Scholars in sustainable consumption increasingly highlight the limitations of “weak sustainable consumption” approaches to overcome the challenges of the current environmental crisis. While efforts to enable cleaner production and circular flows of materials are necessary and important, progress in environmental efficiency tends to deviate attention away from a more critical challenge: advancing sufficiency. In order to deliver “absolute” improvements, reducing production and consumption levels (an explicit focus on “strong sustainable consumption”) is needed. However, international and national environmental policies tend to avoid such measures. The literature points out that resistance from businesses and citizens and fear of losing geopolitical power or income from consumption taxes are major obstacles for such policies to emerge. In this context, this paper examines the case of the “Amsterdam Doughnut”, the measures aimed at reducing consumption of electronics, textiles and furniture included in the “Amsterdam Circular 2020-2025 Strategy”, and the relation to product lifetimes. Interviews with key actors involved in the integration of Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economy model into the city strategy were conducted, and official documents were reviewed. The paper discusses to what extent these efforts can be characterized as a “strong sustainable consumption” policy, and aspects that may have helped to overcome the resistance mentioned above, contributing to ongoing debate about the implementation of sufficiency principles.
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Provision of adequate protein is crucial for optimizing outcomes in hospitalized patients. However, the methodologies upon which current recommendations are based have limitations, and little is known about true requirements in any clinical population. In this tutorial, we aim to give clinicians an understanding of how current protein recommendations were developed, an appreciation for the limitations of these recommendations, and an overview of more sophisticated approaches that can be applied to better define protein requirements. A broader perspective of the challenges and opportunities in determining clinical protein requirements can help clinicians think critically about the individualized nutrition care they provide to their patients with the goal of administering adequate protein to optimize outcomes.
Re-structuring of a Dutch mono-industrial region; example of TwenteTable of contents of the chapter Introduction Geography and location of Twente Industrialization of Twente and development of the Textile Industry Decline of the Textile Industry Restructuring Twente: arguments for a regional innovation strategy Moving towards a more diversified economy Stronger co-operation between governments, universities, and industries The role of universities and the example of ‘Kennispark Twente’ Further regional and international co-operation Twente today
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A unique testing ground where the creative sector and education work together to better understand the possibilities around volumetric video capturing. Within a volumetric studio, dozens of cameras capture all the movements of a living subject simultaneously. These recordings are converted into a fully moving and digital image, which results in an image that is barely distinguishable from reality. Chronosphere gives content creators and scientists the unique opportunity to experiment with volumetric capturing, using the newest volumetric studio within De Effenaar. There is room for a total of twenty projects, and proposals can be submitted.Partners:De Effenaar 4DR Studios Wildvreemd Natlab 360 verbeelding Dutch Rose Media Hyperspace Institute Fontys Hogescholen TU/e Center for Humans & Technology
In the Netherlands the business community is pretty active in the biobased economy because it offers plenty of economic opportunities. Innovation and chain development are stimulated towards the development of the bi-obased economy, bioenergy and to biobased materials. The Netherlands is strongly investing on improving inno-vative business and development, developing business cases and removing obstacles of non-technical origin. Importantly, the Dutch business community have recognised that many activities will depend on biomass imports as domestic production is mostly limited. In the Netherlands there is a large demand for biobased biomass, and it is estimated that in the year 2030 about 60-70% of the required biomass will have to be imported. The Dutch Platform Biobased Raw Materials has emphasised the importance of the imports of biomass, and has focused on developing guidelines for transition paths, where international cooperation with biomass-producing countries is essential. The Netherlands has identified Spain as an important provider of biomass resources (19 million ktoe), Spain holds the third position in European ranking of biomass potential. The autonomous community Galicia is the most important forest region in Spain, where the agroforestry sector has been considered as an alternative to yield economic benefits as well as to bring ecological advantages. However, the potential of Galicia as a pro-ducer and supplier of (waste flow) biomass is underdeveloped and underutilised. There is a need for a better un-derstanding of the potential business models that Dutch companies and Spanish stakeholders can apply to devel-op a biobased value chains that lead to the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profit. To realise this goal, our project focuses on identifying the linkages between the Galicia agroforestry sector and the Dutch biobased industries, and explore the potential business opportunities towards the strengthening of both the local and the Dutch biobased markets. To achieve the latter we centred on the following questions: I. What are the potential new business models that can be applied for a profitable and sustainable biobased chain from the waste flows of the agroforestry sector of Galicia for a steady production and supply to the local and the Dutch markets, leading to a sustainable transition path? II. What are the institutional frameworks required to develop new and profitable biobased value chains within the agroforestry sector in Galicia?
