JPI Urban Europe SUGI - Waste Food-Energy-Water Urban Living Labs - Mapping and Reducing Waste in the Food-Energy-Water Nexus (WASTE FEW ULL)

Completed

Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Energy system analysis)
Not Energy Related

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Economics and Econometrics)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Town and Country Planning)
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Applied Mathematics)
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences)

Systems Analysis related to energy R&D (Energy modelling)
Systems Analysis related to energy R&D (Other Systems Analysis)

Professor S S Charlesworth
Ctr for Agroecology, Water and Resili
Coventry University

Standard

ESRC

02 June 2018

01 June 2021

36 months

£204,933

West Midlands

Society & Global Security

Professor S S Charlesworth, Ctr for Agroecology, Water and Resili, Coventry University

Dr J Fried, Ctr for Agroecology, Water and Resili, Coventry University
Dr A S P Hunt, Economics and International Development, University of Bath
Dr R Nunes, Real Estate and Planning, University of Reading
Dr F Rayns, Ctr for Agroecology, Water and Resili, Coventry University
Dr U Schmutz, Ctr for Agroecology, Water and Resili, Coventry University
Dr M J Van De Wiel, Ctr for Agroecology, Water and Resili, Coventry University

Project Contact, Isidima Design & Development (Pty) Ltd, South Africa
Project Contact, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
Project Contact, BlueCity, The Netherlands
Project Contact, Bristol Food Network C.I.C.
Project Contact, Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT), The Netherlands
Project Contact, Schumacher Institute
Project Contact, GENeco
Project Contact, East Rand Water Care Company (ERWAT), South Africa
Project Contact, Wessex Water Services Ltd
Project Contact, Stellenbosch University
Project Contact, University of Cape Town
Project Contact, State University of Campinas (unicamp)
Project Contact, CICERO Ctr fr Intnatnl Climate & Env Res
Project Contact, Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE)

1. Formally 'open' each ULL, with stakeholder groups2. Co-create with ULL stakeholders an understanding of resource inefficiencies by sourcing data, mapping waste streams and agreeing focus areas3. Agree likely pathways to impact in each context e.g. in UK and South Africa it may be disrupting waste flows through risk management; in Brazil and Netherlands it may be policy support for scaling of innovation4. Quantify in monetary terms the micro and macro-economic impact of these increased waste efficiencies, using both market and non-market valuation5. Enable each ULL to close (or start to close) the loops in critical resource flows6. Establish a knowledge exchange programme to share and analyse findings across all six partnering countries7. Produce and disseminate a knowledge "tool-box" and public education resources to share with other urban regions around the world8. Establish a strong network of all ULLs and associated collaborating organisations that will ensure the continuation of collaborative work after the end of the project (project legacy)

The aim of the WASTE FEW ULL project is to develop and test internationally applicable methods of identifying inefficiencies in a city-region's food-energy-water nexus. We will undertake this through an international network of industry/civic society-led Urban Living Labs (ULL) in four urban regions - UK (Bristol), Netherlands (Rotterdam), South Africa (Western Cape) and Brazil (Campinas). Partners in Norway and the USA will provide economic valuations of potential impact, and impact-led public education, outreach and dissemination. Waste occurs across food, energy and water systems; at the interface of these systems, waste increases significantly the over-consumption of our limited resources (FAO, 2017): food (e.g. energy lost in food storage), energy (e.g. used to clean water) and water (e.g. nutrients lost in sewage). Resource scarcity is not only a matter of efficiency, but of access, distribution and equality (Exner et al, 2013). Each urban context has different pressures and opportunities (Ravetz, 2000). The focus of the WASTE FEW ULL project is therefore not so much on the specific downstream challenges, but on upstream processes by which cities can identify, test and scale viable and feasible solutions that reduce the most pressing inefficiencies in each context

06/12/18