Author Archives: Kris De Decker

We Can’t Do it Ourselves

Posted on April 10, 2018

Illustration: Diego Marmolejo. How to live a more sustainable life? This question generates a lot of debate that is focused on what individuals can do in order to address problems like climate change. For example, people are encouraged to shop locally, to buy organic food, to install home insulation, or to cycle more often. But how effective is individual action when it is systemic…

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How Much Energy Do We Need?

Posted on January 17, 2018

Because energy fuels both human development and environmental damage, policies that encourage energy demand reduction can run counter to policies for alleviating poverty, and the other way around. Achieving both objectives can only happen if energy use is spread more equally across societies. However, while it’s widely acknowledged that part of the global population is living in…

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Bedazzled by Energy Efficiency

Posted on January 9, 2018

To focus on energy efficiency is to make present ways of life non-negotiable. However, transforming present ways of life is key to mitigating climate change and decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels. Energy efficiency policy Energy efficiency is a cornerstone of policies to reduce carbon emissions and fossil fuel dependence in the industrialised world. For example, the European…

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Where Infrastructures and Appliances Meet

Posted on October 16, 2017

Image: a mechanical electricity meter. Picture in the public domain. Modern infrastructures for energy, water and communications are systems of collective provision, often organised and financed by the state. The appliances that are plugged into these infrastructures – such as laptops, washing machines or electric cars – are considered to be individual consumption goods, provided by the…

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The Curse of the Modern Office

Posted on November 22, 2016

Downtown Chicago. Photo credit: Charles Voogd, Wikipedia Commons. The information society promises to dematerialise society and make it more sustainable, but modern office and knowledge work has itself become a large and rapidly growing consumer of energy and other resources.  Welcome to the Office These days, it's rather easy to define an "office worker": it's someone who sits in front of…

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