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Governing the emergence of technologies in society is a complex endeavour, one that has been much studied yet remains without satisfactory answers. Given the urgent sustainability challenges faced by society and the significant role that science, technology, and innovation are expected to play in tackling them, the desire to exert control on emerging technologies is more pressing than ever. While a considerable volume of relevant research has been undertaken on this issue drawing from a range of academic disciplines, philosophical positions, and methodological traditions, much of it takes place in silos, precluding holistic insights. This thesis takes an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods approach to ask how emerging technologies can be governed in line with the sustainability needs of society. Empirical insights are derived from the emerging technological paradigm of synthetic biology. Four journal-style research papers make up the body of the thesis. The first paper develops a conceptual framework for Constructive Sustainability Assessment (CSA) which aligns analytical sustainability assessment approaches with technology assessment and responsible research and innovation. CSA provides a means through which the sustainability implications of new technologies can be evaluated early in their development. In the second paper, CSA is operationalised as part of an industry-based action research study in the field of synthetic biology. The synthetic biology-enabled production of bio-based nylon is found to provide potential benefits in terms of greenhouse gas emissions but have detrimental impacts in terms of several other environmental and social aspects. This paper demonstrates how the CSA approach can shed light on the impacts of new technologies at an early stage and potentially feed these findings into company decision-making. The third paper explores the barriers and opportunities revealed through testing CSA in the context of a company and discusses how the Silicon Valley-style business practices employed could be better aligned with sustainable development. Lastly, the fourth paper draws on the policy mix literature to investigate the role that sustainability has played in policy interventions supporting synthetic biology in the UK. While the sustainability agenda has played an important role in making the case for government support, this has failed to translate into policy development and implementation. At the core of the thesis is the argument that while controlling new technologies will always be challenging, approaches such as CSA can help. The findings also suggest that we should avoid taking the sustainability potential of new technologies at face value. Furthermore, greater clarity is needed from those promoting new technologies concerning promised sustainability benefits while mechanisms are also needed for citizens to more clearly specify their sustainability priorities. Finally, three sets of recommendations are identified for research, policy, and practice: i) to critically assess the sustainability of emerging technologies, ii) to specify sustainability claims and needs, and iii) to reshape the socio-technical landscape for sustainable technologies.

The ongoing transformation of the energy system along a more sustainable trajectory requires advancements in a range of technological fields, as well as active involvement of different societal groups. Integration of photovoltaic (PV) systems in the built environment in particular is expected to play a crucial long-term role in the deployment of renewable energy technologies in urban areas, demanding the successful cooperation of planners, architects, engineers, scientists and users. The realisation of that technological change will require innovation at both an individual (within firms and organisations) and a collective (sector) level, giving rise to systemic approaches for its characterisation and analysis of its drivers. This study investigates the processes that either accelerate or hinder the development and diffusion of Building-Integrated PV (BIPV) applications into the market. Affected by developments in both the renewable energy and construction industries, the BIPV innovation system is a multi-sectoral case that has been explored only partially up to now. Acknowledging the fact that drivers of innovation span the globalised BIPV supply chain, this research adopts both an international and a national spatial perspective focusing on the UK. The analysis is based on a novel analytical framework which was developed in order to capture innovation dynamics at different levels, including technological advancements within firms, competition and synergy with other emerging and established innovation systems and pressures from the wider socio-economic configuration. This hybrid functional framework was conceived by combining elements from three academic strands: Technological Innovation Systems, the Multi-Level Perspective and Business Studies. The empirical research is based on various methods, including desktop research, semi-structured interviews and in-depth firm-level case studies. A thorough market assessment provides the techno-economic background for the research. The hybrid framework is used as a guide throughout the empirical investigation and is also implemented in the analytical part of the study to organise and interpret the findings, in order to assess the overall functionality of the innovation system. The analysis has underlined a range of processes that affect the development and diffusion of BIPV applications including inherent technological characteristics, societal factors and wider transitions within the energy and construction sectors. Future approaches for the assessment and governance of BIPV innovation will need to address its hybrid character and disruptiveness with regards to incumbent configurations, in order to appreciate its significance over the short and long term. Methodological and conceptual findings show that the combination of insights from different analytical perspectives offers a broader understanding of the processes affecting innovation dynamics in emerging technologies. Different approaches can be used in tandem to overcome methodological weaknesses, provide different analytical perspectives and assess the performance of complex innovation systems, which may span multiple countries and sectors. By better reflecting complexities, tensions and synergies, the framework developed here offers a promising way forward for the analysis of emerging sustainable technologies.

Under the Biden Administration, the US National Park Service (NPS) has renewed their commitment to building healthy collaborative partnerships with Indigenous communities. As a premier site for NPS-Tribal collaboration, joint activities at Isle Royale National Park have implications for a new wave of co-stewardship plans and influence regional ecological and social conditions. Evaluation of recent land management decisions, like that of wolf reintroduction in 2019, shows that Indigenous perspectives are marginalized in the planning process at Isle Royale. This practicum creates recommendations for potential sustainability and justice transitions at Isle Royale National Park regarding NPS-Tribal collaboration. The recommendations are supported by literature on recent co-stewardship cases, interviews with regional community members, and application of justice theory, summarized in Report 1. Report 2 covers an inclusive history of Isle Royale’s main island, Minong, analyzing how varying frames of conservation inform contrasting narratives on land protection, and unpacking how conservation efforts contributed to Ojibwe dispossession of Minong. Pluralistic frames of conservation can improve NPS historical interpretation and support Indigenous participation in co-stewardship. Report 3 recommends that Isle Royale National Park (1) establish a formal co-management structure for NPS-Tribal decision-making, (2) develop a site on Minong for flexible Tribal access and shared land management authority, and (3) deepen collaboration on conservation, science, and education programming with Tribal communities and Grand Portage National Monument. Finally, Report 4 details how sustainability transitions at the NPS are driven by conservation frames acting as cumulative forces. The wilderness ideal, scientific expertise, and relational values represent systems of nature valuation that direct NPS policy and practice, with implications for how expert knowledge is created and recognized in the conservation space

Limits to further economic growth became clear to the scientific community, and various alternative development strategies have appeared. One such strategy is degrowth, a socio-economic development concept based on ecological economics and social equity ideas. The main idea of degrowth is to decrease the size of the global economy by fair reductions in global production and consumption levels. Interest in degrowth is constantly increasing, though clear ways of operationalisation of degrowth transitions are still lacking. A degrowth transition requires clear criteria for its implementation, especially in an urban context, to which little attention has been paid so far in degrowth debates. The key research problem addressed in this PhD thesis is how to operationalise the concept of degrowth, especially in an urban context. The main goal of this PhD thesis is to create a set of comprehensive proposals for the operationalisation of degrowth in cities. This thesis consists of an introduction, three related scientific articles published in international journals, and a discussion and conclusions wrapping up the whole series of articles.

The challenges facing agricultural systems – biodiversity loss, climate change, and corporate consolidation of food production, to name a few – demand transitions to more environmentally and socially sustainable agricultural systems. To investigate the processes supporting these transitions, the three chapters of this dissertation combine theories and methods from environmental policy and governance, innovation systems, and social networks to analyze the empirical case of the organic seed system – the actors, institutions, and socio-technical innovations involved in breeding, producing, processing, selling, and regulating seeds suitable for organic agricultural production. Chapter 1 focuses on the so-called "organic seed loophole" in the United States' organic standards, whereby growers can use conventional seed if organic seed is not commercially available, and investigates the effects of this policy on organic growers' seed sourcing choices. By modeling survey data on US organic growers' seed sourcing practices from three cross-sections over the last 15 years, we find evidence for both the intended effects of the policy (helping organic growers who face seed sourcing barriers to maintain organic status) and for unintended effects, i.e. allowing growers to source non-organic seed even though organic seed is commercially available. Chapter 2 maps the spatial boundaries of the organic seed network to test the propositions of the Global Innovation Systems framework. Using survey data of organic seed stakeholders collected between 2020-2022, we operationalize the organic seed innovation system as a multi-functional network. This includes various knowledge and market-based relationships between organic seed producers, researchers, companies, and non-profit organizations. We analyze the network using inferential network analysis methods and find that the framework explains its structure well, as the organic seed network is built up by regionally embedded knowledge creation and product valuation systems. Finally, Chapter 3 analyzes the organic seed innovation system as an emergent system and investigates the role of different types of actors in explaining its formation. Using network analysis and the same data from Chapter 2, we test the resource-based theory of system building and the institutional logics of the multi-actor perspective. We find that the organic seed network is shaped primarily by "partner mode" structures, suggesting that cooperative and complementary resource-sharing relationships drive system formation. Furthermore, our models show how actor involvement varies along functional lines, where non-profit actors are generally more active in pre-competitive activities like knowledge creation, while for-profit actors are more active in market-based functions like value chain creation. The findings of this dissertation research help guide policy recommendations for developing the organic seed system, a niche innovation system that plays a pivotal role in the transition towards sustainable agriculture. Furthermore, the research contributes to the field of innovation systems by empirically testing and extending networking-building theory using inferential network analyses. This approach contributes to a more generalizable understanding about the who, where, and how of innovation system formation, ultimately deepening our understanding of managing sustainability transitions.

Waste is being generated and discarded at unprecedented and alarming rates. Waste of all materials and products is creating air, water, and soil pollution, causing biodiversity loss and harming human health. Such destruction came fast and such destructive practices can be altered. That alteration, I propose, can come through a policy-based sustainability transition towards waste-free systems. I introduce the term ‘towards waste-free systems’ as, I hope, a unifying and galvanizing term to align an otherwise disparate preexisting assemblage of actors fostering or inhibiting action towards less waste. In support of wastelessness, many actors have made substantial and remarkable inroads against the locked-in make-take-discard consumption culture. They have passed policies, created alternative use systems, and conducted cross-disciplinary education and awareness. They have removed persistent organic pollutants from our packaging, increased producer responsibility in the disposal process, and curbed the use of some of the most damaging materials. Yet, waste continues to be generated, ecosystem harm continues, and human health continues to be compromised. In this dissertation, I propose we can make substantially more progress by framing and driving a sustainability transition towards waste-free systems through policy strategies. Co-authors and I conducted numerous studies, at varying geographical scales, through multiple methodologies, to examine policies as they relate to the sustainability transition towards waste-free systems. These studies include a review of all anti-single use disposable (SUD) foodware policies in the US; an assessment of the effectiveness of one historic anti-SUD foodware policy in Berkeley, California; an impact-based approach of China’s policy to no longer accept 70% of the US’s discarded plastics; and a deep dive into the policies paused, by whom, and for what reasons, that spurred the creation of exorbitant SUD foodware and healthcare waste (‘hygiene waste’) during COVID-19. These studies, grounded in sustainability transition theory and discard studies, demonstrate that achieving waste-free systems is both obtainable and necessary, but that such efforts face many obstacles along the way.

Hurricane Harvey stalled over Southeast Texas for the better part of a week in August 2017. During that time, the Category 4 storm produced unprecedented amounts of rainfall throughout the region, causing extensive flooding in and around the major metropolitan centers of Houston and Beaumont/Port Arthur. This study seeks to understand how water utilities learn from such flooding events by engaging several utility managers from the area, as well as the control locations of Tampa/St. Petersburg and Pensacola, Florida, in semi-structured interviews focused on the innovations they have implemented since Harvey. Through a comparison of the innovations adopted in Texas to those implemented in Florida, the impact of the storm on water utility operations and planning is examined. Ultimately, it is found that utilities in both states have adopted an array of educational, financial, infrastructural, programmatic, and technological innovations since 2017. However, the reality that those water utilities affected by Hurricane Harvey have implemented more environmental innovations than their unaffected counterparts in Florida suggests that water utilities do in fact learn from flooding events. This finding has important ramifications for sustainability transitions theory and practice, as well as climate resilience efforts. Keywords: Hurricane Harvey, water utilities, sustainability transitions, innovation, resilience

This thesis critically examines Australia’s efforts to transform its electricity regime along ecologically sustainable lines. To carry out this analysis, it traces the evolution of climate and energy policy at national, State and local levels through primary interviews and secondary documentary analysis since the emergence of the Toronto Target in 1988. Drawing on insights from the sustainability transitions literature and combining this with a neo-Gramscian perspective, this thesis exposes and deepens our understanding of the power relations that enable and constrain sustainability energy transitions. To date, Australia has made little progress toward ‘greening’ its electricity regime. Nevertheless, analysis of Australia’s sustainability energy transition narrative reveals significant patterns in climate and energy discourse and policy formation. Over the last 25 years configurations of material, institutional and discursive forces have led to moments of policy innovation, which, particularly from 2007 onwards, have shifted the policy landscape. The first formal attempt by the Federal government to introduce an emissions trading scheme (2008 to 2010) offered a new path for energy futures. Ultimately this effort was defeated with relative ease, exposing the contingent nature of sustainability energy transitions in Australia. The second attempt, which sought to introduce a carbon tax (2010 to 2013), proved more successful. A minority Labor government - provoked and supported by the Greens - developed a new and important overarching institutional structure, paving the way for significant reforms. These breakthroughs notwithstanding, institutionalising a sustainability energy transition has proven extremely challenging. This thesis finds that climate policy and energy policy in Australia have been dissociated from one another. This failure of policy coordination and integration is reflected in the diverging goals and paths of each policy domain, and is caused in part by attempts to reconcile competing neoliberal and weak ecological modernisation discourses. This clash, played out within the policy domain through key institutions, actors, and special interests, has led to a range of ad hoc and often contradictory policy pathways. The inability of Australian governments to define and articulate a coherent narrative around a sustainable energy future has constrained Australia’s progress towards electricity decarbonisation.

Throughout this study, I explored design approaches and strategies that could be used to facilitate sustainability transitions. Specifically, the goal of this study was to help The Ohio State University (Ohio State) manage and initiate their transition to zero waste residence halls. First I used an idealized design approach to outline a long-term plan for transitioning the campus to zero waste. Then I used design for behavior change strategies to develop interventions that tested social theories in the context of a student residence hall. The Sustainability Office of Student Life and the Behavioral Decision Making Initiative funded this research to gain new insight into zero waste transitions and behavioral decision-making. Negative effects of landfill waste on the environment are well known. However, approximately 70 percent of waste at Ohio State is still being sent to the landfill (Materials Management Annual Report, 2013). Ohio State defines zero waste as diverting more than 90 percent of waste from landfills by recycling and composting; they plan to transition their entire campus to zero waste by the year 2030. Complex sustainability transitions like this benefit from plans that incorporate a long-term vision with actionable leverage points. To facilitate this transition, I developed a campus-wide zero waste plan for the year 2030 and tested a variety of behavior change strategies through an intervention research study. The intervention research was the main component of this study and was used to gauge the feasibility of zero waste in residence halls, change students’ waste sorting practices, and identify future intervention opportunities. Interventions that encourage recycling are not new, but these strategies typically address recycling as planned behavior that is guided by a rational decision-making process. Alternatively, interventions in this study were also based on the idea that people often make automatic decisions with regard to recycling. And when people make automatic decisions, the built environment—designed symbols, objects, and interactions—can greatly influence what decisions are made. In this study I explored ways for design to target students’ automatic and reflective systems in order to influence their decisions. This intervention research study used a combination of approaches from design and anthropology. The study was completed in four phases: ethnography, intervention design, intervention experiment, and analysis. The ethnographic research phase was used to better understand students’ sorting practices and to create a theoretical foundation for the intervention design. Four distinct interventions were designed to encourage students to recycle and compost in a university residence hall. The interventions tested multiple behavior change strategies and were designed to incrementally build on top of each other. All four interventions shared a new waste collection infrastructure that was designed to target students’ automatic response. Interventions two, three, and four tested education, behavioral feedback, and social influence as motivational factors that targeted students’ reflective response (their rational decision-making process). The intervention experiment was implemented across eight floors of a student resident hall, affecting over 400 students. Intervention effectiveness was measured and analyzed in three ways: changes in practices, changes in perceptions, and effectiveness of intervention materials. Data were collected through observations, surveys, visual waste assessments, and waste audits. Findings from this study have implications for design, social theory, as well as zero waste transitions.