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Project

Policy Research Centre Sustainable Materials Management (SuMMa): The global and European context of the transition towards sustainable materials management.

SuMMa is an interdisciplinary consortium of KU Leuven, Ghent University, VITO, HUB, UHasselt and Universiteit Antwerpen. It conducts scientific research on sustainable materials management from a perspective of sustainability transitions. It departs from the assumption that a more sustainable management of resources and materials is only possible if society succeeds in meeting its material needs without harming ecological balances or threatening our welfare. That implies, among other things, behavioural changes of producers and consumers and the consideration of the environmental impact of materials throughout their entire life cycle. Research line 3, "The global and European context of the transition towards sustainable materials management", focuses on the international dimension of the transition. It analyzes governmental and non-governmental initiatives that aim at managing materials more sustainably at the European and global level, and looks at how those initiatives can contribute to the transition that the Flemish Government wants to support.
Date:1 Jan 2012 →  31 Dec 2015
Keywords:Sustainable materials management, Sustainability transitions, Natural resources, Global governance, Resource efficiency, EU
Disciplines:Ceramic and glass materials, Materials science and engineering, Semiconductor materials, Other materials engineering, Other economics and business, Citizenship, immigration and political inequality, International and comparative politics, Multilevel governance, National politics, Political behaviour, Political organisations and institutions, Political theory and methodology, Public administration, Other political science