Increasing resilience via the use of personal data: Lessons from COVID-19 dashboards on data governance for the public good

Contemporary data tools such as online dashboards have been instrumental in monitoring the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. These real-time interactive platforms allow citizens to understand the local, regional, and global spread of COVID-19 in a consolidated and intuitive manner. Despite this, little research has been conducted on how citizens respond to the data on the dashboards in terms of the pandemic and data governance issues such as privacy. In this paper, we seek to answer the research question: how can governments use data tools, such as dashboards, to balance the trade-offs between safeguarding public health and protecting data privacy during a public health crisis? This study used surveys and semi-structured interviews to understand the perspectives of the developers and users of COVID-19 dashboards in Hong Kong. A typology was also developed to assess how Hong Kong’s dashboards navigated trade-offs between data disclosure and privacy at a time of crisis compared to dashboards in other jurisdictions. Results reveal that two key factors were present in the design and improvement of COVID-19 dashboards in Hong Kong: informed actions based on open COVID-19 case data, and significant public trust built on data transparency. Finally, this study argues that norms surrounding reporting on COVID-19 cases, as well as cases for future pandemics, should be co-constructed among citizens and governments so that policies founded on such norms can be acknowledged as salient, credible, and legitimate

Techno-economic assessment of the residential photovoltaic systems integrated with electric vehicles: A case study of Japanese households towards 2030

Finding economical and sustainable pathways for the deployment of renewables is critical for the success of decarbonizing energy systems. Because of the variable nature of renewable energy, however, it becomes increasingly costly when the renewable penetration becomes higher. The recent rise of electric vehicles (EVs) provides us with an opportunity to increase self-consumption of solar photovoltaic (PV) at households with substantially less additional costs. In this paper, we conducted an economic assessment of residential PV systems integrated with EVs (V2H: Vehicle to Home) at Japanese households towards 2030, incorporating the cost projections of these technologies in the future. We found that a system that consists of PV and an EV is already cost-competitive with the use of grid electricity and a gasoline vehicle in 2018. By 2030, the combination of PV + EV would substantially improve the energy economics at households in Japan, reducing annual energy costs (electricity and gasoline) by as much as 68 % in 2030 and decarbonizing the household energy system by 92%. We also found that the PV + EV system is much more economical than a PV-only or PV + battery systems, due to the fact that EV’s large battery can be utilized with minimum additional costs. To facilitate the deployment of the combination of PV + EV, policy makers should reinforce policies to enhance EV, PV, V2H penetration, which will ultimately allow more renewables to be deployed in a cost-effective way

Bridging practices, institutions, and landscapes through a scale-based approach for research and practice: A case study of a business association in South India

There is a need for enterprises to incorporate information on the environment into decision making and to take action on ecological restoration. Within academia, a comprehensive understanding of the impacts on how business can serve sustainability transformation is still lacking as diverging holistic approaches and reductive approaches cloud academic thinking. The authors take a science-policy interface perspective to cover the role of cognitive proximity, matching and coordination of scientific knowledge from diverse stakeholders for effective policy making and implementation. We show through a literature review that temporal and spatial scales, soil and land degradation, institutions and ecosystem, and the role of human behavior and narrative are not adequately emphasized in sustainability research. A scale-based picture, focusing on landscapes, institutions and practices is proposed which can be used to align diverse fields by acting as “bridge” for improved science policy interface and decision making, facilitated through cognitive proximity, matching, and coordination. A case study on a business association from South India is used to demonstrate the scales based approach in practice. A scale-based approach can play a key role in connecting human behaviour, a social science thematic topic, with ecosystems, a natural science thematic topic

Review of blockchain-based distributed energy: Implications for institutional development

The future of energy is complex, with fluctuating renewable resources in increasingly distributed systems. It is suggested that blockchain technology is a timely innovation with potential to facilitate this future. Peer-to-peer (P2P) microgrids can support renewable energy as well as economically empower consumers and prosumers. However, the rapid development of blockchain and prospects for P2P energy networks is coupled with several grey areas in the institutional landscape. The purpose of this paper is to holistically explore potential challenges of blockchain-based P2P microgrids, and propose practical implications for institutional development as well as academia. An analytical framework for P2P microgrids is developed based on literature review as well as expert interviews. The framework incorporates 1) Technological, 2) Economic, 3) Social, 4) Environmental and 5) Institutional dimensions. Directions for future work in practical and academic contexts are identified. It is suggested that bridging the gap from technological to institutional readiness would require the incorporation of all dimensions as well as their inter-relatedness. Gradual institutional change leveraging community-building and regulatory sandbox approaches are proposed as potential pathways in incorporating this multi-dimensionality, reducing cross-sectoral silos, and facilitating interoperability between current and future systems. By offering insight through holistic conceptualization, this paper aims to contribute to expanding research in building the pillars of a more substantiated institutional arch for blockchain in the energy sector

The resilience of embodied energy networks: a critical dimension for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access, renewables and efficiency have been identified as targets in the field of energy under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Resilience is also a critical dimension that needs to be considered in moving towards sustainable energy. Diversification of direct energy suppliers has been the conventional recourse for achieving energy security. In consideration of the increasingly globalized nature of trade, energy and supply chain networks, however, this approach would be insufficient for addressing the resilience of energy supplies to potential environmental, economic and social shocks and disruptions. In this paper we investigate countries' energy resilience by quantifying diversity in suppliers of both direct and embodied energy and examine how selections of indirect energy supplies can affect the resilience of the entire embodied-energy trade network. We find that the geographical diversity of embodied energy imports is much greater than that of direct energy imports, and there are considerable variations across countries in the diversification of embodied energy imports. This suggests a possible strategy for countries that depend heavily on a few neighbors for their direct energy imports to diversify their supply chain globally in order to benefit from larger diversity of embodied energy supplies, thereby strengthening the energy resilience of their economies

Introducing Flexibility to Complex, Resilient Socio-Ecological Systems: A Comparative Analysis of Economics, Flexible Manufacturing Systems, Evolutionary Biology, and Supply Chain Management

In this paper, a framework incorporating flexibility as a characteristic is proposed for designing complex, resilient socio-ecological systems. In an interconnected complex system, flexibility allows prompt deployment of resources where they are needed and is crucial for both innovation and robustness. A comparative analysis of flexible manufacturing systems, economics, evolutionary biology, and supply chain management is conducted to identify the most important characteristics of flexibility. Evolutionary biology emphasises overlapping functions and multi-functionality, which allow a system with structurally different elements to perform the same function, enhancing resilience. In economics, marginal cost and marginal expected profit are factors that are considered to be important in incorporating flexibility while making changes to the system. In flexible manufacturing systems, the size of choice sets is important in creating flexibility, as initial actions preserve more options for future actions that will enhance resilience. Given the dynamic nature of flexibility, identifying the characteristics that can lead to flexibility will introduce a crucial dimension to designing resilient and sustainable socio-ecological systems with a long-term perspective in mind

Innovative policy practices to advance building energy efficiency and retrofitting: Approaches, impacts and challenges in ten C40 cities

This study examines ten programmes to advance energy efficiency and retrofitting of existing, private sector buildings in C40 cities in Asia-Pacific and USA. We set out to identify differing policy approaches, together with potential impacts and implementation challenges for each. Findings unearthed six policy models – both mandatory and voluntary – with unique impacts and challenges. We demonstrate that innovation occurs without new policy inventions and largely by necessity, as new features are added and generic models are adapted to local circumstances. Our sample demonstrated experimentation with benchmarking in the USA, comprehensive regulation in Asia, and voluntary approaches in Australia. Overall, environmental impacts are particularly slow to emerge and plagued with attribution challenges. We found limited evidence of benchmarking programme effectiveness in reducing energy consumption in the short-term, but some indication of mid-term outcomes. Driven by unique local circumstances, the cap-and-trade model stood out by fostering large, sustained and attributable GHG emission reductions and retrofitting. Market and social impacts are highly significant across all programmes, highlighting needs to consider non-environmental impacts in policy evaluation. We emphasise the complementary potential of voluntary and regulatory approaches to advancing energy efficiency and climate resilience. We also underscore the potential for reporting or benchmarking programmes to later transition to models mandating performance improvements, such as cap-and-trade

Implementing sustainability co-creation between universities and society: A typology-based understanding

Universities are under mounting pressure to partner with societal stakeholders and organizations to collaboratively create and implement sustainability-advancing knowledge, tools, and societal transformations. Simultaneously, an increasing number of societal organizations are reaching out to partner with universities to achieve organizational objectives and increase the effectiveness of strategies to further societal sustainability. Using a conceptual framework of "sustainability co-creation", this study empirically examines the historical and ongoing experiences of five organizations in Japan that actively partner with universities to enhance sustainability activities and strategies to transform society. We examine motivations for partnering with universities, innovative models of practice, factors hampering the co-creative potential of the university, and desired changes to overcome these. Our empirical study leads to the proposal of a typology that might assist in categorizing and understanding key attributes of differing types of sustainability co-creation. We build our typology from two perspectives: First, in terms of the primary objective of the co-creation (ranging from knowledge production to the transformation of society), and second, in terms of the approach taken (ranging from either socially or technologically-centered). We then reflect on the organizations' experiences to offer several strategies that could increase the effectiveness of the university when partnering with stakeholders in sustainability co-creation. We also highlight several factors effecting the university's capacity to move beyond knowledge production towards implementation measures to transform society with external stakeholders