The slides presented in PhD Summer School RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT at the University of Basel, in Basel, Switzerland in July 2016. This presentation shows the overview of PhD research on "Sustainable production and consumption by upcycling: Understanding and scaling up niche environmentally significant behaviour" focusing on how the conceptions of sustainability and sustainable development are embedded in the research and the contribution of the research to sustainability sciences and sustainable development.

1. Kyungeun Sung, Sustainable Consumption Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
Kyungeun Sung
Supervised by Tim Cooper & Sarah Kettley
Sustainable Consumption Research Group
School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
Sustainable production and consumption by
upcycling: Understanding and scaling up niche
environmentally significant behaviour
PhD Summer School RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, July 2016, University of Basel, Switzerland

2. Kyungeun Sung, Sustainable Consumption Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
Table of contents
1. Conception of sustainability
2. Conception of sustainable development
3. Sustainability/sustainable development in my research
4. Approaches to the study
5. Contribution to sustainability sciences
6. Contribution to sustainable development

3. Kyungeun Sung, Sustainable Consumption Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
A normative concept
 Physiocentric ethics: How human beings should
act collectively towards nature
 Intra-generational justice: How they are
responsible for each other
 Intergenerational justice: How they are
responsible for future generations (Baker, 2006;
Baumgärtner & Quaas, 2010; Derissen, Quaas, & Baumgärtner, 2011;
Norton, 2005)
1. Conception of sustainability
Image source: http://www.digitalpicturezone.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Beautiful-Pictures-of-Nature-and-Animals.jpg; http://www.live58.org/Portals/209485/images/congo%20poverty.jpg; http://news.fiu.edu/wp-content/uploads/ist2_4688926-sisters-from-around-the-world.jpg

4. Kyungeun Sung, Sustainable Consumption Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
2. Conception of sustainable development
Development that:
 “meets the needs of present without
compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs” (Brundtland et al., 1987, p.41)
 “meets fundamental human needs while
preserving the life-support system of planet
Earth” (Kates et al., 2001, p.641)
 ”creates and maintains prosperous social,
economic and ecological systems” (Folke et al., 2002,
p.437)
Image source: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9c_Mk4eL51c/UhVfWyS79OI/AAAAAAAACho/TUXcFixfFoU/s1600/environment+(1).jpg

5. Kyungeun Sung, Sustainable Consumption Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
3. Sustainability/sustainable development in my research
Economy Society
Environment
Reducing materials and
energy consumption
Saving money
for individuals,
and job creation
with new SMEs
Creative,
ethical, happy
consumers in
households
Upcycling
Reducing carbon emissions
80% from 1990 levels by
2050  Mitigation of
climate change for:
 Preservation of nature
(physiocentric ethics)
 Quality of life for everyone
now (intra-generational justice)
 Quality of life for everyone
in the future (intergenerational
justice)
Landscape
Regimes
Niches
Scaling up of upcycling
for bigger impact on the
environment and society
Scaling up of niches to regimes through niche-cluster and
niche-regime, adapted from Van den Bosch (2010)

6. Kyungeun Sung, Sustainable Consumption Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
Gain insights into
upcycling in the UK,
paying special attention
to product attachment
and longevity
Adapted framework from Darnton’s Nine Principle’s framework (Darnton, 2008)
4. Approaches to the study
Identify UK-specific key
drivers for and barriers
to upcycling
Formulate policy and
design interventions for
scaling up upcycling

7. Kyungeun Sung, Sustainable Consumption Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
5. Contribution to sustainability sciences
 Transdisciplinary nature of sustainability science
(Kajikawa, 2008)
 Dealing with three major sustainability-related
research domains: climate + energy and resources
+ lifestyle (ibid)
 Three components of sustainability science: 1) goal
setting: scaling up upcycling in households and beyond in the UK; 2)
causal chain analysis: behaviour factor analysis; and 3)
forecasting: semi-Delphi study results (ibid)
 Provide knowledge and guidance for actions
(Baumgärtner & Quaas, 2010)
Design Policy
Psychology Sociology
Sustainability science
(core)
Energy and
resources
Lifestyle
Climate

8. Kyungeun Sung, Sustainable Consumption Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
6. Contribution to sustainable development
Economy Society
Environment
Reducing materials and
energy consumption
Saving money
for individuals,
and job creation
with new SMEs
Creative,
ethical, happy
consumers in
households
Upcycling
 Meeting the UK climate
change target (80% carbon
emissions reduction by 2050)
 Preservation of nature
(physiocentric ethics)
 Quality of life for everyone
now (intra-generational justice)
 Quality of life for everyone
in the future (intergenerational
justice)

9. Kyungeun Sung, Sustainable Consumption Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment
References
Baker, S. (2006). The concept of sustainable development. Sustainable Development, 17-48.
Baumgärtner, S., & Quaas, M. (2010). What is sustainability economics? Ecological Economics, 69(3), 445-450.
Brundtland, G., Khalid, M., Agnelli, S., Al-Athel, S., Chidzero, B., Fadika, L., & de Botero, M. M. (1987). Our common future
('brundtland report'). Brussels: World Commission on Environment and Development.
Darnton, A. (2008). Practical guide: An overview of behaviour change models and their uses. Government Social Research
Unit: www.gsr.gov.uk/downloads/resources/behaviour_change_review/practical_guide.pdf
Derissen, S., Quaas, M. F., & Baumgärtner, S. (2011). The relationship between resilience and sustainability of ecological-
economic systems. Ecological Economics, 70(6), 1121-1128.
Folke, C., Carpenter, S., Elmqvist, T., Gunderson, L., Holling, C. S., & Walker, B. (2002). Resilience and sustainable development:
Building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment, 31(5), 437-440.
Kajikawa, Y. (2008). Research core and framework of sustainability science. Sustainability Science, 3(2), 215-239.
Kates, R. W., Clark, W. C., Corell, R., Hall, J. M., Jaeger, C. C., Lowe, I., & Svedlin, U. (2001). Environment and development.
sustainability science. Science (New York, N.Y.), 292(5517), 641-642.
Norton, B. G. (2005). Sustainability: A philosophy of adaptive ecosystem management University of Chicago Press.
van den Bosch, S. J. M. (2010). Transition experiments: Exploring societal changes towards sustainability. (PhD thesis).
Rotterdam: Erasmus University Rotterdam.

10. Kyungeun Sung, Sustainable Consumption Research Group, School of Architecture, Design and the Built EnvironmentImage sources: http://image.slidesharecdn.com/clapresentation-talisopenday-march14-140328085008-phpapp01/95/cla-presentation-talis-open-day-march-14-14-638.jpg?cb=1395996639
Thank you! Any questions?
Kyungeun.sung2013@my.ntu.ac.uk
http://kyungeunsung.com
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kyungeun_Sung