The Future of Consumption

Small sustainable steps. Ten tips for eco-friendly living. Drive down your personal carbon footprint. Individual consumers are, by now, well used to being given responsibility for the climate emergency. If people only stopped driving, flying or eating meat, it is claimed, the crisis would soon be over. 

While we all have a responsibility to make good environmental choices, the focus on the individual consumer as the locus of change is misguided. It assumes that consumers have the willingness, the information and the capacity to change the world. Spoiler: they do not!

Read more about why individuals cannot solve the climate crisis, in this 2022 blog post by Carys Egan-Wyer and international guest researcher, Jack Coffin.

Multiple critical incidents in the last few years provided evidence of the increasing uncertainty in the business environment, which is negatively impacting businesses and, of course, the retail sector. The list includes (but is not limited to): the recent pandemic; political unrest and wars (e.g., Ukraine); inflation, cost-of-living and cost-of-business crisis; labour shortages; trade wars and barriers (e.g., Brexit); increasing frequency of extreme weather events.

Read more about the learning to live with disruptions in this 2023 blog post by the Centre's international guest researcher, Dr. George Maglaras.

There are a plethora of technological solutions for the smart cities of the future. However, many cities are facing a similar challenge. How can they integrate the many technological solutions into a coherent ecosystem to create a user/citizen-friendly urban environment.

Read more about the challenges of building smart, sustainable cities in this blog post from 2023 by John Olsson and Klas Hjort.