SILCI researcher Hazel Pettifor recently presented the results from a major study to the Global Sustainability Institute (GSI) in Cambridge. In March 2018, the SILCI team ran a series of workshops with over 65 residents of Norwich. These focussed on gaining an understanding of the important attributes of low carbon innovations that appealed to potential consumers. This work is part of a wider program to explore the mechanisms that […]
SILCI Bulletin on Disruptive Consumer Innovations and Climate Change December 2018 As the nations of the world gather in Poland for the latest round of climate change negotiations, the imperative to reduce emissions grows ever stronger. Disruptive consumer innovations have an essential part to play – from shared mobility and smarter homes to peer-to-peer […]
The SILCI project has recruited two new members. Dr Emilie Vrain has joined as a Senior Research Associate from the University of East Anglia’s Environmental Science department. Emilie will be conducting research on the social networks of early adopters of disruptive low carbon innovations. She also has a strong interest in smart homes and appliances […]
The Government’s goal to have autonomous vehicles in use by 2021 is moving towards reality. Mobile network operator O2 has signed up to provide what is expected to be Europe’s largest ‘smart road’ to support trials in the West Midlands. It is due to be launched in 2020. This will enable smart vehicle monitoring, data […]
Written by Emilie Vrain The UN has designated the 31st October as World Cities Day with the focus on ‘Building Sustainable and Resilient Cities’. The day is aimed at raising awareness and encouraging collaboration among countries to address challenges of urbanisation and create opportunities for sustainable urban development. The main event will be celebrated in […]
On his travels by boat and train across to Vancouver, British Columbia, SILCI project researcher Charlie Wilson stopped off in the prairie state of Saskatchewan where he spoke to the CBC about low-carbon travel as well as new research on low-carbon innovation and the 1.5°C climate goal. Fittingly, the day he was interviewed was the […]
The SILCI team are pleased to welcome Renae Sze Ming Loh who will complete an internship between June and August. Renae is a Masters student in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Utrecht University. Her research interests include technology and its social implications. Her project will focus on early adopters of low carbon innovations, drawing on large global social science data to answer some key questions. For example “to what extent do early adopters of low […]
Emma Cassar has been featured in an article written by Justin Camilleri, a freelance journalist on The Malta Independent. The article gives an overview of the 4 day Transport Research Arena Conference that took place in Vienna between the 16th and 19th April 2018. The main theme of the conference was on digitalization in the transport […]
Invited to Future Earth’s Exponential Climate Action for Cities (X-CAC) workshop in Stockholm, I faced a dilemma common to many researchers working on climate change: travel, participate but add to CO2 emissions … or stay at home, miss out, but avoid contributing to climate change? So when Future Earth offered me the possibility of participating […]
During recent workshops in Norwich we explored the general appeal of different types of low carbon innovations using repertory grid technique (RGT). This method has been widely used in consumer research to segment markets according to how products are valued by consumers. Using cue cards and a grid, we talked to over 40 people about the general appeal of 12 different low carbon innovations, concluding with a rating exercise in which they scored […]