BU Research Blog

Green is a film worth watching. As the website suggests http://studyinggreen.wordpress.com/ It is both a hard hitting portrayal of the causes and consequences of deforestation in Indonesia, and a film which captures the tranquillity and calm of wild nature. It contains no narrative or dialogue and yet helps us understand complex commodity chains. It was made with a small camera by a single person on a tourist visa, and has beaten much larger production teams, and healthily funded groups to the most prestigious prizes in environmental film-making. And if that is not enough Green was not made for sale or profit, instead you can watch and download it for free at the film’s website (or see below for how to get a DVD of it). The website also contains a series of short essays put forward by academics, who have seen the film,

As you will have gathered from other posts on this blog, we have an opportunity to discuss the development of BU’s research themes at a launch event on 14th December. As a prelude to that, I thought that it might be helpful to start to discuss what the big research questions might be, in the theme of  ‘Green economy and sustainability’. I’ve been giving this a bit of thought over the past few weeks, while ploughing through leading journals looking for materials for our new Green Economy MSc. This is definitely one of those occasions when teaching and research can definitely be mutually beneficial! So, for starters, here are some initial ideas on big research questions that we might consider addressing in future. Comments and further suggestions on these would be most welcome.

1. How should the green economy be defined? It is striking how many different definitions have been proposed in the literature, with little consensus emerging as yet – rather, it is the subject of active debate. A key question, for example, is whether or not a green economy should include economic growth or not. Some commentators have argued strongly that a green economy is a zero growth economy, by definition, coming out of the ‘environmental limits to growth’ argument that began in the 1970’s. But there is very little evidence for such environmental limits restricting economic growth – rather, the global economy has adapted and continued to grow, acting like the complex adaptive system that it undoubtedly is. So, how should we define the green economy? Might it be defined simply in terms of one that prevents biodiversity loss and environmental degradation? Or must there be more to it than that, such as an element of social justice?

2. How might the transition to a green economy occur? What are the key elements of the socio-economic, cultural, political, institutional, technological and environmental context for this transition to be brought about? At the root of the sustainability transition, I think, lies human behaviour – ultimately, it is about understanding how people make decisions in response to external factors. This is an active area of research in social science, psychology, environmental science, and in economic geography, but these communities seem to be rather disconnected at present. There may be scope for a more integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to addressing this question, perhaps employing state-of-the-art tools such as agent based modelling of the behaviour of individual people, communities, institutions, companies etc. As the whole issue is surrounded by complexity and uncertainty, there may also be scope for deploying ‘softer’ tools such as scenario building.

3. How might resilient social-ecological systems be developed? One of the key principles of the green economy is that it links economic activity with its environmental impacts. The concept of social-ecological systems can be helpful in achieving this, by considering human communities and their local environments as part of a coupled system. It is important to understand the factors underpinning the resilience of such systems, particularly in the current era of rapid environmental, economic, technological and cultural change. This understanding is in its infancy. A corollary of this question is: how do social-ecological systems avoid collapse?

Please feel free to add to this list!

Adrian

A message from Clare Dean (thanks, Clare!), one of our postgraduate researchers, about a recent workshop that she attended along with some of her colleagues, with a focus on developing science-related business skills.

“Post graduate researchers from the School of Applied Sciences recently attended an ‘Environment YES!’ workshop in Oxfordshire. Environment YES! and Biotechnology YES! are NERC and BBSRC funded initiatives to teach early career scientists how to transfer research and innovation into viable business ventures. Attendees at these workshops listen to presentations from professionals who have made the leap from science into business, learning about everything from marketing to financial planning. See: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/using/schemes/yes/

Over the course of the workshop, teams from each attending university developed a business plan for a hypothetical product which had to be based on plausible science. At the end of the workshop each team was given the opportunity to present their business plan to board of mock venture capitalists, in a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style pitch. Based on these pitches, two teams were chosen to compete in a final to select the best business plan. Bournemouth University team created Ωmega Worms Ltd. a company who has developed a novel rearing technique for mealworms which induce them to synthesise omega 3. The business plan was to sell these mealworms as an omega 3 supplement to manufacturers of aquaculture feed, reducing the manufacturer’s reliance on oily fish as a feed ingredient, and thus their connection with unstable wild fish stocks.

The five members of the Bournemouth University team were Justine Cordingley, Clare Dean, Sui Chian Phang, Natalia Tejador and Kathryn Ross. All team members felt that Environment YES! was an extremely valuable learning experience.

 “With so much national focus on business and the economy it was a really useful exercise in thinking about how our research can be both profitable and solve environmental problems.”  – Justine Cordingley

 “This was an excellent experience which allowed us to strengthen a range of skills such as team work, time management, communication and presentation skills. Also it gave us the chance to learn about setting up a company and patenting products. It was enlightening!”  – Natalia Tejedor

Environment YES! And Biotechnology YES! run every year and are open to PhD and post doc researchers working in biological sciences. This year’s Bournemouth team would thoroughly recommend that members of the Applied Science community get involved in future workshops”.

One of the great joys of developing new teaching material is discovering the work of others, whom you knew nothing about. I’m currently reading ‘Thinking in systems’ by Donella Meadows, one of those names I’d been dimly aware of, without actually having read her work. Now I’m doing so, it’s a revelation; I have never read anyone write so clearly and entertainingly about systems thinking. She is probably best known as lead author of the seminal book ‘Limits to growth’, and was also a member of the ‘Club of Rome’. The article I have been recommending to my students is one of her best-known, and focuses on leverage points in systems – in other words, how to bring about change. Strongly recommended; I’ve put the link below. As a taster, here are a couple of quotes from her ‘Thinking in systems’ primer:

‘Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other, but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other. I call such situations messes… Managers do not solve problems, they manage mess’ [R Ackoff]

and:

‘You think that because you understand ‘one’ that you must therefore understand ‘two’ because one and one make two. But you forget that you must also understand ‘and’ [Sufi teaching story]

http://www.sustainabilityinstitute.org/pubs/Leverage_Points.pdf

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donella_Meadows

‘Green economy and sustainability’ is one of Bournemouth University’s (BU) newly defined research themes, and this blog has been created to support its development. The main aim of initiating this blog is to share information and to foster inter-disciplinary collaboration across the University. So, please get involved! Any member of BU staff who wants to add their own posts directly to this blog can now do so; please just make a request for access to the Research Development Unit, who will then set you up with an account.

Some brief items of news to kick us off. We are delighted that BU’s new MSc Green Economy has formally launched this October, with an initial cohort of 11 students. This is a novel departure for the University, being entirely distance-based in delivery, enabling students to study from anywhere in the world. As part of the course, students will have the option of undertaking either a research project or a work-based placement during their studies. So, if you have any ideas of projects that you would like to see them do, please get in touch.

There is also a Sustainable Business Exhibition happening right here in Bournemouth on 10th November, at the AFC Bournemouth stadium. This is free to attend: http://www.greenmessage.co.uk/exhibition/

Also, on the 20th October, the Carbon Management Centre of Excellence established by Mouchel in partnership with Bournemouth Borough Council is holding an event in BU’s Business Centre. The event will be showcasing successful carbon reduction projects in the property, transportation and waste sectors. It also will include a number of innovative new technologies that could deliver carbon reduction in the future. To register please email mark.baillie@mouchel.com.

Adrian