The pursuit of sustainability is at the forefront of international conversation in an era marked by urgent environmental challenges. This research aims to shed a light on tools, indicators, and methodologies used to assess sustainability, paving the way for informed decisions, actionable insights, and a brighter tomorrow.

The Paris Climate Accords urges the importance for sustainability and the reduction of environmental impact. At the same time, the demand for animal protein is growing due to an increase in world population and changing diets, resulting in growing challenges regarding the environmental impact of the agricultural and livestock sector. Firms aim to provide technological solutions that contribute to a sustainable way of farming. One of the technological solutions that lack scientific research is the livestock feeding robot. This knowledge gap offers the opportunity to investigate measuring the sustainable performance of livestock feeding robots. Additionally, scientific literature describes Life Cycle Assessment as a common and fitting methodology to measure the environmental impact of products. Furthermore, firms want to become more sustainable for competitive advantage and to be able to meet future regulations. Measuring sustainability is essential in the transition towards sustainability because the measurement can provide insights for decisions about strategic planning, product design, and supply chain design. Therefore, this research examines how the Life Cycle Assessment methodology measures the environmental impact of a livestock feeding robot life cycle by executing a case study.

A literature review was conducted to gain more detailed information on the Life Cycle Assessment methodology and environmental impact. But also, to identify multiple types of Life Cycle Assessment methodologies. The Fast Track Life Cycle Assessment methodology was selected based on data availability and compatibility with the goal of the research t0 measure the environmental impact of a livestock feeding robot. Carbon Footprint and Eco-costs were selected as impact indicators due to their practical characteristics for firms. The case study resulted in a Carbon Footprint of 34944 kg CO2 equivalents, equal to the offset of 1588 mature trees existing for one year. Additionally, the Eco-costs results in 9192 euro, representing the required investment to lower the environmental impact to a sustainable level by selecting the best available alternative technology which is needed to meet the required level of emission allowances.

To conclude, this study provides a case study about measuring the environmental impact of a product life cycle. Although this study focuses on the assessment of a livestock feeding robot, the same case study design can be used to measure the environmental impact of similar products. Therefore, other firms can replicate the case study design to measure environmental impact and meet future regulations, as well as maintain or improve their competitive advantage.
... Read more

This master thesis aimed to develop an optimized operating strategy for an electricity grid incorporating hydrogen storage, while considering three key performance indicators: financial costs, reliability, and sustainability. The central research question guiding this study was: "How can the electricity demand be reliably met by a system combining solar power, conventional power supply, and hydrogen systems, optimized for sustainability, cost-efficiency, and reliability through adjustment of the operating strategy?"

The study quantified all key performance indicators in terms of costs, with sustainability measured by the price of carbon credits, providing a quantifiable measure of CO2 emissions. A discrete event model was utilized to simulate an electricity system on an hourly basis, integrating solar energy, a hydrogen system, and non-sustainable energy sources. The particle swarm optimization algorithm, enhanced with linear decay, was employed to identify the most optimal operating strategies within this model. Four distinct scenarios were formulated to analyze the optimal operating strategy under varying circumstances.
The findings revealed that when the price of hydrogen was significantly higher than that of conventional resources, the optimal strategy favored the avoidance of hydrogen electricity due to its high costs. Electrolysis costs and fuel cell expenses were identified as the primary cost drivers. Conversely, in scenarios where hydrogen was competitive with conventional resources, the optimal operating strategy incorporated a small portion of non-sustainable electricity while maximizing the use of hydrogen-based systems.

In conclusion, this master thesis addressed the research question by optimizing the operating strategy of an electricity grid integrating hydrogen technology. Presently, the financial advantages of non-sustainable electricity outweigh the sustainability benefits of hydrogen electricity. The study highlighted the need for substantial cost reductions in hydrogen system components and an increased price of carbon credits to realize a future scenario where hydrogen electricity competes with natural gas.
... Read more

This thesis studies companies which developed open source software but adopted cloud protection licenses, a novel type of software licenses which protect their business from competitors but potentially affect their open source communities. It addresses the practical problem of executives of the companies who miss information about the effects of the license change on the health of their community. From a scientific perspective, there is no existing research about cloud protection licenses. The thesis presents the required background information, including software licenses and commercial open source software. It considers community activity and community structure as indicators of community health and presents corresponding research. Five propositions about the impact of the license change are presented and examined using data from projects of MongoDB, Elasticsearch and Redis by creating visualizations using CHAOSS and Python scripts. First, we expect that changing the licensing terms from an open source license to a cloud protection license leads to reduced community activity. We evaluated both major types of community activity, technical activity and social activity, and could not find support for the proposition but contradicting developments in all projects. Second, we expect less individuals joining the community. Here, the decomposed time series data indicates contradicting developments in the projects of MongoDB and Redis. Third, we expect more community members leaving the community. When assessing this proposition, we found that the decomposed time series data is congruent with the proposition in the project of MongoDB. However, the data of the projects of Elasticsearch and Redis indicates no support for it. Fourth, we expect increased knowledge concentration among individuals in the community. To evaluate the knowledge concentration among community members, the onion model is applied which associates each member with a role for each quarter. The development of the shares of the onion roles within the community is analyzed, and the results contradict the proposition. Fifth, we expect increased knowledge concentration considering organizations in the community. To examine the last proposition, the proportion of contributions authored by employees of the respective company is determined for each month and the development evaluated. There is no contradicting evidence in the data and the developments in the projects are congruent with the proposition. In summary, the data indicates that the impact of a license change to a cloud protection license on community health is rather small and constrained to the concentration of knowledge in respect to organizations. Therefore, we can recommend executives to adopt a cloud protection license if it addresses the strategic needs of their companies. This thesis continued the research on the impact of choice and change of software licenses on open source communities by including cloud protection licenses and previously disregarded aspects of community structure. It relates to the Management of Technology study program by taking the perspective of companies to analyze the effects of their strategic choices on their open innovation processes. By studying the effects of a license change, it examines a problem that is located at the intersection of technology, organizations, and strategy. ... Read more

The rapid growth of internet-connected devices has led to a significant increase in the number of cyber attacks, resulting in security challenges related to IoT. Researchers have discovered a new attack technique that can be used for launching large DDoS attacks, which involves TCP reflective amplification by abusing middleboxes and IoT devices. In order to assist Internet Service Providers (ISP's) in mitigating this vulnerability present at their customers, a deeper understanding of this novel attack technique is needed.
The thesis primarily focuses on exploring vulnerable devices and their end-users within the consumer network of a Dutch ISP, KPN. The ultimate goal is to gather more information on the types of vulnerable devices and actors involved to eventually assist an ISP in making informed decisions to remediate the vulnerability in their network.
The study found that the problem can be described in two different issues: vulnerable middleboxes and vulnerable consumer IoT devices with broken TCP protocols. The problem of vulnerable middleboxes has been solved in the network of the Dutch ISP as manufacturers have released updates remediating the vulnerability. This is not the case for vulnerable consumer IoT, as updating consumer IoT devices does not necessarily address the vulnerability present in the devices that have been identified. However, vulnerability notifications can potentially be useful for end-users to encourage them to update their vulnerable devices.
The study highlights the presence of vulnerable devices in the ISP network that cannot be remediated by updating the device due to the unavailability of a fix. This calls for the exploration of alternative notification methods like walled garden notifications for ISP's to address the issue as mail notifications seem not feasible at the moment of writing. While updating devices is a suggested solution, it may not be feasible for end-users with vulnerable consumer IoT devices, making it crucial for manufacturers to ensure their products have secure TCP protocols. While end-users are motivated and capable to keep their vulnerable devices up to date, whether or not they receive a vulnerability notification from their ISP, this action alone will not fully address the vulnerability as long as manufacturers remain unaware of the issue or fail to provide updates to remedy it.
... Read more