Closed Research Projects, TISU
Closed Research Projects, TISU
Climate-neutral and competitive Gävleborg 2050
The project aims to support the Gävleborg region in becoming a successful model region with companies and public stakeholders working together across sectors with climate-smart technology and new business models. The opportunities that are investigated include climate-neutral renewable energy, combined production of electricity, fuel and heating, low-energy housing, heat collaborations and other symbioses, and electric and hybrid vehicles. These are analysed with respect to how they can best contribute to a strategic action plan towards the vision of Gävleborg in 2050. BTH contributes with its expertise in strategic sustainable development.
Other academic partners: University of Gävle (Sweden), Linköping University (Sweden), and Zuyd University (Netherlands).
The project is conducted in close collaboration with: Businesses and public stakeholders in the region.
Contact person: Göran Broman
Visiting professor project in sustainable innovation
Professor George Basile is an internationally recognised researcher within strategic planning for sustainability, leadership and sustainable business. He is a professor at the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, USA. Professor Basile worked part-time at the Department of Strategic Sustainable Development at BTH in 2013–2014. The main focus of his work is to identify and assess product and service innovation processes at five Swedish companies, and to provide suggestions for improvements of these processes in terms of innovation for sustainability. He is also involved in other research projects and some of BTH’s study programmes.
Business partners: Aura Light International, Avalon Innovation, Dynapac Compaction Equipment, Kockums and Volvo Construction Equipment.
Contact person: Göran Broman
Sustainable cities from a backcasting perspective
The project aims to study how district heating systems and associated business models can create strategic platforms for a sustainable society. Methodology for strategic sustainable development is combined with methodology for energy systems analysis, and basic interdisciplinary expertise is developed for the purpose of integrating research and education in sustainable energy development. Specifically, the studies involve district heating systems in Blekinge and Stockholm, and the experiences are synthesised into a methodological support for a sustainable development of district heating. BTH contributes with its expertise within strategic sustainable development. Linköping University contributes with its expertise in energy systems analysis.
Collaborative partners: Businesses and public stakeholders in Blekinge and Stockholm.
Contact person: Göran Broman
Sustainable procurement
Purchasers today process information from various chains of supply, act as gatekeepers for substantial flows of raw materials, products and energy, and serve as potential managers of supplier relations. Moreover, they have a direct link to end product stakeholders. Together, this makes the procurement function key to any company’s sustainability efforts. However, despite the many initiatives to encourage sustainable procurement from a policy perspective, and despite the fact that sustainable procurement is an emerging research area, the companies’ efforts are characterised by reductionism. The strategic potential of procurement to add sustainability as a value to an end product or service is not fully exploited. The purpose of this project is to develop a framework for how a systems perspective can be integrated into the procurement function, and how the function can thereby use its potential for strategic value creation to promote sustainable product and service systems. The research is based on case studies of national stakeholders for eco-labelling and sustainable procurement, as well as of our partners: Scandic Hotels, Aura Light International and Blekinge County Council.
Project owner: BTH
Funder: BTH
Contact person: Cecilia Bratt
Decision-support for sustainable value chains
Understanding and mapping the impact of a product life cycle is crucial to achieving sustainable development. Based on a holistic approach to sustainable development that includes technical, economic and socio-ecological impacts throughout the product’s life cycle, this project will study how to integrate sustainable product innovation (SPI) and product service systems (PSS). Moreover, the project will examine how the methods and tools that have been used could interact to promote sustainable development. An understanding of these areas will lead to additional tools and methods for sustainable product and service innovation to help companies’ develop more sustainable products and become more competitive on the market.
Contact person: Henrik Ny
A principle definition of sustainable development
Objective: The social dimension of sustainable development is an underdeveloped aspect in both research and practice. Based on the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD), this project studies how the social dimension can be developed to better support more concrete planning and decision-making for sustainable innovation. The project builds on interdisciplinary literature studies and practical measures and research with partner businesses to develop and test more specific guidance in this area.
Project manager: Professor Karl-Henrik Robèrt
Conact person: Dr. Merlina Missimer
Industry partners: Aura Light International, Max Hamburgers, Karlskrona Municipality, Blekinge County Council, Scandic Hotels, Sleep Well, The Human Element and The Natural Step.
Funders: VINNOVA, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, FORMAS, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the Swedish Energy Agency, FUTURA Foundation, BTH’s Faculty Board.
Sustainability criteria for a concept evaluation method
The overall objective of the project is to promote the project manager’s qualifications, while building a long-term partnership between the Blekinge Institute of Technology and GKN Aerospace Sweden. The focus of the research project is to clarify how to define sustainability function in order to influence the design of products at an early stage, and to propose an improved concept design and evaluation method, including sustainability aspects during the product lifecycle, to avoid bad investments and later changes in the product development process. The project builds on an extensive survey of six major companies arriving at the conclusion that the concept stage is when new methods and strategies for sustainable product development are especially needed. The project at GKN is expected to involve studies over a two-year period, resulting in prescriptive methods for the integration of sustainability criteria in the stages of development and evaluation.
Project owner: BTH
Funders: VINNOVA and BTH
Contact person: Sophie Hallstedt
STOSIP – Strategic, Tactical and Operational implementation of Sustainability into the Innovation Process
STOSIP is a research project with the objective to support manufacturing companies to integrate and implement sustainability on strategic, tactical and operational levels.
The aim is to support the ability to measure:
- maturity level of sustainability integration and management
- sustainability consequences of different solutions and support the ability to…
- quantify and visualize the progress of sustainability implementation of different solutions
Two manufacturing companies are partners in this project; Volvo Construction Equipment and GKN Engine System, Sweden.
Company partners: GKN Aerospace Engine Systems Solutions and Volvo Construction Equipment.
Other academic partners: Denmark Technical University (DTU). The project is funded by KKS.
Contact person: Sophie Hallstedt
Green Charge Sydost
The GreenCharge research and development project was initiated by BTH and some other partners in Småland and Blekinge, including CGI, Miljöfordon Syd and Energy Agency Southeast. BTH was appointed to lead the growing consortium from 2011 to 2015. In Autumn 2015 BTH left the project to focus more broadly on research for accelerated sustainability transformation of transport and energy systems. At this time the GreenCharge consortium leadership was passed on to Miljöfordon Syd. The GreenCharge project grew out of a cooperation between the industry, counties and municipalities in Blekinge, Norra Skåne, Småland and Öland. The first phase of GreenCharge aimed to identify necessary conditions for a market breakthrough for electric vehicles in the Southeast region of Sweden. The focus was on customer service (easy, accessible and cost efficient) which enable the project to identify success factors and the elimination of barriers so it becomes natural for consumers to invest in electric vehicles. Through the participating municipalities, a first test fleet of electric vehicles and a regional network of infrastructure was created. Exchange of experience together with analytic and practical tests of economical, technical and environmental consequences
Funders and Partners: 24 municipalities, 4 regions, 2 county authorities, the Swedish energy agency, several companies including IKEA, Volvo and CGI
Contact person: Henrik Ny