The Human Factor in Designing Sustainable Systems

Dear Colleagues,

As highlighted in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (and recently, in Horizon Europe), it is imperative to rethink sustainability from an integral and practical perspective. Among the many elements that will underlie our transformation towards sustainability, there are key human factors such as beliefs and social preferences, as well as behavioral aspects. This Special Issue is dedicated to presenting and discussing these human components, which have gone through a deep transformation in the recent pandemic.

In the context of the energy transition, we find that the awareness of our connection to each other and the environment could, for instance, fuel support for renewable energies, which can provide a cleaner alternative to other technologies. In addition, the value of independence and resilience has been highlighted in recent years, and especially during the coronavirus crisis. From being able to produce masks to energy, distributed resources, multilevel planning, and balancing independence and coordination should be key in the post-covid era. This can have deep implications with respect to the specific technological options that will be deployed, for instance, in distributed electricity generation.

A crucially important matter is the reduction in consumption that has taken place during the lockdown months, which adds to the trend of mindful consumption. This adds to the possibility of a degrowth economy where social welfare is not compromised.

Future development will depend on one human component, namely, the human capacity to believe. In recent years, the processes and functions of the believing processes have become a topic of interdisciplinary research. This sheds light onto the issue of how people organize their beliefs about sustainability and how believing processes influence the interaction between perception and action.

All these elements will interact and reshape our understanding of sustainability and determine the targets and policies that we will witness in the next decades This Special Issue welcomes original articles dealing with these or other related issues, incorporating the new perspective on sustainability that the pandemic is shaping worldwide.

This Special Issue welcomes articles on the following points and others related to the human factor in sustainability:

• Sustainability and beliefs;
• Social support for renewables, distributed generation, and demand response in electricity markets;
• Social support for reducing consumption, reusing, and recycling;
• A degrowth economy and its social impact;
• Mindful consumption;
• Sustainability and justice.

Short information to those who sent abstracts:

The aim of this special issue is to highlight the human factor in the sustainability discussion (cf. website). Do you refer in your paper to the following topics?

• mindset
• change of mindset
• motivation
• learning
• expectation
• decision-making
• (relevance of) emotion(s)
• hopes and desire
• beliefs and belief formation

We hope that the checklist can be helpful for preparing your paper.
As model can be used the article

Hannes Hick, Hans-Ferdinand Angel, Philipp Kranabitl, Jolana Wagner-Skacel: Decision-Making and the Influence of the Human Factor, in: Hannes Hick, Klaus Küpper, Helfried Sorger (Eds): Systems Engineering for Automotive Powertrain Development, Springer 2021

Prof. Lluis Oviedo
Prof. Dr. Sara Lumbreras
Prof. Dr. Hans-Ferdinand Angel
Guest Editors

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