2019

SusTec's Christof Knoeri speaks at high-level innovation workshop in Paris that lays foundations for IEA’s new global guidebook on clean energy technologies.

A new article entitled “Innovative Designs of Building Energy Codes and their Implementation Challenges” has been accepted for publication by the “Journal of Cleaner Production”. The article is authored by Marius Schwarz, Christina Nakhle, and Christof Knoeri (all SusTec).

Wednesday, 11 December 2019, 17h15 – 18h30/  ETH Main building, HG D3.2

Ben joined SusTec for his master’s thesis in Environmental Systems and Policy in November 2019, in partnership with ewz.

A new article entitled "Why Matter Matters: How Technology Characteristics Shape the Strategic Framing of Technologies" has been accepted for publication by the journal "Research Policy". The article is authored by Joern Hoppmann (University of Oldenburg and SusTec), Laura Diaz Anadon (Cambridge University, UK) and Venkatesh Narayanamurti (Harvard University, USA)

SusTec is working with companies to scale-up corporate contributions to the SDGs.

The article “The role of inter-sectoral knowledge spillovers in technological innovations: The case of lithium-ion batteries” has been published in “Technological Forecasting and Social Change”

SusTec researchers organized a panel discussion on making an impact with sustainability research and in this post, they share the advice given during the session.

Giacomo joined SusTec in October 2019 for his master thesis in Management Technology and Economics.

An article entitled "The Double Impact of Institutions: Institutional Spillovers and Entrepreneurial Activity in the Solar Photovoltaic Industry," which is co-authored by SusTec's Joern Hoppmann and Ben Vermeer (previously SusTec, now Boston Consulting Group) has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Business Venturing.

To strengthen interdisciplinary work on sustainability topics, McGill (Montreal) has launched Sustainability Transitions as the fourth focal theme of their MSSI. At the symposium, Jochen Markard presented latest research and shared experiences with the ongoing energy transitions.

Together with representatives from a material producer and an engineering company, Christof Knoeri (SusTec) and Maja Wipraechtiger (ESD) elaborated at the CISBAT conference on how circular concrete and insulation materials currently are handled and where different material loops could be closed. 

He will do his research on the topic of Large-scale investors’ motivations and barriers for building energy retrofitting.

Evan and Alejandro, along with PhDs and Post-Docs from 7 other groups at ETH Zurich and the Energy Science Center, launch a new platform for energy discussions.

In her thesis she will assess the possibility of extending and using current state-of-the-art models used for optimal MES designs to identify the optimal types and levels of policy support for specific MES technologies.

She will work together with Christof, Paula and Georgios on the topic of stationary battery storage for grid applications.

Paula Thimet joined Prof. Volker Hoffmann’s Group for Sustainability and Technology in September 2019 as a PhD candidate on modelling of energy-systems.

He will do his research on the interplay between building retrofits and the profitability of district heating networks.

Join us for the debate on Wednesday, October 16^th

She investigates how low-carbon technologies, such as electric vehicles, heat pumps, storage, and distributed generation, can be incorporated in future distribution networks, using quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Anna joined Prof. Volker Hoffmann’s Group for Sustainability and Technology in September 2019 as a PhD candidate on Circular Economy

The authors propose a holistic definition and measurement of a sustainable circular economy, linking material circularity with environmental and economic sustainability. The inherent trade-offs and rebounds are discussed and illustrated at the example of the recycling of PET and glass bottles in Switzerland.

Dianne Hondeborg joined SusTec for writing her Master Thesis on “Going climate positive – what would it take for a large corporate?”

Put solar photovoltaics (PV) on the roof of your house and it’s win-win? News article in physicsworld summarizes recent SusTec publication and interview with author.

Remo joined SusTec for his master’s thesis in Environmental Systems and Policy in September 2019

Petrissa - Executive Director of sus.lab - shared her story of bridging SusTec research and industry on today's ETH front page

Studies on Power-to-Hydrogen seasonal energy storage and building energy regulations in Europe

The interrelation matrix of challenges and solution technologies developed in the SusTec study provides important insights for business and policy makers.

Using actual production data from eight wind and photovoltaics plants across Germany from 2015 until 2017 and a storage unit, SusTec authors build a quantitative model to evaluate the impact of these strategies on investors’ risk and return.

Read more about the EGOS Sub-theme.

New article - inspired by SusTec's students - published in Organization & Environment!

Stefan Gahrens joined Prof. Volker Hoffmann’s Group for Sustainability and Technology in July 2019 within the framework of IDEA League and the German National Academic Foundation.

An interdisciplinary group of 19 researchers from 11 different nations spent 5 days in the Swiss Alps for the 12th annual ETH Academy on Sustainability and Technology, hosted by SusTec.

Briefing for Canadian government officials on Sustainability Transitions

Studies on Agent based modeling for energy technology policies, Decline of nuclear, Clean energy in the Balkans, Coal phase-out and Acceleration challenges

The project focuses on the intersection between digital technologies and the building sector.

Angela Small, a PhD student at the University of Leeds, is visiting SusTec for two months between May and June 2019.

Two reasons to celebrate: With a total time of 10h05min, the SusTec team successfully covered the SOLA running course of 114km finishing 472^th overall. This success and the Group’s 15^th anniversary were celebrated afterwards.  

Georgios Mavromatidis joins the Group for Sustainability and Technology (SusTec) in May 2019 as a Senior Researcher.

Swiss industry journal Haustech highlights project on efficient policies for solar photovoltaics promotion.

Franz started his Master Thesis on an indicator framework for Circular Economy transitions.

Joël joined SusTec for his master’s thesis in Energy Science and Technology (M.Sc.) in February 2019, in partnership with Alpiq Digital Energy Solutions.

The 4th NEST conference attracted around 80 emerging scholars in sustainability transition studies.

Marianne receives the full doctoral scholarship for her ongoing PhD on “Organizational Strategies for the Circular Economy”. 

Nicholas joined SusTec for his master's thesis in Management, Technology, and Economics (M.Sc.).

Invitation to the talk on Wednesday, 10th April 2019, 12 pm to 1 pm

Mustafa joined Prof. Volker Hoffmann's Group for Sustainability and Technology for his Master thesis.

Together with Bart Cambré (Antwerp University) and Peer Fiss (University of Southern California) Johannes from SusTec is organizing a sub-theme on theories and methods for sustainability at the EGOS 2020 in Hamburg.

Going climate positive - What would it take for a large corporate?

An article by SusTec member Amanda Williams which calls for a systemic perspective of organizational resilience and exams managerial approaches to palm oil production was recently published in “Business & Society”.  

Laura started her Master’s thesis on Circular Economy Policies.

Developing a sustainability masterplan for the future sustainability pioneer in the Salt industry is a great challenge. Schweizer Salinen decided to collaborate with sus.lab at SusTec to tackle this challenge.

SusTec invites you to a research seminar with Prof. Dr. Daniel Hall.

Lukas joined SusTec for his master’s thesis in Management, Technology and Economics (M.Sc.)

TACLE team participated in the 2nd Program Conference of NRP 73 in Bern.

Researchers from SusTec and UC Berkeley reveal disparities in national readiness levels for renewable energy integration based on new metrics.

An article by SusTec members Jan Ossenbrink, Joern Hoppmann, and Volker Hoffmann, which studies the change in the largest four electric utility companies during the energy transition, was recently accepted for publication in "Organization Science".

Researchers from the Sustainability Transitions Research Network have published an updated research agenda in the journal Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions.

SusTec’s new paper – published in the journal ‘Environmental Research Letters’ – evaluates how smart policies and battery storage can help to integrate high shares of solar photovoltaics.

Our project proposal “Strategizing Contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals” was accepted by the MTEC Foundation.

Thursday, 7 February 2019: How firm-level business models induce change in an industry logic: A case study of the Dutch electricity industry.

SusTec researchers have reviewed and compared decentralized energy systems both in literature and practice.

SusTec researcher Jochen Markard was elected as the new chairman of the STRN network.