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For the pilot crop tomato, business concepts of low emission greenhouses for the midterm (10 year) have been designed. The study is carried out in cooperation with innovators in the horticultural sector, suppliers and extension services. The business concepts are evaluated for different indicators in the field of planet and compared to the current situation. The focus is on the reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emission for the cultivation with and without supplementary lighting. The energy concepts differ in the way the heat and power are produced or supplied on business level. The results show that the energy concepts without supplementary lighting have a lower environmental impact and have a better energy efficiency than the energy concepts with lighting. The energy concepts without supplementary lighting show that simultaneous production of heat and power on business level and the delivery of electricity to the public grid is most favorable looking at the energy use and CO2 emission on a national level. Second best is the conditioned greenhouse. In this energy concept solar energy is collected in summertime, stored and re-used in wintertime. Conditioned greenhouses also have good perspectives in reducing the use and emission of pesticides.

Abstract The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) challenge the global community to build a world where no one is left behind. Recognizing that research plays a fundamental part in supporting these goals, attempts have been made to classify research publications according to their relevance in supporting each of the UN’s SDGs. In this paper, we outline the methodology that we followed when mapping research articles to SDGs and which is adopted by Times Higher Education in its Social Impact rankings. We compare our solution with other existing queries and models mapping research papers to SDGs. We also discuss various aspects in which the methodology can be improved and generalized to other types of content apart from research articles. The results presented in this paper are the outcome of the SDG Research Mapping Initiative, which was established as a partnership between the University of Southern Denmark, the Aurora European Universities Alliance (represented by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), the University of Auckland, and Elsevier to bring together broad expertise and share best practices on identifying research contributions to UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

In this article we briefly summarize how converging technologies challenge elements of the existing symbolic order, as shown in the contributions to this special issue. We then identify the vision of 'life as a do it yourself kit' as a common denominator in the various forms of convergence and proceed to show how this vision provokes unrest and debate about existing moral frameworks and taboos. We conclude that, just as the problems of the industrial revolution sparked off the now broadly established ideal of sustainability the converging technologies should be governed by the ideal of 'human sustainability'. The essence of this ideal is formed by the ongoing discussion about the extent to which we may, or should want to, 'make' our environment and ourselves, and when it is better to simply accept what is given and what happens to us.

Theft and vandalism impede the sustainability of renewable energy (RE) development projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, it is essential to explore where these crimes originate from, how they propagate and how they can be counteracted. In our study, we analyze the impact of these disturbances on implemented projects. We utilize a consumer clinic approach to generate data that represents the situation. We define our instigators practically (Government Inequality, Crime to Survive, Sabotage) and demarcate the actions of the offenders into 4 types: (1) vandalization of small RE projects (SPv); (2) theft of RE infrastructures from small RE projects (SPt); (3) vandalization of large RE projects (LPv); and (4) theft of RE infrastructures from large RE projects (LPt). To counteract these actions we define three types of security interference: human, societal and technical. We model the career of an RE criminal as a multi-stage Markov model. In every stage the offender can commit any of the offences SPv, SPt, LPv, LPt, or go to rest. Transition probabilities are our means to reflect offender maturity. Crucial to our model is that they are affected by the level of interference installed at the project site. Calibrated on a dialogue with 144 respondents, our Markov model directs us to adequate interferences per project. Specifically, for large projects technical and human security are the most effective, whereas, for small projects we recommend societal security. The paper introduces a mathematical model of the career of a RE-offender including the influence of security interference and calibrates the parameters through an ethnographic approach.

The international dialogue on responsible governance of nanotechnologies engages a wide range of actors with conflicting as well as common interests. It is also characterised by a lack of evidence-based data on uncertain risks of in particular engineered nanomaterials. The present paper aims at deepening understanding of the collective decision making context at international level using the grounded theory approach as proposed by Glaser and Strauss in "The Discovery of Grounded Theory" (1967). This starts by discussing relevant concepts from different fields including sociological and political studies of international relations as well as political philosophy and ethics. This analysis of current trends in international law making is taken as starting point for exploring the role that a software decision support tool could play in multi-stakeholder global governance of nanotechnologies. These theoretical ideas are then compared with the current design of the SUN Decision Support System (SUNDS) under development in the European project on Sustainable Nanotechnologies (SUN, www.sun-fp7.eu). Through constant comparison, the ideas are also compared with requirements of different stakeholders as expressed during a user workshop. This allows for highlighting discussion points for further consideration.

PurposeThis paper proposes a new perspective on the enormous and unresolved challenge to existing practices of publication and documentation posed by the outputs of digital research projects in the humanities, where much good work is being lost due to resource or technical challenges.Design/methodology/approachThe paper documents and analyses both the existing literature on promoting sustainability for the outputs of digital humanities projects and the innovative approach of a single large-scale project.FindingsThe findings of the research presented show that sustainability planning for large-scale research projects needs to consider data and technology but also community, communications and process knowledge simultaneously. In addition, it should focus not only on a project as a collection of tangible and intangible assets, but also on the potential user base for these assets and what these users consider valuable about them.Research limitations/implicationsThe conclusions of the paper have been formulated in the context of one specific project. As such, it may amplify the specificities of this project in its results.Practical implicationsAn approach to project sustainability following the recommendations outlined in this paper would include a number of uncommon features, such as a longer development horizon, wider perspective on project results, and an audit of tacit and explicit knowledge.Social ImplicationsThese results can ultimately preserve public investment in projects.Originality/valueThis paper supplements more reductive models for project sustainability with a more holistic approach that others may learn from in mapping and sustaining user value for their projects for the medium to long terms.