2021

The SusTec team of Evan Petkov, Christof Knoeri, and Professor Volker Hoffmann tackled the critical issue of existing building renovations (more technically – energy retrofits) from the perspectives of some of the largest real estate owners in Europe, industry players, and policymakers.

Anna Guenat joined SusTec in December 2021 to work at sus.lab primarily on circular economy projects, focusing specifically on the reduction of packaging impact in retail.

Achieving ambitious climate goals requires the development of new technologies at rapid pace.

Gian Luca joined SusTec in November 2021 to write his master thesis with Paula Thimet and Dr. Georgios Mavromatidis where a market analysis for battery storage systems in decarbonized electricity systems is performed.  

The article titled "The true cost of solving the plastic waste challenge in developing countries: The case of Ghana" was authored by Catharina R. Bening and Sebastian Kahlert and together with Edward Asiedu from University of Ghana Business School.

Martí’s thesis will focus on methods to uncover near-optimal solutions from energy system optimization models and will be supervised by Georgios Mavromatidis.

Phasing out coal is key for a swift reduction of CO2 emissions. In this paper, we study the public debate on the future of coal with discourse network analysis.

Gudrun’s thesis will focus on optimizing PET recycling and will be supervised by Catharina Bening and Georgios Mavromatidis.

Together with a number of partners, sus.lab has launched the Carbon Removal ClimAccelerator – an accelerator program solely dedicated to supporting European teams working on carbon removal!  

Katharina will be writing her master thesis with Annegret Stephan and Johannes Meuer on cross-sectoral collaboration for green hydrogen.  

SusTec is happy to welcome Emily Elsner who will support us in the re-design of the Corporate Sustainability course from 1 July 2021 onwards.

How could bidirectional charging – enabling power flows from electric vehicles to, e.g., grids and buildings – support the electricity system? A new scientific article by Christine Gschwendtner, Simon Sinsel, and Annegret Stephan provides an overview of V2X implementations as well as evaluations of technical, social, and regulatory challenges.  

Alicia Lerbinger started to work on her thesis in April 2021 under the PACE REFITS project where she will investigate how to find the best heating solution for existing districts based on their different characteristics and regulatory conditions.

Together with Katrin Heuchler and Sara Soderstrom (University of Michigan), Amanda Williams and Johannes Meuer will host a Professional Development Workshop at the Academy of Management Meeting 2021 that aims at establishing rigorous methods for engaging closely with managers in management research.  

Together with representatives form policy and industry, SusTec senior researcher Dr. Christof Knoeri presents an outlook on decentralised energy systems in the future at the energy & environment forum of usic - the Swiss Association of Consulting Engineers.  

SusTec has been awarded an Innovedum grant to apply innovative didactical concepts to its core lecture on Corporate Sustainability.

Anita started to work on her thesis in March 2021 where she will be comparing single-use packaging with multi-use packaging in collaboration with a Swiss retailer.  

Sophie joined Sustec in February 2021 to conduct her thesis on the transition of the furniture industry from a linear to a circular economy.  

Johannes started working on his master thesis in March 2021, in which he will be researching the cost reduction drivers of renewable hydrogen production.

New article by Johannes Meuer, Francesco Lamaro and Nadège Vetterli on «Embedding energy optimization in organizations: A case study of a Swiss decentralized renewable energy system” accepted for publication in Energy & Buildings.  

Gabriella joins Sustec in February 2021 to conduct her thesis on the introduction of sustainable products to global markets in collaboration with Dow Chemical.

Giacomo Melegati received this year’s ETH Medal 2020 for his Master thesis “Cyber-Physical Platforms: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Case Study” that he wrote together with Stefano Coiro, Global Head of Customer Operations for e-City at Enel X, and Johannes Meuer (SusTec).

Together with Prof. Maricela Arellano (now at HEC Montréal) and Prof. Netland (ETH, Production and Operations Management), Johannes Meuer publishes a new paper “Commitment follows beliefs: A configurational perspective on operations managers' commitment to practice adoption” in one of the field’s flagship journals.

In their research article “How has external knowledge contributed to lithium-ion batteries for the energy transition?”, Annegret Stephan (SusTec), Laura Diaz Anadon (C-EENRG, University of Cambridge) and Volker Hoffmann (SusTec) analyze how external knowledge is integrated into the innovation process: the mechanisms and enablers of knowledge spillovers.