Recent Publication Additions to the EDC

The brief discusses the contextual nuances of staff travel choices and the potential of policy interventions to encourage sustainable travel modes. Through a detailed review of NHS parking policies and broader academic literature on transport practices. It underscores the need to develop comprehensive travel plans that prioritise sustainable transportation using the avoid-shift-improve hierarchy, along with the implementation of pull and push measures for alternative commuting methods. It further recommends adopting a whole-systems, justice-based approach that promotes efficient urban planning and sustainable mobility practices, and advocates for meaningful engagement of staff in the policy-making process.

The brief highlights innovative practices in prevention, repair, and recycling that can transform waste management systems, while acknowledging their interconnected complexities across practices. It underscores the need for local authorities to take a whole-system and cross-sectoral approach, empowering them with resources and policy frameworks that incentivise circular practices among households, fostering community engagement in waste reduction initiatives, and integrating circular economy principles into local governance strategies. It also highlights the need for further research into innovate food waste prevention strategies, recycling diversities and peer-to-peer sharing that have the potential to reduce food waste significantly.

Despite these benefits, barriers such as regulatory gaps, cultural inertia within the construction sector, and lack of consumer awareness hinder MMCs widespread adoption. In light of current challenges, the study underscores the importance of developing standardised emission measurement methodologies, promoting industry-wide knowledge sharing, and policy support to foster the adoption of MMC, aligning construction practices with net zero objectives. It also emphasises the importance of holistic methodologies and integrated interdisciplinary research and development practices for green building and sustainable net-zero targets.

This policy brief explores the dual nature of DHTs in contributing to and mitigating healthcares carbon footprint. Focusing on Englands National Health Service (NHS), the study delves into how the adoption of digital technologies could either reduce or exacerbate the healthcare sectors carbon footprint, raising critical questions for the NHSs digital transformation efforts.

The analysis reveals that while DHTs offer avenues for reducing emissionssuch as telehealth reducing the need for patient and clinician travelthey also entail significant environmental costs through the manufacturing and operation of digital infrastructure. The study underscores the necessity of developing an open and shared database of carbon factors for healthcare systems, standardising methodologies for calculating carbon impact, and undertaking both pre-implementation estimations and post-implementation realisations to better manage DHTs carbon footprint.

Emerging from a placement at the Office for Product Safety and Standards, UK, the study underscores the importance of reflexive, flexible, inclusive and interactive policymaking that integrates public engagement and considers the intricate relationships between social, technological, and natural actors. It underscores the need for an adaptive governance framework that is receptive to the dynamic interplay of societal needs, technological advancements, and environmental imperatives, together with the significant role of public participation in facilitating a cohesive approach to achieving net zero goals.

Through a case-study of Yorkshire water, staff interviews, examination of its current practices and insights from academic literature, the brief identifies opportunities for reducing energy use in water management. It underscores the need to enhance public awareness of water-energy interdependencies, emphasising shared responsibility for environmental stewardship, and fostering cross-sector collaboration and integrated strategies to achieve water conservation and energy savings. It demonstrates that by addressing these areas, the UK can make significant strides toward its net zero targets while ensuring sustainable water management.

This systematic review presents data on the total installed costs for domestic heat pumps in the UK and internationally. It covers historic and forecast costs, across a range of technology types and building contexts.

This working paper is an update to our November 2021 briefing paper: Risk and investment in zero-carbon electricity markets.

It was submitted to in response to the Welsh Government call for evidence to inform the development of Wales decarbonisation pathway to Net Zero, whilst also providing an initial step towards potentially developing a Just Transition Framework for Wales.

We welcome the re-assertion of key policy objectives and the commitment to a whole system approach described in the strategy. In our response we highlight a number of key areas that need to be addressed including the need for geographical specificity, and a hierarchy of objectives along with the introduction of low and stable prices as one of these objectives.

This paper explores how finance can better support the diffusion of Grassroots Innovations (GIs), community-led solutions for net-zero transitions. We examine the case of UK community energy (CE), across three ‘diffusion pathways’: niche replication (growth in the number of projects), individual scaling (growth in an organisation's scale) and collective diffusion (a confederation of GIs). We investigate each pathway through analysis of a nationwide survey, interviews and four case studies. We find that while finance currently supports replication of small-scale CE projects, the incompatibility between GIs and the wider finance meta-regime inhibits individual scaling. The UK CE sector has responded with collective diffusion, via business group intermediaries; attracting greater but still insufficient finance. Consequently, for GIs to diffuse effectively, they must be supported to translate across both sectoral regimes (e.g. energy) and broader meta-regimes (e.g. finance). This paper contributes to theory on the role of finance in sociotechnical transitions and the role of intermediaries in GI diffusion.

This workshop was a joint event organised by CREDS and UKERC Sarah Higginson, Catherine Jones, Kate Kwok, Marina Topouzi, Mike Fell, Gesche Huebner and facilitated by Mike Colechin

This briefing note brings together the current state of policy and activities that CREDS and UKERC have undertaken to support data sharing.