Research & Consultancy

Macrosustainability

Sustainability assessment is an important first step on the path towards sustainable development. We will help you select the most relevant sustainability indicators representing social, environmental and economic aspects of your country's, region's or company's performance. Then in consultation with you, we will chose the most appropriate multi-criteria decision aid tool and apply it to assess the progress that was made and generate policy recommendations. The results will help to understand how balanced is the development trajectory of your system in terms of social, economic and environmental priorities and what could be done to make it more sustainable. This methodology is applicable at the level of countries, regions and companies. We will be pleased to discuss your particular challenge in more details.

Ecosystems

Sustainability assessment is an important first step on the path towards sustainable development. We will help you select the most relevant sustainability indicators representing social, environmental and economic aspects of your country's, region's or company's performance. Then in consultation with you, we will chose the most appropriate multi-criteria decision aid tool and apply it to assess the progress that was made and generate policy recommendations. The results will help to understand how balanced is the development trajectory of your system in terms of social, economic and environmental priorities and what could be done to make it more sustainable. This methodology is applicable at the level of countries, regions and companies. We will be pleased to discuss your particular challenge in more details.

Smart and
Sustainable Cities

Using our own interdisciplinary urban sustainability methodology tested on London and St Petersburg we will conduct a comprehensive sustainability assessment of your city drawing on world's best practices. Focusing on the linkages between energy, transport, green space, cultural heritage, air quality, resource use and waste management, psychology of interaction with the environment and democratic governance we will help you draw a set of urban sustainable development strategies and policies to advance sustainability in your city. Using our comprehensive Environment Europe Sustainable Cities database, we will compare your city with top world's megacities and medium-sized cities to identify gaps in performance and help you to draft your urban sustainability strategy and policies. Our database covers 90 most important world cities, including New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, Beijing, Moscow, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney and many more.

Green and Circular Economy

Drawing on our considerable modelling expertise we will help your region or a company to set up a successful sustainable waste management system. Analysing the system strategically, we will combine improvements in the system's spatial layout to minimize costs and environmental impacts with selecting the best set of recycling technologies for a given composition of the waste stream and an optimal investment plan. Our modelling philosophy rests on the balance between economic gain and improvements in environmental quality. We will use optimization techniques in conjunction with GIS and life cycle analysis for this stream of work. We will be happy to discuss your specific needs, please write us an email outlining the exact nature of the challenge you are facing.

Renewables and Climate change

From designing renewable energy strategies and choosing the pool of best renewable energy technologies to helping you decide on the best location for the new wind turbines and analyzing the climate change policy discourse we will help you to address the pressing issues of climate change mitigation and adaptation. The most sophisticated tools will be used to this end: environmentally adjusted input-output modelling, multicriteria decision aid and life cycle analysis. We will help your organization, city or a region to prioritize various energy technologies from the point of view of CO2 emissions, costs and also associated land use, water use and new jobs that will be generated.

Complex Systems, New Sustainable Business Models and
Multi-Criteria Decision Aid

The role of business in reversing the global trends manifested in accelerating climate change, destruction of ecosystems and growing resource use and waste disposal will be pivotal as governments and international organisations alone cannot reach the SDGs (WWF, 2018). In fact, according to the Guardian, only 20 companies are "responsible" for more than half of the global CO2 emissions (Guardian, 2019). On the other hand, 70% of the companies fail to disclose the impacts of their activities on deforestation (CDP, 2019).

The Better Business, Better World Report identifies 'sustainable development' as a major business opportunity worth 12 trln by 2030 (Business and Sustainable Development Commission, 2017). New business opportunities emerge in the field of impact investing, green bonds, renewable energy, smart and sustainable cities, low carbon economy, circular economy, which will allow to embrace a more holistic thinking and aim to go beyond the simple economic logic to achieve the triple bottom line or the simultaneous improvement in social, environmental and economic domains.

Despite the wide international promotion of SDGs, only 13% of companies are taking action addressing the SDGs of Life below water (Goal 14); only 20% are acting to improve Life on land (Goal 15); only 28% are addressing Peace, justice and strong institutions (Goal 16); only 32% deal with Clean water and sanitation (Goal 6); only 34% address the subject of Sustainable Cities and Communities (Goal 11); only 39% act to reduce inequalities (Goal 10) and only 49% undertake climate actions (Goal 13) (UN Global Compact, 2019).
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