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Historians understand the important role that access to critical raw materials has played in the development of civilizations, however access to materials has regularly led to distrust and conflict. Near future material scarcity scenarios appear to be severe and could include a mix of price volatility, supply disruptions and geopolitical tensions. Materials scarcity would affect the supply side of a range of materials upon which high-tech and renewable energy industries rely. Historically, materials restrictions were placed by societies, onto themselves and were generally short term or limited in nature. The current materials scarcity challenge, whilst being self imposed, will be long term and global in nature. One fundamental challenge will be to explore historical case studies that give us a reference point to explore potential responses. There are numerous case studies over the 20th century – mainly driven by conflicts and sanctions. This paper examines one case in particular – that of Britain during World War Two. This case has a number of facets that make it very useful for analysis. The first of these is the length of time – counted in years. Secondly - the materials involved and in particular the metals and the lack of easily available substitutes. Thirdly - the role of secondary sourcing (recycling and reuse). Fourth – it explores the role of government in facilitating change. The final and prime facet of the case is the role of innovation and design. This paper will derive lessons that can be learnt from the case and show clearly how they may give indications of current responses to materials scarcity scenarios.

Lifestyle changes can contribute to climate change mitigation. Social and technical changes are however intimately related, and consumption entangled with technology. Design researchers have proposed several strategies for facilitating more sustainable consumption patterns through design. However, many actors and structures influence both technology development and how consumption patterns evolve. Understanding the preconditions for design-led contribution requires looking beyond the designer-product-user triad. To frame further investigation into the role of design in transformation of consumption, theoretical concepts from the social sciences are introduced. Laundering is taken as an example to examine the dynamics at play and how to theoretically cope with them. Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Innovation is characterized by uncertainties, high risks, large investments and late returns on investment which make it a complex process. This is particularly true for sustainable innovation where market forces alone cannot be relied upon to realize the desired transitions. Insight in the dynamics of such innovation processes is necessary in order to influence technological change toward a more sustainable direction. However, few instruments and indicators are available to assess the performance of emerging technological innovation systems. In this phase competition often takes place based on expectations rather than on technological performance. This paper therefore focuses on the expectation patterns of technological innovation systems in the exploratory phase through the analysis of the expectation dynamics of three emerging technologies in the field of sustainable mobility within the Netherlands: biofuels, hydrogen as a transport fuel and natural gas as a transport fuel. These technologies do not only compete with the current fossil-fuel based system but also with each other. We have collected over 5000 expectation events regarding these technologies for the period 2000-2008 and discuss the insights generated by the comparison of the observed expectation dynamics to theoretical patterns. © 2011 Elsevier Inc.

Inclusive innovation literature provides manifold examples and some answers as to how projects can achieve the full potential of the BoP market and what factors can be considered important in determining the likelihood of an innovation’s success. But the existing literature and methods for analysis are mostly oriented towards firms’ strategies or project practices, focusing on the micro-level, including such things as products, project organisation, capacity building and the involvement of local stakeholders. Little or no attention has been paid to the surrounding context in which innovation occurs, or to the environmental sustainability of BoP products and technologies. This paper aims to contribute to the debate surrounding new models for innovation within the development sector and to explore the wider implications for innovation in the context of development policies. The central objective guiding this paper is therefore the elaboration of an analytical framework which can be subsequently implemented in analyses of system-wide factors for the successful scaling up of inclusive, sustainable innovations. The authors of this paper present a model for the analysis of the innovation (eco-) system of inclusive innovation. The model includes the following five dimensions: landscape, resources, knowledge, market, and support mechanisms. Ongoing work of the authors currently focuses on the application of this framework to a number of Inclusive innovation projects conducted within TNO’s Innovation for Development programme and a number of examples from the literature, particularly from India. The outcome of this ongoing work will provide policy conclusions, salient limitations and avenues for future research

Different bodies of literature have attempted to explain what factors and events drive industries and firms towards more advanced levels of environmental performance. This is a gradual, historical process of evolution from lower to higher degrees of development. Based on notions derived from green evolutionary economics literature this article provides an account of the evolution in the chemical industry striving for environmentally sound chemical processes and products via sustainable innovation. We conducted a content analysis on 255 documents addressing different environmental and innovation aspects of the evolution of the chemical industry. Our findings highlight the fact that greening chemical processes is about change in existing products, processes, organisations and systems aiming at higher environmental performance, whereas sustainable innovation is an incremental, continuous and cumulative process focusing on emerging techologies, new markets and a continuous evolution and accumulation of firm-specific resources, capabilities and competences contingent to the strategy adopted by firms. Equally, we found that new forms of innovation are embedded into the larger production and consumption system and archieving sustainability implies breaking up with old, non-environmentally friendly technological paradigms.

This paper provides an outline to this portion of the two part special volume on knowledge collaboration and learning for sustainable innovation, which is built upon papers from the ERSCP portion of the joint ERSCP/EMSU conference. This paper briefly reviews the topic of sustainable innovation, based upon the levels of niche, incremental and systemic innovation. A review of the literature on learning, knowledge collaboration and participation shows that niche innovations and systemic innovation typically require so-called '2nd order learning processes', in which tacit knowledge and implicit frames have to be adjusted. This 2nd order learning process is less needed in case of incremental innovations. Another relevant dimension that appears from the literature is the distinction about whether actors involved in change are active in niches or mainstream. Subsequently, the ten papers in this portion of the special joint volume are highlighted. They cover a broad range of relevant topics, such as learning in innovation systems, system innovations at the local level, learning and collaboration in knowledge arenas, application of design scenarios and participatory backcasting, involvement of end-users in energy saving and energy efficient refurbishment and collaboration among participants in global sustainability programs. Together, these papers provide an overview of learning, knowledge collaboration and participation for sustainable innovation and consumption. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.