustainable Society/MAT_STOCK

Evolutionary consequences of habitat loss for Pacific anadromous salmonids

Large portions of anadromous salmonid habitat in the western United States has been lost because of dams and other blockages. This loss has the potential to affect salmonid evolution through natural selection if the loss is biased, affecting certain types of habitat differentially, and if phenotypic traits correlated with those habitat types are heritable. Habitat loss can also affect salmonid evolution indirectly, by reducing genetic variation and changing its distribution within and among populations. In this paper, we compare the characteristics of lost habitats with currently accessible habitats and review the heritability of traits which show correlations with habitat/environmental gradients. We find that although there is some regional variation, inaccessible habitats tend to be higher in elevation, wetter and both warmer in the summer and colder in the winter than habitats currently available to anadromous salmonids. We present several case studies that demonstrate either a change in phenotypic or life history expression or an apparent reduction in genetic variation associated with habitat blockages. These results suggest that loss of habitat will alter evolutionary trajectories in salmonid populations and Evolutionarily Significant Units. Changes in both selective regime and standing genetic diversity might affect the ability of these taxa to respond to subsequent environmental perturbations. Both natural and anthropogenic and should be considered seriously in developing management and conservation strategies

Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton–proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV

Measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. The data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb[superscript −1]. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MadGraph + pythia and sherpa, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BlackHat + sherpa. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio