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  Who's Happier – The Proactive Lohas or the Spontaneous Hedonist? ...

  April 9, 2013  

  The perception that pro-environmental behaviour has negative effects on well-being has made it difficult to make big and concrete steps towards [sustainability] transition. But is this perception accurate? Ask three researchers from the Dutch University of Groningen. In a review published in the last MDPI journal of sustainability, Leonie Venhoeven, Jan Bolderdijk and Linda Steg explored whether environmentally friendly behavior poses a threat to your quality of life, as many who struggle with being eco-friendly suppose. De-growth advocates, on the contrary, have argued the opposite for qui...

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  Europe’s 10 Most Verbiage-Free Master Programs in Sustainability ...

  September 25, 2012    3 Comments

  Almost all interdisciplinary study programs introduced to the teaching universe in the past 5 years contain some form of “sustainability” in the program title – be it from the political, environmental or economic sciences or even engineering. Isn’t that a very positive trend? Well, at first sight, yes. But what about the critics who say all programs related to sustainable development are wishy-washy, since too many different fields are touched upon and not even one subject gets detailed treatment? In this article, I try to prove the opposite by mentioning ten more specialized, but still int...

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  Better, Different, Less – Green Economy Revisited

  September 17, 2012    2 Comments

  “Post Growth Economy or Resource Efficiency Revolution – How Should We Face the Limits of Our Planet?” This question I asked in a blog post half a year ago. On the green growth vs. post-growth front, an interesting publication caught my attention recently. Barbara Unmüßig and Thomas Fatheuer from the “Heinrich Böll Stiftung”, a foundation associated with Germany's Green Party, and Wolfgang Sachs, member of the club of Rome and former Wuppertal Institut researcher, published a “Critique of the Green Economy” in April with a translation to English that followed in June. In it, they discussed the...

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  Green Ocean Hunters? The Environmental Effects of Fishing and Aqu ...

  September 11, 2012    1 Comment

  Last week, in part one of this article, we ended with the tragedy of the commons and the question of whether overfishing is a logical consequence of human nature. Luckily, not all things are as bad as they seem. Let's get back to our effort to increase comprehension and scroll to page 18 of Frank Asche's report (Green Growth in Fisheries and Aquaculture Production and Trade). He seems quite confident there. [T]here is no doubt that aquaculture can be carried out in a sustainable manner, independent of the level of intensity. Therefore, the real issue with aquaculture and sustainability is whe...

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  Green Ocean Hunters? The Environmental Effects of Fishing and Aqu ...

  September 5, 2012    1 Comment

  Shrimp farms destroy sensitive mangrove forest ecosystems, salmon escape from designated aquaculture spots and spread parasites, fish trawlers leave nothing but empty seas behind and even organic fish farming could be unsustainable due to dependence on fish meal from wild catch. When it comes to seafood, the message transmitted across mainstream media channels is devastating: there is simply nothing left we can eat responsibly, be it from the wild or aquaculture. Does that mean we all have to go vegetarian? Well, in many cases, the good news is that fish performs better than meat, when it come...

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  Carbon Neutral Online Shopping – How Green are Mail Order Compani ...

  August 29, 2012    7 Comments

  In the last 150 years, three major trends have changed the way humanity consumes. First, industrialization shifted production from self-sufficiency to consumerism. Second, ongoing economic development allowed local economies to expand across entire countries, which was followed by globalization and worldwide markets. Globalization started with colonial powers trading goods between continents and has not yet achieved its peak, even if it has been more than 30 years now since China opened its markets. The third important development marking a substantial shift in the way we consume is telephone ...

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  LCA, CF, MFCA? What to Expect From Umberto User Workshop Hamburg, ...

  August 20, 2012  

  Sustainability and efficiency: a couple of terms that couldn't be more misused and greenwashed. A pernicious conspiracy of PR and CSR departments around the globe has ridden these words down to mere meaninglessness. This is the setting in which a hero emerges from the ashes, a bright star who leaves the grey smog of empty words behind and does some straight talking. The makers and users of umberto, one of the most underestimated software tools in the professional sustainability universe, come together for a user workshop a month from now. In a concentrated time frame of two days (Sept 17+18, 2...

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  To Recycle or Not to Recycle – PVC Cable Waste is the Question

  July 9, 2012    3 Comments

  Recycling – it’s the magic word when the ill-informed think “environmental friendliness”. “Recyclable” – the number one green term that doesn’t mean a thing. Of course, as long as you put enough energy into a process, you can recycle virtually anything. The issue, the uncomfortable drawback that sits behind the pleasant sheen, the little itch you feel when you start thinking things through, is the inevitable truth of energy input. Yes, producing stuff requires energy. And yes, recycling, too, really does require energy! Material savings are easy to outline, but the key to a true environmental ...

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  Program Highlights at ACHEMA 2012: What Not to Miss at the Green ...

  June 17, 2012  

  Green chemistry is a relatively young science in its own respect. Interest in this subject, however, is growing rapidly and, although no concerted agreement has been reached as yet about the exact content and limits of this interdisciplinary field, there appears to be increasing interest in umpteen environmental topics, which are based on chemistry embodied in this subject. To the pleasant surprise of all, this increased understanding of the principles that are the backbone of green chemistry has spurred many outstanding efforts to implement chemical processes and innovative technologies that ...

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  The 8 Most Specific LinkedIn Groups for Industrial Ecology

  June 5, 2012  

  The social media marketing hype seems to be declining, whereas a seemingly infinite flood of mobile internet devices, smartphones and tablets conquer conference audiences and public places. What's left is a rising proportion of users who, rather than just share countless self portraits on facebook, turn the mobile technology to good account. If you form a part of the latter, or want to do so, and also work in an industry-related sustainability field, find the most relevant LinkedIn groups in this article. I bet my (old) netbook you'll find at least one useful group you haven't heard of! I am n...

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  The Five Most Important Changes for Global Sustainability: Living ...

  May 21, 2012    1 Comment

  We live above our limits, the planet does not provide sufficient resources for our consumerist lifestyle, and things get worse. The rich exploit the poor, ecosystems are destroyed, and nothing happens to stop this. We've heard it before, and we will hear it again: our lifestyle is far from being sustainable, we consume more than the planet has to offer. The biennial Living Planet Report, published by WWF, Zoological Society of London, Global Footprint Network and European Space Agency once more tells a truth that we have become more and more familiar with. But is there nothing we can do about ...

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  "Everybody Should do Their Share" - The Long Road to Sustainabili ...

  March 17, 2012    1 Comment

  knowtheflow: Prof. Dr. Inci Gökmen, you offer a course named "Sustainable Living and Green Chemistry" at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Prof. Dr. Inci Gökmen: Yes, I just started, this semester. Does it provoke a positive response? Yes, I think so. First, I started with a discussion on the "limits to growth". I guess everybody knows that there are limits in this world. We watched the movie "The Story of Stuff" with my students in class and I tried to get some feedback from them. The students said "yeah, the movie is presenting all the problems, but it is not proposing a...

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  Post Growth Economy or Resource Efficiency Revolution – How Shoul ...

  March 11, 2012    2 Comments

  Economic growth is a means of producing wealth. No doubt about that. However, there are two central problems linked to this logic. First, the term "wealth" loses its meaning, when you exclusively apply it to financial abundance. Wealth, considered from a holistic viewpoint, does not only include the presence of money, but also other vital elements that help guarantee a certain quality of life, e.g., safety, health, freedom, environmental quality and successful social relations - to name the most important ones. Second, a growing GDP says nothing about wealth distribution. The lower the dispari...

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  Why the Carbon Tax Makes Sense and How to Gain a Competitive Edge ...

  January 21, 2012    3 Comments

  Instead of hoping that your lobbyist negotiates another carbon tax exemption for your industry, you could be preparing your business for the low-carbon era. A decisive competitive edge can be expected for those businesses that begin managing and thus professionally reducing their carbon emissions now, rather than maintaining outdated oil age thinking - read how to do this here. Furthermore, get an introduction to the carbon tax, how high we can expect it to go, and why you should invest in green technology. In order to reward companies that employ low carbon technology, the carbon tax is in...