SusTec News

Our PhD candidate Ricarda Fieber has joined the Scientists' Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty and will attend the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee (INC-4) in Ottawa.

The launch of phase II of the NCCR (National Competence Center of Research) Catalysis was celebrated at the Paul-Klee-Zentrum in Bern. We are happy to join phase II to accelerate the efforts towards safe and sustainable chemistry in circular value chains.

New article by Lucas Miehé and his colleagues Maximilian Palmié, Johanna Mair, and Joakim Wincent. It explores how Tesla leveraged product design strategies and reputational politics to induce favorable customer evaluations of electric vehicles.

The Innosuisse Flagship SWIRCULAR (Circular Construction Digital Ecosystem) was officially kicked-off at the ETH Dozentenfoyer. Dr. Catharina Bening led discussions with the work package collaborators on value creation models for digital circular construction technologies.

James Kneebone joined the group in March 2024 as a PhD candidate focused on clean hydrogen and industrial policy. 

The second Circular Building UnConference 2023 was a great success! On the 26th of October, the second edition of the Circular Building UnConference took place at Switzerland Innovation Park Zurich and welcomed more than 130 people to exchange innovative and collaborative approaches to transform the building industry towards circularity.

SWIRCULAR, a five-year Flagship supported by Innosuisse, focuses on accelerating the use and interlinkage of digitalization and circular economy in the Swiss construction sector. SusTec will co-lead a work package together with the Berner Fachhochschule.

SusTec’s flagship award-winning lecture on Corporate Sustainability is now more accessible than ever thanks to the first teaching case study published by the group’s team on the Case Center.

SusTec's Senior Researcher Dr. Christof Knoeri addressed the topic of real estate decarbonization and Scope 3 emissions during his presentation at the NZZ Real Estate Days Masterclass held in Davos.

SusTec had the priviledge of organizing this year's ETH Week on Circular Realities with PB Labs. 

Integrated energy system planning at the district level can contribute towards the sustainable transformation of the building sector by unlocking solutions beyond individual buildings. The new paper by Alicia Lerbinger, Evan Petkov, George Mavromatidis and Christof Knoeri investigates optimal decarbonization pathways for existing districts, considering investments in both, energy systems and retrofits.

The new paper by Paula Thimet and Georgios Mavromatidis introduces the MANGOelec optimization model and investigates the optimal mix of energy storage technologies to decarbonize the German electricity system.

Niklas joined the group in August and will focus on corporate transitions towards net zero.

This August a group of SusTec members presented their research at the International Sustainability Conference in Utrecht.

Barbara will support SusTec's "Corporate Sustainability" course from August 2023 onwards

We congratulate Dr. Siobhan Powell for successfully winning an ETH Postdoctoral Fellowship, which she will use to pursue her research on policies for large-scale grid integration of electric vehicles.

Malte Toetzke calls for more ambitious standards in the voluntary carbon offset market. While this would lead to fewer projects getting funded, the benefit for the climate would be greater overall. 

SusTec is pleased to curate this year’s ETH Week topic, exploring the concept of a circular economy. 

Aliénor von Roten joined SusTec in July 2023 to work at sus.lab focusing on carbon removal projects and collaborating closely with the Carbon Removal Accelerator “remove”.

Assessments that integrate different sustainability dimensions are lacking yet necessary to facilitate the implementation of Circular Economy (CE). The new paper by Anna Kulakovskaya, Maja Wiprächtiger, Christof Knoeri and Catharina Bening suggests a novel approach that evaluates and integrates the environmental and economic dimensions of CE at the value-chain level.

Increasing the speed and depth of retrofits is essential to decarbonize the building sector. The new paper by SusTec's Dianne Hondeborg, Benedict Probst, Ivalin Petkov, and Christof Knoeri presents the effectiveness of retrofits under a Swiss subsidy scheme in canton St. Gallen.

Denise will conduct research on the transition to a sustainable circular economy.

Miriam will help drive strategic projects within SusTec.

We congratulate SusTec’s Malte Toetzke, Florian Egli (Energy Policy Group, ETH) and Anna Stünzi (Institute of Political Sciences, HSG) on the awards.

90% of the European existing building stock is expected to still be standing by 2050, making it vital to cost-effectively decarbonize it. The new paper by Ivalin Petkov, Alicia Lerbinger, Georgios Mavromatidis, Christof Knoeri, and Volker Hoffmann presents a new approach for navigating the large decision-space of when to do which retrofitting project (what), on which building (where), and how that impacts economic and environmental performance in future conditions.

Based on a 1-year research project with a European industry consortium that spans the entire value chain of flexible packaging, this paper provides unique insights into the inter-organizational process among firms as they collaboratively make sense of changes required – to transform the value chain from linear to circular, and to align on a common pathway to achieve the required change.

We congratulate our SusTec colleague Benedict Probst and his co-authors on the award.

Cities account for over two-thirds of global primary energy consumption and a similar share of CO2 emissions. A new paper by SusTec Senior Research, Alejandro Nuñez-Jimenez, with Prakhar Mehta (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität) and Danielle Griego (ETH Zurich) shows how community solar policy can accelerate PV adoption in cities to address climate change and reduce local air pollution.

In their new publication, sus.lab and Circularity show how a circular economy transformation can succeed. They analyze why the transformation is often difficult for companies, share recommendations to overcome these challenges, and portray real-life examples.

SusTec Senior Researcher, Alejandro Nuñez-Jimenez, co-authors a letter on Science about the unique challenges young climate policy scientists face in academia and how to overcome them.

Ricarda joins sus.lab as a project manager, primarily working on circular economy projects, focusing specifically on packaging and food waste.

Christine Gschwendtner, Christof Knoeri and Annegret Stephan apply an innovative approach by explicitly dividing charging behavior into the plug-in behavior and the charging process.

We congratulate our colleague Dr. Jochen Markard who once more made it to the worldwide list of "highly cited researchers".

A new study by Lucas Miehé, Maximilian Palmié (University of St. Gallen), and Pejvak Oghazi (Södertörn University) shows how complementors can integrate themselves into existing ecosystems.

Alessio joined SusTec as a master student in October 2022 to write his thesis on the Swiss construction ecosystem.

On the 27th of October the Circular Building UnConference took place at Switzerland Innovation Park Zurich and welcomed more than 120 people to exchange about the future of the building industry, and how we can all contribute.

A three-year project, titled “Co-designing optimal policy mixes and energy systems for decarbonization”, has been approved for funding by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

In an opinion piece for the World Economic Forum's Agenda, Malte Toetzke and Stefan Feuerriegel discuss potential ways forward and outline strategies for leveraging the potential of AI in the development sector.

A new study by Alejandro Nuñez-Jimenez, Christof Knoeri, Prof. Joern Hoppmann, and Prof. Volker H. Hoffmann shows that a narrow focus on innovation and deployment can compromise industry and job creation.

A new study by Malte Toetzke, Anna Stünzi, and Florian Egli analyzes trends and patterns of climate finance from over 2.7 million projects using machine learning.

Anja has started her Master project on ocean plastics at SusTec.

In this new paper Anna Kulakovskaya, Christof Knoeri, Franz Radke, and Nicola Blum evaluated the performance of meso (value-chain level) economic circular economy indicators.

Siobhan joins the SusTec Group as Senior Researcher, her research will focus on energy systems.

Hauke's research interests lie in the field of sustainability transitions. In his dissertation, he examines the role of policy mixes for entrepreneurial innovation and market dissemination activities to derive implications for improving existing policies and for the design of business strategies.

An analysis of decarbonization technologies, pathways, barriers and policy options by ETH sus.lab shows that Net Zero is feasible for the Swiss cement industry.

Lisa joined SusTec as a visiting master student in September 2022 to write her thesis. Her research focuses on the question of how to mobilize funding from private investors for technology-based carbon dioxide removal solutions.

At SusTec David will be working on the EU Horizon project INCREACE (INCreasing REcycled content in Added value products for a resilient and digitized Circular Economy)

Martynas will primarily be working on Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) and Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) projects.

Mikel's master thesis will focus on modelling the Swiss energy system allowing the analysis of different policy mixes and their contribution towards the decarbonization of the energy system.

Max is joining SusTec as a visiting PhD student for six weeks, primarily working on researching the sustainability value of firm-level patent portfolios.

In his research, Lucas focuses on business opportunities and innovation strategies at the firm level during the energy transition.

Jesvy's research will analyze the impact of different emission accounting schemes on optimal building retrofitting

Lisa joins sus.lab at the Group for Sustainability and Technology as a project manager, primarily working on the CBI Circular Building Industry Innovation Booster

Sophie joins sus.lab at the Group for Sustainability and Technology as project manager primarily focusing on circular economy projects, focusing specifically on circularity in the building industry.

Alberto joined Prof. Volker Hoffmann's Group for Sustainability and Technology in May 2022 as a PhD candidate on plastics recycling and circular economy.

This year, lecturers from ETH Zurich showcased about 40 courses with outstanding didactics at the Innovation in Teaching and Learning Fair. This year, two courses from SusTec were featured.

Amartya’s thesis, in collaboration with AFRY, will focus on understanding the green ammonia economy in emerging nations in context of the energy transition.

In a new articles, Malte Toetzke from SusTec together with Nicolas Banholzer at ETH Zurich and Stefan Feuerriegel from LMU Munich have developed a machine learning framework that categorizes millions of development projects and thereby enables a granular and comprehensive monitoring of global development aid.

Oliver joined SusTec as a master student in April 2022 to write his thesis. In his research, he will analyse the barriers to implementation of negative emission technologies using the technology innovation systems (TIS) approach.

The SusTec team comprising Evan Petkov, George Mavromatidis, Christof Knoeri, and Professor Volker Hoffmann, collaborating with James Allan from the Empa Urban Energy Systems Lab, developed a new methodology for the investment planning of existing building retrofits.

The scenario-based investigation of the electricity system transition in different European countries clearly indicates solar and wind power to be the backbone of the transition. Still, a majority of the scenarios use current or outdated political climate targets and, hence, fail to provide insights on how to fully decarbonize the countries’ power sector.

Scientific analysis and media coverage of rampant plastic pollution has taken a toll on the material's reputation in recent years, fueling talk of a “plastic crisis”. Brand owners have made ambitious pledges to overcome this crisis—but can voluntary commitments turn the tide?

Pip joined SusTec as a master student in 2022 to write her thesis. In her research, she will compare three sustainable packaging solutions for convenience/to-go food products on environmental, social and economic parameters. 

Sebastian’s thesis, in collaboration with Hitachi Energy, will focus on studying the impact of climate change and extreme weather events on the European electricity system using capacity expansion models.

Alicia's research focuses on techno-economic modelling and optimization of multi-energy systems to determine decarbonization strategies for existing infrastructure.

David has joined the SusTec team as a working student, while he is finishing his ETH MSc in Energy Science and Technology.

Oliver Akeret joined SusTec in January 2022 to work at sus.lab primarily on decarbonization projects, focusing on carbon capture and storage (CCS) in “hard-to-decarbonize” sectors such as waste-to-energy and cement.

Arnau Aliana joined SusTec in January 2021 as a PhD candidate, focusing on finding optimal policy-making decisions through energy system modelling optimization.

The prestigious Student Award of the Swiss Association for Energy Economics (SAEE) is granted once a year to the best theses and research papers on energy economics and policy.  

The SusTec team of Evan Petkov, Christof Knoeri, and Professor Volker Hoffmann tackled the critical issue of existing building renovations (more technically – energy retrofits) from the perspectives of some of the largest real estate owners in Europe, industry players, and policymakers.

Anna Guenat joined SusTec in December 2021 to work at sus.lab primarily on circular economy projects, focusing specifically on the reduction of packaging impact in retail.

Achieving ambitious climate goals requires the development of new technologies at rapid pace.

Gian Luca joined SusTec in November 2021 to write his master thesis with Paula Thimet and Dr. Georgios Mavromatidis where a market analysis for battery storage systems in decarbonized electricity systems is performed.  

The article titled "The true cost of solving the plastic waste challenge in developing countries: The case of Ghana" was authored by Catharina R. Bening and Sebastian Kahlert and together with Edward Asiedu from University of Ghana Business School.

Martí’s thesis will focus on methods to uncover near-optimal solutions from energy system optimization models and will be supervised by Georgios Mavromatidis.

Phasing out coal is key for a swift reduction of CO2 emissions. In this paper, we study the public debate on the future of coal with discourse network analysis.

Gudrun’s thesis will focus on optimizing PET recycling and will be supervised by Catharina Bening and Georgios Mavromatidis.

Together with a number of partners, sus.lab has launched the Carbon Removal ClimAccelerator – an accelerator program solely dedicated to supporting European teams working on carbon removal!  

Katharina will be writing her master thesis with Annegret Stephan and Johannes Meuer on cross-sectoral collaboration for green hydrogen.  

SusTec is happy to welcome Emily Elsner who will support us in the re-design of the Corporate Sustainability course from 1 July 2021 onwards.

How could bidirectional charging – enabling power flows from electric vehicles to, e.g., grids and buildings – support the electricity system? A new scientific article by Christine Gschwendtner, Simon Sinsel, and Annegret Stephan provides an overview of V2X implementations as well as evaluations of technical, social, and regulatory challenges.  

Alicia Lerbinger started to work on her thesis in April 2021 under the PACE REFITS project where she will investigate how to find the best heating solution for existing districts based on their different characteristics and regulatory conditions.

Together with Katrin Heuchler and Sara Soderstrom (University of Michigan), Amanda Williams and Johannes Meuer will host a Professional Development Workshop at the Academy of Management Meeting 2021 that aims at establishing rigorous methods for engaging closely with managers in management research.  

Together with representatives form policy and industry, SusTec senior researcher Dr. Christof Knoeri presents an outlook on decentralised energy systems in the future at the energy & environment forum of usic - the Swiss Association of Consulting Engineers.  

SusTec has been awarded an Innovedum grant to apply innovative didactical concepts to its core lecture on Corporate Sustainability.

Anita started to work on her thesis in March 2021 where she will be comparing single-use packaging with multi-use packaging in collaboration with a Swiss retailer.  

Sophie joined Sustec in February 2021 to conduct her thesis on the transition of the furniture industry from a linear to a circular economy.  

Johannes started working on his master thesis in March 2021, in which he will be researching the cost reduction drivers of renewable hydrogen production.

New article by Johannes Meuer, Francesco Lamaro and Nadège Vetterli on «Embedding energy optimization in organizations: A case study of a Swiss decentralized renewable energy system” accepted for publication in Energy & Buildings.  

Gabriella joins Sustec in February 2021 to conduct her thesis on the introduction of sustainable products to global markets in collaboration with Dow Chemical.

Giacomo Melegati received this year’s ETH Medal 2020 for his Master thesis “Cyber-Physical Platforms: Conceptual Foundations and Empirical Case Study” that he wrote together with Stefano Coiro, Global Head of Customer Operations for e-City at Enel X, and Johannes Meuer (SusTec).

Together with Prof. Maricela Arellano (now at HEC Montréal) and Prof. Netland (ETH, Production and Operations Management), Johannes Meuer publishes a new paper “Commitment follows beliefs: A configurational perspective on operations managers' commitment to practice adoption” in one of the field’s flagship journals.

In their research article “How has external knowledge contributed to lithium-ion batteries for the energy transition?”, Annegret Stephan (SusTec), Laura Diaz Anadon (C-EENRG, University of Cambridge) and Volker Hoffmann (SusTec) analyze how external knowledge is integrated into the innovation process: the mechanisms and enablers of knowledge spillovers.

The new report coming out of the ETH Global Recycling Survey 2020 focuses on the current state of the recycling industry and its perception of future developments

Although bidirectional charging of electric vehicles could support the integration of renewable energy into the electricity system, its future remains uncertain. How could the implementation of bidirectional charging look like and which challenges remain?

A scientific article authored by Joern Hoppmann has been accepted for publication in Research Policy.

Johannes Meuer was awarded VSETH's Golden Owl 2020 for the MTEC Department.

The entire SusTec team congratulates Marius Schwarz for the successful completion and defense of his doctoral thesis entitled “The role of Policies for the Diffusion of Low-Carbon Technologies and their System Integration: Energy Transitions in Switzerland and California” on December 3rd, 2020.

We’re happy to welcome Paul Adler (University of Southern California) to the SusTec Colloquium on 3 December 2020 (16.30 – 18.00).

Mohamed joins Sustec in November 2020 to conduct his thesis on Corpoate Sustainability through the lenses of the UN SDGs.

We already know much about the innovation effects of deployments policies such as the German Feed-in Tariff. But how do such policies affect complementary innovations, e.g. in battery technology?

Willem Laumen joins Sustec from RWTH Aachen to conduct his thesis on theoptimization of operational strategies of grid-connected large scale battery storage systems

An interdisciplinary group of 18 researchers from 9 different nations spent 5 days virtually at the 13th annual ETH Academy on Sustainability and Technology, hosted by SusTec.

Arber is a MSc student in Management, Technology and Economics and joins the team as a research assistant.

SusTec and sus.lab welcome Marian Krüger, who has recently joined sus.lab as Project Lead Decarbonisation following a successful startup venture in the photovoltaics space.

Aaron joins Sustec in September 2020 to conduct his master thesis with Christine and Annegret on electricity load profiles and load shifting in the energy transition.

Qing Xu joined SusTec in September 2020 to write his master thesis.

The entire SusTec teams congratulates Alejandro Nuñez-Jimenez for the successful completion and defense of his doctoral thesis entitled “Energy policy for the transition: Designing policies for harnessing technological change” on August 25th, 2020.

When transitions accelerate this creates new challenges for research and policy. In a new open access article, we highlight five challenges and discuss their policy implications.

Energy storage is vital for integrating renewable energy. Already for urban distributed energy systems, off-the-shelf technologies consisting of renewables, heat pumps, along with batteries and hot water storage can reduce CO2 emissions by 90% cost-effectively.

What effects will digital building technology have on the building sector? How can decision-makers in politics and business exploit the potential of digitization? What does digitization in the building sector mean for innovation, competition, education and labor market policy? Our newly published report «Digital Trends in the Building Industry 2020» answers these questions and shows the diverse opportunities and risks of digitization in the building sector.

Can electricity pricing leverage electric vehicles and battery storage to integrate high shares of solar photovoltaics? New SusTec study outlines the role for electric vehicles in future electricity systems.  

The time for digital new interaction formats is now. Digital interaction formats have successfully substituted physical conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic and will be part of a new regime in the field of academic exchange.

Analyzing responses from policy consultations, Jochen Markard (SusTec) and Daniel Rosenbloom (University of Toronto) find, among other issues, that many prominent industrial actors "support the EU ETS not because it will drive a low-carbon transition but because it will not".

Jochen Markard (SusTec) and Daniel Rosenbloom (University of Toronto) argue that the response to the coronavirus outbreak also offers an opportunity to advance the climate agenda. Indeed, given that we have scarce resources at our disposal, it is essential that we synergize such efforts.

SusTec and sus.lab re-welcome Dianne Hondeborg who joins sus.lab as a Project Manager following her Master thesis.

Leandro joined SusTec in May 2020 for his master thesis on 2nd life batteries in the context of stationary storage systems.  

In a perspective published in Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Sebastian Kahlert and Catharina Bening outline why the future of plastics recycling could be determined by the path society takes in combating economic aftermath of COVID-19.

“Leveraging COVID-19 recovery programs to simultaneously advance the climate agenda presents a strategic opportunity to transition toward a more sustainable post–COVID-19 world.” write Daniel Rosenbloom (University of Toronto) and Jochen Markard (SusTec) in the editorial of this week’s Science Magazine.

A new article finds that, at a global scale, nuclear is in decline and there is little hope that new, current-type nuclear power plants will make a big difference for fighting climate change. While this might not come as a big surprise to experts in the field, our study is the first to apply the technological innovation systems framework to analyze technology decline.

Carbon pricing has limitations with regard to effective and fundamental transformations of industries and society. Daniel Rosenbloom, Jochen Markard, Frank Geels and Lea Fünfschilling present core principles of “sustainability transition policy” to address climate change.

Phasing-out coal fired power generation is a key strategy to combat climate change. Under certain conditions coal phase-out can happen much more quickly than anticipated, finds a new study by Karoliina Isoaho and Jochen Markard.

A new article addressing the question "Can designs inspired by control theory keep deployment policies effective and cost-efficient as technology prices fall?" has been published by the journal "Environmental Research Letters". The article is authored by Alejandro Nuñez-Jimenez, Christof Knoeri, Joern Hoppmann, and Volker Hoffmann.

In this report, Johannes explains what types of digital building technologies to look out for.

SusTec researchers offer new business model seminar in the realm of the Circular Economy

Tudor joined SusTec in February 2020 to write his Master's thesis on corporate sustainability.

Sebastian joined SusTec in February 2020 as a PhD candidate on plastics recycling and circular economy.

The Swiss Federal Office of Energy (BFE) has developed a series of info videos with important energy-related research projects that the ministry is supporting

SusTec's Christof Knoeri speaks at high-level innovation workshop in Paris that lays foundations for IEA’s new global guidebook on clean energy technologies.

A new article entitled “Innovative Designs of Building Energy Codes and their Implementation Challenges” has been accepted for publication by the “Journal of Cleaner Production”. The article is authored by Marius Schwarz, Christina Nakhle, and Christof Knoeri (all SusTec).

Wednesday, 11 December 2019, 17h15 – 18h30/  ETH Main building, HG D3.2

Ben joined SusTec for his master’s thesis in Environmental Systems and Policy in November 2019, in partnership with ewz.

A new article entitled "Why Matter Matters: How Technology Characteristics Shape the Strategic Framing of Technologies" has been accepted for publication by the journal "Research Policy". The article is authored by Joern Hoppmann (University of Oldenburg and SusTec), Laura Diaz Anadon (Cambridge University, UK) and Venkatesh Narayanamurti (Harvard University, USA)

SusTec is working with companies to scale-up corporate contributions to the SDGs.

The article “The role of inter-sectoral knowledge spillovers in technological innovations: The case of lithium-ion batteries” has been published in “Technological Forecasting and Social Change”

SusTec researchers organized a panel discussion on making an impact with sustainability research and in this post, they share the advice given during the session.

Giacomo joined SusTec in October 2019 for his master thesis in Management Technology and Economics.

An article entitled "The Double Impact of Institutions: Institutional Spillovers and Entrepreneurial Activity in the Solar Photovoltaic Industry," which is co-authored by SusTec's Joern Hoppmann and Ben Vermeer (previously SusTec, now Boston Consulting Group) has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Business Venturing.

To strengthen interdisciplinary work on sustainability topics, McGill (Montreal) has launched Sustainability Transitions as the fourth focal theme of their MSSI. At the symposium, Jochen Markard presented latest research and shared experiences with the ongoing energy transitions.

Together with representatives from a material producer and an engineering company, Christof Knoeri (SusTec) and Maja Wipraechtiger (ESD) elaborated at the CISBAT conference on how circular concrete and insulation materials currently are handled and where different material loops could be closed. 

He will do his research on the topic of Large-scale investors’ motivations and barriers for building energy retrofitting.

Evan and Alejandro, along with PhDs and Post-Docs from 7 other groups at ETH Zurich and the Energy Science Center, launch a new platform for energy discussions.

In her thesis she will assess the possibility of extending and using current state-of-the-art models used for optimal MES designs to identify the optimal types and levels of policy support for specific MES technologies.

She will work together with Christof, Paula and Georgios on the topic of stationary battery storage for grid applications.

Paula Thimet joined Prof. Volker Hoffmann’s Group for Sustainability and Technology in September 2019 as a PhD candidate on modelling of energy-systems.

He will do his research on the interplay between building retrofits and the profitability of district heating networks.

Join us for the debate on Wednesday, October 16^th

She investigates how low-carbon technologies, such as electric vehicles, heat pumps, storage, and distributed generation, can be incorporated in future distribution networks, using quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Anna joined Prof. Volker Hoffmann’s Group for Sustainability and Technology in September 2019 as a PhD candidate on Circular Economy

The authors propose a holistic definition and measurement of a sustainable circular economy, linking material circularity with environmental and economic sustainability. The inherent trade-offs and rebounds are discussed and illustrated at the example of the recycling of PET and glass bottles in Switzerland.

Dianne Hondeborg joined SusTec for writing her Master Thesis on “Going climate positive – what would it take for a large corporate?”

Put solar photovoltaics (PV) on the roof of your house and it’s win-win? News article in physicsworld summarizes recent SusTec publication and interview with author.

Remo joined SusTec for his master’s thesis in Environmental Systems and Policy in September 2019

Petrissa - Executive Director of sus.lab - shared her story of bridging SusTec research and industry on today's ETH front page

Studies on Power-to-Hydrogen seasonal energy storage and building energy regulations in Europe

The interrelation matrix of challenges and solution technologies developed in the SusTec study provides important insights for business and policy makers.

Using actual production data from eight wind and photovoltaics plants across Germany from 2015 until 2017 and a storage unit, SusTec authors build a quantitative model to evaluate the impact of these strategies on investors’ risk and return.

Read more about the EGOS Sub-theme.

New article - inspired by SusTec's students - published in Organization & Environment!

Stefan Gahrens joined Prof. Volker Hoffmann’s Group for Sustainability and Technology in July 2019 within the framework of IDEA League and the German National Academic Foundation.

An interdisciplinary group of 19 researchers from 11 different nations spent 5 days in the Swiss Alps for the 12th annual ETH Academy on Sustainability and Technology, hosted by SusTec.

Briefing for Canadian government officials on Sustainability Transitions

Studies on Agent based modeling for energy technology policies, Decline of nuclear, Clean energy in the Balkans, Coal phase-out and Acceleration challenges

The project focuses on the intersection between digital technologies and the building sector.

Angela Small, a PhD student at the University of Leeds, is visiting SusTec for two months between May and June 2019.

Two reasons to celebrate: With a total time of 10h05min, the SusTec team successfully covered the SOLA running course of 114km finishing 472^th overall. This success and the Group’s 15^th anniversary were celebrated afterwards.  

Georgios Mavromatidis joins the Group for Sustainability and Technology (SusTec) in May 2019 as a Senior Researcher.

Swiss industry journal Haustech highlights project on efficient policies for solar photovoltaics promotion.

Franz started his Master Thesis on an indicator framework for Circular Economy transitions.

Joël joined SusTec for his master’s thesis in Energy Science and Technology (M.Sc.) in February 2019, in partnership with Alpiq Digital Energy Solutions.

The 4th NEST conference attracted around 80 emerging scholars in sustainability transition studies.

Marianne receives the full doctoral scholarship for her ongoing PhD on “Organizational Strategies for the Circular Economy”. 

Nicholas joined SusTec for his master's thesis in Management, Technology, and Economics (M.Sc.).

Invitation to the talk on Wednesday, 10th April 2019, 12 pm to 1 pm

Mustafa joined Prof. Volker Hoffmann's Group for Sustainability and Technology for his Master thesis.

Together with Bart Cambré (Antwerp University) and Peer Fiss (University of Southern California) Johannes from SusTec is organizing a sub-theme on theories and methods for sustainability at the EGOS 2020 in Hamburg.

Going climate positive - What would it take for a large corporate?

An article by SusTec member Amanda Williams which calls for a systemic perspective of organizational resilience and exams managerial approaches to palm oil production was recently published in “Business & Society”.  

Laura started her Master’s thesis on Circular Economy Policies.

Developing a sustainability masterplan for the future sustainability pioneer in the Salt industry is a great challenge. Schweizer Salinen decided to collaborate with sus.lab at SusTec to tackle this challenge.

SusTec invites you to a research seminar with Prof. Dr. Daniel Hall.

Lukas joined SusTec for his master’s thesis in Management, Technology and Economics (M.Sc.)

TACLE team participated in the 2nd Program Conference of NRP 73 in Bern.

Researchers from SusTec and UC Berkeley reveal disparities in national readiness levels for renewable energy integration based on new metrics.

An article by SusTec members Jan Ossenbrink, Joern Hoppmann, and Volker Hoffmann, which studies the change in the largest four electric utility companies during the energy transition, was recently accepted for publication in "Organization Science".

Researchers from the Sustainability Transitions Research Network have published an updated research agenda in the journal Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions.

SusTec’s new paper – published in the journal ‘Environmental Research Letters’ – evaluates how smart policies and battery storage can help to integrate high shares of solar photovoltaics.

Our project proposal “Strategizing Contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals” was accepted by the MTEC Foundation.

Thursday, 7 February 2019: How firm-level business models induce change in an industry logic: A case study of the Dutch electricity industry.

SusTec researchers have reviewed and compared decentralized energy systems both in literature and practice.

SusTec researcher Jochen Markard was elected as the new chairman of the STRN network.

The Swiss Association for Energy Economics (SAEE) awards Fabian Rottmann with this year’s price for his Master thesis “Spreading the use of responsive adjustment mechanisms for renewable energy deployment policies: An agent-based modelling cross-country evaluation”.

We are looking for a PhD student in the field of stationary and mobile energy storage.

The interplay between policies, technologies, and organizations in the next phase of sustainable development – this is the focus of the 11^th ETH Academy on Sustainability and Technology.

Professor Volker Hoffmann was awarded VSETH's Golden Owl 2018 for the MTEC Department.

Timo Busch and Jens Hamprecht from SusTec have published the article "Value(s) for Whom? Creating Value(s) for Stakeholders".

SusTec and HSLU researchers continue working on a collection of Guidelines for Renewable Decentralized Energy Systems (RDES). 

Amanda Williams joins Prof. Volker Hoffmann's Group for Sustainability and Technology (SusTec) in October 2018 as a Senior Researcher.

Researchers from Empa’s Urban Energy Systems Lab and SusTec have evaluated and compared different storage systems in Swiss neighborhood applications of decentralized energy systems from 2015 to 2050.

We welcome Quentin, who has started writing his master’s thesis at SusTec this week.

The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) approved our project proposal "Unpacking pathways to corporate sustainability” for a three year funding period.

A new paper by Marie Byskov Lindberg, Jochen Markard and Allan Dahl Andersen analyses the policy mix and actor positions in EU energy policy.

Evan Petkov joined Prof. Volker Hoffmann's Group for Sustainability and Technology (SusTec) in September 2018 as a PhD candidate

Inese started her PhD in Prof. Ambühl’s group on negotiation and conflict management in September 2018 and will spend 30% of her time with sus.lab.

Johannes Meuer offers an International QCA Paper Development Workshop in November 2018. The workshop provides a platform for researchers working on papers involving QCA to meet QCA experts, get feedback on their on-going research, and learn about the latest methodological developments.

SusTec had the pleasure to offer a workshop on Circular Economy Solutions at the German National Academic Foundation’s “Praxisakademie” in Koppelsberg, Germany, in August 2018. An interdisciplinary group of 18 students from various European universities spent 6 days working on innovative solutions to reduce waste generated by throw-away products under the guidance of Prof. Volker Hoffmann, Dr. Petrissa Eckle and Jakob Prüss.

Dimitra will write her master thesis on the topic of timber for high rise buildings.

A new conceptual paper by Jochen Markard suggests using the TIS framework not just for emerging but also for mature, and even declining technologies.

We congratulate David Grosspietsch for the successful completion and defense of his doctoral thesis entitled “Fostering Technological Change for a Sustainable Built Environment: The Role of Policy, System Design and Performance” on July 27th, 2018.

Julia joins the Sustainability in Business lab (sus.lab) - an initiative of SusTec

Johannes receives the Above and Beyond the Call of Duty Reviewing Award from the OMT Division of the Academy of Management.

Marianne joins the Group for Sustainability and Technology in June 2018 as a PhD candidate on Circular Economy.

We congratulate Fanny Frei for successfully defending her doctoral dissertation entitled “Incumbents In The Energy Transition: How Electric Utilities Adapt To Their Changing Business Environment” on July, 3^rd 2018.

The Group for Sustainability and Technology welcomes Julia as a PhD candidate in Corporate Sustainability.

Hendrik Clausdeinken has been awarded the Willi Studer Prize 2018 for the best master’s degree in Energy Science and Technology and the ETH Medal 2018 for his master’s thesis on “Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) – Hot air or a real option?”

An interdisciplinary group of 19 researchers from 11 different nations spent 5 days in the Swiss Alps for the 11th annual ETH Academy on Sustainability and Technology, hosted by SusTec.  

SusTec researchers Fanny Frei, Allister Loder, and Catharina Bening have published a new article in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews that reviews green power markets worldwide with regard to their liquidity.

Yan Zhang joined the Group for Sustainability and Technology in June 2018 for his Master's thesis in Integrated Building Systems MSc. at ETH Zurich. In his thesis, he evaluates the potential of innovative technologies and identifies the business opportunities for building facade systems.

SusTec researchers Fanny Frei, Simon Sinsel, Ahmed Hanafy, and Jörn Hoppmann have published a new article in Energy Policy that investigates changes in business portfolios of the biggest electric utilities worldwide during the energy transition.

A new article by SusTec researchers Joern Hoppmann, Florian Naegele, and Bastien Girod, which studies the role of boards of directors for organizational inertia in times of environmental discontinuities, was recently accepted for publication in the Academy of Management Journal (AMJ).

On June 7^th 2018 SusTec researcher Simon Sinsel will lead a workshop on the role of large electric utilities in the energy transition. Simon will present and discuss two studies from SusTec researchers with industry representatives at the forum.

This new perspectives article from SusTec researcher Jochen Markard in Nature Energy argues that we are currently entering a new stage of the energy transition that is qualitatively different from the first phase.

With a total time of 10h 01min, the SusTec team successfully covered the running course of 114km finishing 350^th overall.

SusTec Researcher Christof Knoeri answers a couple of research and non-research related questions in the “Feierabendgespräch” of the second Edition of the 2018 Phase 5 Journal. 

The SusTec' Corporate Sustainability lecture participated in the finals of this years KITE award 2018. In total, 27 teaching concepts from every department of the University were submitted. Four were shortlisted – among them the Corporate Sustainability lecture.

Together with two colleagues from the University of Hamburg, SusTec researcher Joern Hoppmann has published a new article that investigates the role of external change agents for corporate sustainability.

The Group for Sustainability and Technology (SusTec) searches for 1-2 Postdoctoral Researchers with quantitative modelling experience in the field of technological and institutional change in the energy sector.

Karoliina joins our group as a visiting scholar to work with Jochen Markard on industry decline in the energy transition.

Jakob joins the TACLE project (NFP 73) as a PhD student. He will investigate circular economy policies, in particular how policy framework conditions such as regulations affect innovative activities of firms towards a closed-loop economy.

Teaching anyone properly about Climate Change is a difficult task. On 19 March 2018, SusTec played “The World Climate Simulation” an innovative teaching simulation developed by the MIT think tank spin-off Climate Interactive and facilitated by Prof. Dr. Florian Kapmeier.

Prior to sus.lab, Marija spent several years working for impact investment funds in microfinance, agriculture and climate and provided part-time support to sustainability-driven start-ups

On 19 March, SusTec has invited Florian Kapmeier, Professor of System Dynamics at ESB. Together with Florian, we will experience an innovative simulation on “World Climate: Negotiating a Global Climate Change Agreement.”

On the SDSN Switzerland Launch Conference SusTec senior researcher Nicola Blum gives an inspirational talk on how research can support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and on the role of collaboration therein.

Researchers from SusTec have assessed the how, when and where of self-sufficient energy supply to a solar-powered neighborhood.

In a new report, SusTec researchers shed light on the drivers and barriers of solar PV in three settlements managed by the UN refugee agency. Focusing on the case of water pumping, they find that solar PV systems may provide a viable alternative to conventional forms of electricity supply. However, to leverage the potential of solar PV, several technical, institutional, financial, and social aspects need to be taken into account.

SusTec’s research project on "The role of technical regulations in the transformation of the building park and its integration into future energy system" will be founded by NFP70 and EnDK. It is focused on the question of how technical energy regulations (TER) developed over time in selected nations/regions, and how well they are suited to potential future trends in the building sector.

Prior to sus.lab, Petrissa worked for 5 years in management consulting and 3 years as PostDoc at Paul-Scherer-Institute

Management Education needs students to think critically. But how to train your students' critical thinking skills? The six sentence argument (6SA) method focuses on enhancing critical thinking skills through structured writing and guided peer-review and involves several feedback loops.

In the course of the NRP70 project “IMES”, SusTec contributed and co-authored an article on Multi-Energy-Hubs, a special form of decentralized energy system.

Ann-Kristin Zobel’s article „Benefiting from Open Innovation: A Multi-Dimensional Model of Absorptive Capacity“ was invited by the Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM) to be promoted in form of a video abstract.

Christina Nakhle has recently joined SusTec to support the group in two projects related to the building industry. 

SusTec research in this project focuses on an more detailed understanding of changes in industry and selected value chains that are facing change related to Circular Economy.

SusTec's Joern Hoppmann has been awarded the Best Paper Award of the Division "Organization and the Natural Environment" at this year's Academy of Management Annual Meeting in Atlanta for his paper "Not My Business: How Cognitive Frames and Role Identities Influence Corporate Sustainability".

Allan Dahl Andersen is a research fellow at the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture (TIK) at the University of Oslo, Norway. He is a visiting researcher as SusTec until end of September 2017.

At the 33rd EGOS Colloquium in Copenhagen, SusTec co-organized a 3-day conference Sub-theme together with researchers from PennState University (Raghu Garud) and the University of Alberta (Joel Gehman). 

Bringing together a panel of top managers from four leading utilities from Switzerland (BKW), Origin Energy (Australia), EDP (Portugal), and Engie (France) and a diverse audience of approximately 45 academics, business leaders, policymakers, start-up executives and innovation experts, the event covered a variety of subjects all related to the "energy revolution" currently underway globally.

A recently published article sheds light on this question based on a detailed techno-economic simulation and a comparison between two of the leading residential solar PV markets - California and Germany.

Agnieszka and Marissa will support SusTec for the next months on two research projects.

An interdisciplinary group of 18 researchers from 10 different nations spent 5 exciting days in the Swiss Alps for the 10th annual scientific seminar on Innovation for Sustainability, hosted by SusTec.

Kathleen Eisenhardt, Professor for Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University will be visiting SusTec at the end of May. We have the pleasure of inviting you to a talk she will give at ETH based on her recent work with Timothy Ott. 

With a total time of 9h 32min, the SusTec team successfully covered the running course of 116km finishing 219^th overall.

We congratulate Jan Ossenbrink for successfully defending his doctoral dissertation titled: “How Policy Mixes Shape Technological Change and Organizational Learning in the Energy Sector - The Case of Distributed Energy Resources” on April 12^th , 2017.

Researchers from SusTec and the Energy Politics Group (EPG) have analysed how different sectors linked in a technology’s value chain can affect innovation processes. In their new paper published in Research Policy, they investigate knowledge creation processes in the lithium-ion battery (LIB) technology in Japan. 

The journal Nature Energy celebrated its first birthday with an editorial reviewing research highlights that appeared in their first year. One of the 14 papers mentioned is "Limiting the public cost of stationary battery deployment by combining applications" co-authored by researchers from ETH Zurich's SusTec and EPG.

SusTec’s brave Samichlaus swimmers are featured in the February edition of the SWISS Magazine, the official magazine of Swiss International Air Lines.

Fanny Frei, PhD candidate at SusTec, has written an article discussing characteristics of green power markets that influence their success.

SusTec research on Future Energy Efficient Building & Districts (FEEB&D) continues in second phase.

Players in the energy industry and the policy domain often depend on forecasts. A closer look reveals that these predictions sometimes fall wide of the mark.

Johannes Meuer joins the editorial board of the European Management Journal, one of the leading European journals in the field of organization and management studies. 

We congratulate Annegret Stephan for successfully defending her doctoral dissertation titled: “Innovation in Multi-Component and Multi-Purpose Technologies: The Case of Battery Storage” on December 6^th , 2016.

Marius Schwarz received the 3rd prize of the Swiss Association for Energy Economics’ (SAEE) Student Award for his Master’s thesis. Marius analyzed the creation of knowledge across industry sectors for the lithium-ion battery and thin film photovoltaic technology. 

SusTec welcomes a new team member: Alejandro Nuñez Jimenez joined the group in October 2016 as a new PhD candidate. His research will focus on the influence of technology characteristics in the effectiveness of policy instruments aimed at catalyzing its adoption.

"Innovation und Erneuerbare Energien für das Gebäude der Zukunft". 10 November 2016 ab 18.30 im ETH Zürich Centrum, Sonneggstrasse 3 (Raum: ML E 12). 

The finance track of SusTec’s corporate sustainability lecture has received the FIR-PRI Award 2016 for Best Pedagogical Innovation in sustainable finance. The track was first taught in Fall 2015.

In this article, we develop a multilevel mixed methods technique that integrates qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). 

Aoife Brophy Haney spoke at the Impact Hub’s Mash Up on Sustainable Cities and Communities, an event that aims to spark new ideas and discussion on a range of different themes. 

SusTec researchers publish article on the development of scientific knowledge of Multi-energy systems. Although in theory, multi-energy systems should allow for lower carbon impacts compared to systems in which single energy vectors are considered individually, implementation of multi-energy systems is often difficult due to the number of technologies and actors involved and the complexity of their interactions.

Johannes Meuer, Aoife Brophy Haney and Mischa Kaspar contributed to a recent AEE (association for renewable energy and energy efficiency) publication on the potential for sustainable buildings to contribute to implementing Switzerland’s Energy Strategy 2050.

We congratulate Dr. Julian Kölbel, who defended his thesis in January, for winning two prestigious awards with his dissertation: Sustainability and Risk: The Role of Stakeholders.

Complementarities are essential for the ongoing energy transition. As a transition unfolds, complementarities change and it is important to identify and mitigate potential bottlenecks.

Annegret Stephan (PhD student, SusTec) and Prof. Tobias Schmidt (Energy Politics Group, ETH Zurich) describe in a recent ETH Zukunftsblog article how policy makers could enable new business models for stationary batteries.

The energy transition enters a new phase. In addition to the expansion of new renewables, the survival of incumbent actors and technologies becomes more of an issue now. In ETH's Zukunftsblog, Jochen Markard discusses ...

An interdisciplinary group of researchers from twelve different countries spent five exciting days in the Swiss Alps for SusTec's annual scientific seminar on Sustainability and Technology.

Researchers from SusTec and the Energy Politics Group (EPG) have analyzed how combining different applications affects the investment attractiveness of stationary batteries.

Jessika Trancik, Assistant Professor of Energy Studies at MIT will be visiting SusTec in June and we have the pleasure of inviting you to a talk co-hosted by SusTec and the Energy Science Center on the future of renewable energy markets. 

With a total time of 9h 43min, the SusTec team successfully covered the running course of 116km finishing 225^th overall.

Erik joined SusTec in March 2015 to help redesign the Corporate Sustainability Lecture. In the fall term, about 160 students learned about sustainability issues and their feedback indicated that the changes were a real improvement.

A study by Dr. Johannes Meuer and his co-authors has just won the Best Paper Award of the Academy of Management Meeting 2016.

In an incredible race of 9 hours, 34 minutes, and 37 seconds at Ironman African Championship in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, David managed to cross the finish line as 7th in his age group.  

SusTec welcomes a new team member: Marius Schwarz has joined the group as our new PhD candidate. His research will focus on the diffusion of renewable energy technologies and its interaction with policy instruments.

SusTec researcher visits UCL’s Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP)

Researchers from SusTec, UC Berkeley, and Technical University Freiberg have analyzed how the patent stock of new entrants in the North American Solar industry influences their subsequent openness in innovation.

Researchers from SusTec and the Energy Politics Group (EPG) have analyzed the patent-citation networks in wind power and show how the design hierarchy shapes the focus of inventive activity and the expansion of the underlying body of knowledge.

He was elected as one of three new members during the general assembly of the Energy Science Center (ESC) on February, 4th.

Sabine Erlinghagen, SusTec Alumna, describes the concept and business opportunities of Demand Response and its benefits to the Swiss and European electricity system.

Researchers from SusTec and the Energy Politics Group (EPG) have identified and analyzed the most prevalent use cases for stationary battery technologies on mainland and island electricity systems.

We congratulate Julian Kölbel for successfully defending his doctoral dissertation titled: “Sustainability and Risk: The Role of Stakeholders” on January 20^th, 2016.

Quiet Christmas time at SusTec is not all that quiet. SusTec members organized two brilliant team events challenging the teams’ skills and courage. Of course both challenges were successfully managed.

On November 4th 2015, ETH’s Group for Sustainability and Technology together with ZHAW Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Impact Hub Zürich hosted the first Energy Startup Day at the Umweltarena Spreitenbach.

Fanny Frei, PhD candidate at SusTec, discusses the challenges that exist in relation to planning wind farms in Switzerland in her article recently published in “Aktuelle Technik”.

A recent study on biogas in Germany shows that technologies might be confronted with legitimacy problems even in later stages of development, after they have matured and expanded successfully.

From 2 to 3 December 2015 the 3rd International QCA Expert Workshop is going to take place at ETH Zurich.

Four researchers from SusTec and the Energy Politics Group (EPG) have examined determinants of knowledge spillovers within and across technologies.

How self-consumption can ensure PV's profitability when no subsidies are present

The perfect opportunity to find out, what chances arise from startups to incumbment companies in the Swiss energy and cleantech sector.

The recent issue of Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions features one article and four viewpoints on conceptual advancements of the technological innovation systems (TIS) framework. Researchers at SusTec have contributed to three of these.

We say "hats off" and present Dr. Tillmann Lang with his doctoral cap!

Fanny Frei, PhD candidate at SusTec, discusses the challenges that exist in relation to planning wind farms in Switzerland.  

In August 2015, Ann-Kristin Zobel joined SusTech as a senior researcher. Ann-Kristin brings in significant academic expertise on innovation ecosystems in the renewable energies sector.

From 2 to 3 December 2015 the 3rd International QCA Expert Workshop is going to take place at ETH Zurich. The workshop will bring together junior and senior QCA experts from political sciences, sociology and management research to provide an opportunity for presenting research, exchanging ideas and establishing contacts.  

A small group of researchers from ten different countries spent five exciting days in the Swiss Alps for SusTec's annual scientific seminar on Sustainability and Technology.  

A team of students from SusTec's "Sustainability Start-Up Seminar" has been awarded this year's SSIA and are also the winners of the SSIA Audience Award.

Florian Naegele has completed his dissertation and received his doctoral degree after a successful examination last week. 

SusTec welcomes a new team member: Dr. Erik Jentges has joined to help in redesigning our flagship lecture on "Corporate Sustainability".

For the third consecutive year, a team of 14 SusTec and EPG members has finished the SOLA relay run in Zürich. 

A recent study by Jochen Markard, Marco Suter and Karin Ingold on coalitions and policy change in the Swiss energy transition is now available as a working paper.

Florian Naegele and Tillmann Lang, PhD candidates at SusTec, discuss findings from a recent research project on energy efficiency in buildings.

SusTec's senior researcher Johannes Meuer and co-authors Christian Rupietta and Uschi Backes-Gellner have written an article on different innovation systems in Swiss firms published in Research Policy.

The SusTec team congratulates Falko Paetzold on the completion and successful defense of his dissertation.

Fanny Frei, PhD candidate at SusTec, has written an article discussing the particularities in relation to the planning of wind farms in Switzerland.

On Sunday, March 8th, three group members made their debut as runners in the 42 kilometer's cross-country ski marathon in Engadin, Switzerland.

On February 1, Johannes Meuer, previously senior researcher at the Department of Business Administration of University of Zurich, joined the SusTec team to work on questions related to innovation in the energy sector.

A study on coalitions in the Swiss energy transition was presented by Jochen Markard at the SPRU Friday Seminar Series

The SusTec team congratulates Dr. Jörn Hünteler on a successful doctoral examination and on his doctoral degree.

As of February, Tobias Schmidt will leave SusTec and lead the new Energy Politics Group at ETH’s Department for Humanities, Social and Political Sciences (D-GESS)

SusTec researcher Annegret Stephan won the Best Presentation Award in the field of social sciences at the “Third International Education Forum on Environment and Energy Science” in Perth, Australia.

In an article for ETH’s Zukunftsblog Tobias writes about the atmosphere in the currently ongoing UN climate negotiations (COP20) in Lima, Peru.

SusTec has recently finalized a two-year research project on energy efficiency in buildings in collaboration with swiss electric research and several industry partners. In a final workshop with representatives from partnering institutions and beyond, the main conclusions were presented and implications of the findings for the energy sector were discussed.

The Department of Management and Economics at ETH aims to provide an excellent learning, teaching and research environment. Tillmann Lang, PhD student at MTEC's Group for Sustainability and Technology shares his thoughts on how it is to pursue a doctoral degree at the Department.

SusTec’s Tobias Schmidt and Suzanne Greene blog on energy storage in ETH’s Zukunftsblog.

The Swiss Association for Energy Economics (SAEE) awards Jan Ossenbrink with the 2nd prize of the Student Chapter for his Master thesis. Jan had analyzed the development of dominant technological designs in the wind and solar PV industries.

SusTec Alumni Dr. Sabine Erlinghagen and PhD student Fanny Frei contributed to the book “Energie im Wandel – Frauen gestalten die Schweizer Energiezukunft” which will be published mid-november. In the book, twenty-nine female authors, all experts in the Swiss energy sector, shed light on challenges and solutions that come with the Swiss energy transition. 

At this year’s UN Climate Talks in Lima/Peru, SusTec researcher Joern Huenteler and Tobias Schmidt will act as lead organizers of ETH’s side event co-hosted with The Gold Standard Foundation.

While Joern Huenteler and Falko Paetzold are currently at Harvard, Tobias Schmidt re-joined Stanford.

Tobias Schmidt speaks at this year’s African Regional workshop on Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions, which brings together experts from ministries of almost 30 African countries in Namibia’s capital Windhoek.

As the result of being selected as runners-up for the "Research Impact on Practice Award", a paper by SusTec researchers Joern Hoppmann, Michael Peters, Malte Schneider and Volker Hoffmann is featured on the website of the Network for Business Sustainability.

After the successful examination of her dissertation, SusTec congratulates Dr. sc. Sabine Erlinghagen on her doctoral degree.

After having won the Swiss edition of the "PATW" in May, Laura Barrabia Gil also convinced the IET jury in Dublin. As regional finalist of the "Europe, Middle East and Africa" region Laura will participate in the Global Finals on November 19th in London.

After the successful examination of his dissertation, SusTec congratulates Dr. sc. Benedikt Battke on his doctoral degree.

SusTec researchers received several awards at this year's Academy of Management Meeting in Phildalhpia, August 1-5.

Falko Paetzold received the "Founders’ Award" of the Society for Business Ethics

SusTec researcher Bastien Girod was invited to the Gordon Research Conference on Industrial Ecology on the integration of embodied emissions into climate policy

SusTec invites applications for 2-4 positions at the postdoctoral researcher level

Students enrolled in MTEC’s “Sustainability Start-Up Seminar” won 3 out of 4 prizes, including CHF 8000 of Prize Money.

A SusTec paper on the cost of battery storage in different stationary applications informed Section 7 (Electricity Storage)

SusTec researcher Bastien Girod demonstrates that solar power is by far more climate compatible than coal power

Nature Climate Change editorial features work by SusTec's Tobias Schmidt

With a new SusTec record of 9h 28min 02sec, a team of 14 SusTec members and alumni has finished the SOLA relay run in Zürich.

SusTec researchers Joern Huenteler and Tobias Schmidt were invited to London to attend the Global Climate Policy Conference

Tobias Schmidt was invited to speak at the United Nations climate secretariat’s Asia Pacific regional workshop on post-Kyoto policies (NAMAs).

Aoife Brophy Haney and Geng Wu both presented papers at the Ethics, Technology and Organizational Innovation conference

Keith Sue is a PhD scholar from the Australian National University who is investigating institutional barriers to innovation in electricity markets

SusTec together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), has initiated an expert statement which is supported by 17 renowned international researchers in the field of innovation research

Jochen Markard blogs on ETH Future Blog: "Policy Change and the Energy Transition"

Jan Ossenbrink wins best individual presentation award at the Second Internation Education Forum on Environment and Energy Science

We are looking for an intern and 2-3 student assistants for the newly founded Sustainability in Business Lab (‘sus.lab’)

ETH Zurich’s Zukunftsblog features a report by Tobias Schmidt on the role of technology in this year’s UN climate talks

Tobias Schmidt was invited by the UN Climate Change Secretariat to present at a regional workshop for Latin America and Caribbean

Julian Kölbel and Falko Pätzold win awards at the PRI Conference in Paris

SusTec co-organizes side event at UN climate talks (COP19) in Warsaw/Poland

SusTec Researchers Benedikt Battke, Joern Huenteler and Tobias Schmidt were participating in this year's UN climate talks (COP19).