Initiation and evolution of systemic innovations: Patterns and interactions in the emergence of additive manufacturing technologies

Technological innovations are becoming increasingly systemic in the complex and interconnected world. The initiation and evolution of systemic innovations take time and include numerous challenges, and the mechanisms through which systemic innovations emerge in the interaction between different technologies represent a research gap. This...

Facades-as-a-Service: Systemic managerial, financial, and governance innovation to enable a circular economy for buildings. Lessons learnt from a full-scale pilot project in the Netherlands

Introduction: The challenge of the energy transition in the built environment has, in recent years, been exacerbated by rising awareness of the material resource limitations we face on the path towards sustainable development. In this context the concepts of Circular Economy (CE) and Product-Service Systems (PSS) have emerged as potentially...

Festivals as Living Labs for System Innovation: Experiences from the interdisciplinary innovation programme DORP

The use of Living Labs is a promising approach to develop and test sustainable system innovations. A Living Lab approach that is yet to be discussed in literature, is that of a Festival Living Lab (FLL). Festivals can be considered as temporary mini societies with systemic sustainability challenges regarding water, energy, housing, logistics,...

Future options for sewage and drainage systems three scenarios for transitions and continuity

The challenge of sustainable development requires cities to aim for drastic improvements in the systems that support its vital functions. Innovating these systems can be extremely hard, and might take lots of time. A transparent and democratic strategy is important to guarantee support for change. Such a process should aim at developing...

Why novel sanitary systems are hardly introduced?

Innovations are required in urban infrastructures due to the pressing needs for mitigating climate change and prevent resource depletion. In order to address the slow pace of innovation in urban systems, this paper analyses factors involved in attempts to introduce novel sanitary systems. Today new requirements are important: sanitary systems...

Urban symbiosis: A new paradigm in the shift towards post-carbon cities

The metabolic flows of cities have to be reduced. Thus far, efforts have been mainly directed to providing the city with renewable resources, diminish resource consumption, and/or reuse the wastes and emissions. The dense fabric of urban infrastructures does not only provide a high level of services. By the proximity of infrastructures symbiosis...

Innovation capabilities and challenges for energy smartdevelopment in medium sized European cities

Transition towards becoming Energy smart city integrating different areas of energy production, distribution and use in a community requires a spectrum of capabilities. The paper reports on findings from the EU planning project PLEEC, involving six medium sized European cities. The purpose of the paper is to describe innovation capabilities and...

Exploring the operation of a Car Park Power Plant: Formalising the operation of a system innovation with the Actor-Option Framework

The Car Park Power Plant (CPPP) concept is in its essence a parking garage in which parked fuel cell vehicles are used for the generation of electricity. By including on-site hydrogen production methods, the CPPPs could purchase electricity when it is cheap, store it, and convert it back to electricity when the electricity price is high. System...

The introduction of LNG as marine fuel in the Dutch shipping industry: A strategic roadmap for Royal Haskoning

System innovation for sustainable built environments: The case of light emitting diodes

The United Kingdom (UK) government policy is increasingly directed at transforming the built environment to an environmentally sustainable one. The government, for example, has set a target for a reduction in carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. A large number of new policies and regulations are being introduced to minimise...

New to Improve: The Mutual Influence between New Products and Societal Change Processes

The focus of design is changing rapidly, as new products are increasingly connected to each other and to the rest of the world. This means that the focus of the designer is less and less on the creation of tangible artifacts, and increasingly on the development of complex interconnected systems. These systems should preferably not only be “new...

Integrating sustainability and innovation through a master’s program in product-service systems

The results of unsustainable product innovation are evident worldwide. Products and their usage contribute to global sustainability problems. Companies building competence in innovation for sustainability will therefore gain competitive advantages in the evolving sustainability-driven market at the same time as sustainability is a driving force...

Water productivity in rainfed agriculture; redrawing the rainbow of water to achieve food security in rainfed smallholder systems

The challenge of water scarcity as a result of insufficient seasonal rainfall and dry spell occurrences during cropping seasons is compounded by inefficient agricultural practices by smallholder farmers where insignificant soil and water conservation efforts are applied. The hypothesis of this research is that many of the past research efforts...

"What-if": From path dependency to path creation in a coatings chain: a methodology for strategies towards sustainable innovation