Step 2 – Reflect

Now you have some ideas on how your research could contribute to sustainability and how strongly you want to operationalise it, you can start elaborating a more detailed approach.

There are many different approaches to sustainability. Some researchers accept trade-offs between environmental, social and economic dimensions. Others aim to balance and enhance as many dimensions as possible. We provide a visual summary of some of the most important big ideas in sustainability, and a spotlight on environmental justice approaches below, highlighting key differences.

Click on the resources listed under ‘further information and tools’ to learn more about each approach to sustainability and reflect on the questions below to start building your own perspective on sustainability.

Examining Trade-offs

Click Here

Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability in the Transition to Renewable Energy

Mountain landscape on a sunny day with wind turbines generating electricity in the background.

Renewable energy technologies can reduce our carbon footprint, but they also drive new demand for minerals such as copper, cobalt and rare earth elements. This has its own environmental impacts. In addition, whilst mining can create direct and indirect employment, it can also have significant negative environmental and social impacts.

For example, in Peru, mining is linked to armed conflicts, land dispossession, and environmental degradation. The jobs and profits derived from mining are also inequitably distributed. Indigenous people and women often benefit least, whilst being the most impacted by security concerns and local environmental losses. Researchers developing renewable technologies can consider all these dimensions in their projects, to provide a holistic approach to sustainability which minimises negative impacts.

In view of this the EU’s FP 7 funded project Managing Impacts of Deep-seA reSource exploitation took a holistic approach to sustainability. The project combed deep-sea biologists, oceanographers, geologists, geochemists, social scientists and legal experts, and examined environmental, economic and social impacts of new mining technologies in the context of the energy transition. Findings aimed to provide a multi-dimensional perspective on the feasibility and sustainability of deep-sea mining, which included a realistic and wide range of impacts.