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Sustaintrans 2024-09-25T12:41:26+00:00

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“Sustainable transport is urgent – but possible and affordable”    

Dr. Henrik Ny, at the Department of Strategic Sustainable Development at Blekinge Institute of Technology    

Read more about how this can be achieved in the English summary report or in the main report page (in Swedish).

Projects

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Education and Training 

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– Are you interested to learn more about transitions to full sustainability? 

Our team is involved in, and responsible for, several courses open for international students at BTH. Below is an excerpt of these courses where strategic sustainable development is the core theme.

In fall 2025, we have the pleasure to offer a new distance course in English about sustainable energy and transport systems. The aim of the course is to develop the student’s knowledge and understanding of current energy & transport systems, their sustainability consequences, and how they can be transformed strategically to sustainability. Some previous knowledge about strategic sustainable development is required, as well as earlier university studies.

Introduction courses in Sustainable Development:

Foundations for Strategic Sustainable development, 7,5 cr (SL2567)

In early fall and early spring, we and colleagues at the TISU department offer 7,5 credit distance courses in English about introduction to strategic sustainable development. This is a great opportunity to learn about the framework for strategic sustainable development (FSSD), principles that defines sustainability, and the ABCD-approach to guide planning towards sustainability. 

Introduction to Strategic Sustainable Development, 3 cr (SL2568)

The purpose of this self-paced introduction course is for the students to acquire basic knowledge of strategic sustainable development, just enough to fulfill the requirements for the course about sustainable energy- and transport systems 😉

Other sustainability related courses at TISU:

The TISU department at BTH offer a great variety of interesting campus and distans courses that are related to strategic sustainable development. A complete list of stand-alone and distance courses can be found at TISU’s BTH website

Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability, 60 cr

The TISU department hosts a 1-year international master’s program in English on BTH campus about strategic leadership towards sustainability. This is highly recommended for anyone with a bachelor degree who would like to know more about how to support a transition to global sustainability by creating and implementing economically beneficial development of products, systems, organisations and societies. 

Research team

FSSD wide 2

We are a research team within the research area of  Strategic Sustainable Development at the TISU department within Blekinge Institute of Technology. Guided by the framework for strategic sustainable development (FSSD), our research is focusing on accelerated transformation of energy and transport systems towards sustainability. 

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Henrik Ny
Henrik Ny
Henrik is the research team leader and an associate professor. Besides PhD supervision he focus his research on development of methods and strategies for sustainable development.
Varvara Nikulina
Varvara Nikulina
Varvara is since 2017 a PhD student within the team and focus on the comparative analysis of transitions towards sustainable future within the transportation sector.
Thomas Berger
Thomas Berger
Thomas is since 2021 PhD student and part of the SustainTrans team and focus on systems analysis/dynamics and sustainable transport system development.
Sven Borén
Sven Borén
Sven is a Senior Lecturer within the team, and the HoD of TISU. He research on sustainability assessment of transport and development of methods, strategies and actions towards sustainability.
Giles Thomson
Giles Thomson
Giles is a researcher with a background in urban planning. He completed a PhD on regenerative urbanism and his focus is the intersection between urban planning and transport systems.
Andreas Olsson
Andreas Olsson
Andreas is an engineer with a decade of experience of cross sector collaboration working towards sustainability.
Judith Oginga-Martins
Judith Oginga-Martins
Judith is an urban planner and PhD student at the department of Spatial Planning at Blekinge Institute of Technology. She is working with the SustainTrans team through her supervisors Abdellah and Henrik within the UN Habitat project, Solutions Plus, which has a strong focus on electric mobility solutions in East Africa.
Göran Broman
Göran Broman
Göran is a Professor within Strategic Sustainable Development and the Dean of the Engineering Faculty, with supervision and development of transitions towards full sustainability as the main focus.
Karl-Henrik Robért
Karl-Henrik Robért
Karl-Henrik is a professor within Strategic Sustainable Development. He focuses on co-authorship of articles and mentorship within the team, and development of the Framework of Strategic Sustainable Development.
Abdellah Abarkan
Abdellah Abarkan
Abdellah is a professor at the department of Spatial Planning at Blekinge Institute of Technology. He is associated to the SustainTrans team through common research on sustainable mobility and urban planning. Abdellah and Henrik Ny jointly supervises the PhD student Judith Oginga Martins within this area.
Martin Prieto Beaulieu
Martin Prieto Beaulieu
Martin is an expert in mobility, vehicles, fuels and sustainable transport. He is responsible for mobility solutions and the web learning environment, two of six work package, in the ongoing Roadmapper Project.

Selected publications

This report analyses and suggests the most sustainable pathways to fossil free freight traffic along the Southeast link (älmhult-Olofström and Olofström-Karlshamn’s Harbor). Transports to and from Volvo Cars in Olofström was used as a case to investigate how to achieve at least 40% climate- neutral transports by 2025 in a way that paves the way for fully fossil free and sustainable alternatives from 2030 onwards.

Read more about the paper through this link.

This paper reveals a process for how rapid scenario planning can support a regional sustainability transformation. Read more about the paper through this link.

The 3rd paper in the electric bus study has after four years of work been completed by Anders Grauers at Chalmers, SustainTrans member Sven Borén, and Oscar Enerbäck at RISE.

Read more about the paper.

Written by Jyane Bryant and Giles Thomson and published in Sustainability Science in 2020, this paper presents a case study about embedding sustainability into a local government in Perth, Western Australia, through the introduction of a sustainability policy and the accompanying education and culture change program. Read more about the paper.

This report is a summary of a project conducted in 2019 about finding Challenges and Opportunities for shipping at large and Wallenius Marine towards sustainability.

Read more about the report

This paper by Sven Borén published in the International Journal of Sustainable Transportation (2019) describes how significant savings in societal costs and total cost of ownership when electric buses were compared to diesel and biogas powered buses, mainly due to decreased noise, no emissions in the use phase, and decreased energy use.

Read more about the paper

Highlights of this paper written by Varvara Nikulina et al. (2019):

A conceptual framework for analysing complexity of transdisciplinary co-production settings with regards to three aspects.

• Selected aspects: epistemic communities, linguistic diversity, culture.

• Some aspects that a process leader/facilitator would likely need to deal with when preparing for a co-production process.

• Linguistic equality, disciplinary integrity, culture of mutual respect, simultaneous mitigation, informed facilitation.

Read more about the paper.

The paper work primarily developed two stakeholder collaboration models, suggesting that charging infrastructure should be designed separately from the common procurement process. In these models, energy companies, electric grid owners, charging infrastructure operators, regional public transport authorities, and municipalities need to collaborate. The first model is designed for a system that includes chargers at certain locations along a route and/or stakeholders with a low level of experience of electric bus systems, while the second is designed for a system that includes bus charging at the depot and/or stakeholders with a high level of experience of electric bus systems.

Read more about the paper on this webpage.

This licentiate thesis by Varvara Nikulina was defended the 25th of January 2019 at Blekinge Institute of Technology. The overall conclusion is that there is a need for research that would show how mobility actors can contribute to resolve pressing issues related to climate change fast enough without compromising other aspects of sustainability, including how temporary trade-offs can be addressed in a strategic way.

Link to further information about the thesis

This PhD thesis Sven Borén was defended the 18th of October at Blekinge Institute of Technology. It revealed if, and then how, electric vehicles (primarily electric cars and buses) can contribute to a sustainable development. Click this link to read more about it.

This roadmap report aims to investigate how electric vehicle systems can contribute to a faster transition to sustainable passenger transport in Southeast Sweden, as well as to present a methodology for guidance of similar work for faster transitions in other regions and sectors.

Here you can find this English short version of this report – with a foreword by Peter Newman from the IPCC.

Rapportens resultat visar att dagens fokus på fossilfrihet och klimatåtgärder måste breddas till hela hållbarhetsfrågan  så att även andra hållbarhetsproblem adresseras och så att inte lösningar på vissa hållbarhetsproblem skapar nya. Rapporten tydliggör också att det är nödvändigt, praktiskt möjligt och ekonomiskt fördelaktigt för Sydostregionen att göra en snabbare hållbarhetsomställning av persontransporterna  än vad som har föreslagits i tidigare studier och utredningar.

Läs mer om rapporten

In Lisiana Nurhadi’s licentiate thesis it was shown how to develop and test a new approach to examining the economic socio-ecological sustainability effects of various road vehicles for private travelling, and business model.

Read more about the thesis

The overall aim of this licentiate thesis presented by Sven Borén in mid-April, was to elaborate methodological support for development of sustainable personal road transport systems that is informed by a strategic sustainable development perspective. Secondary aims where to find a vision for sustainable transport, initial development plan, sustainability effects, barriers and enablers for an increase of electric vehicles.

Read more about the thesis

The results show a large potential to decrease the environmental impact for both techniques, but it is strongly dependent on the electricity mix. Furthermore, this work shows that…

Read more

This study identified sustainability effects and quantified environmental impacts from current road vehicles, and projected how battery and hydrogen fuel cell EVs can contribute towards EU goals for 2050 and a sustainable future. Except for being adopted in the upcoming GreenCharge roadmap for fossil free personal road transport, the authors believe the results can contribute to planning in the upcoming decades for a sustainable increase in numbers of EVs in Europe, and potentially serve as an inspiration for other smaller or larger regions.

Read more

This study has clarified that electric buses have low energy use and low external noise levels, and receive positive opinions from passengers, drivers and other stakeholders in real-life use during wintertime in the south of Sweden.

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A new report by BTH conducted jointly with researchers from Copenhagen Business School and Innoventum has compared instruments for electric vehicles in eight countries. Recognized predecessor as Norway, the Netherlands and China were included, but also some who like Sweden, have been more cautious (Germany, France, the UK and Denmark). The report concluded that Norway is located far to the front, while Sweden finished in last place. The report also shows that there is a clear correlation between the strength of the instrument operations and the number of electric vehicles on the roads in the studied countries.

Read more…

Paper highlights:

  • Gasoline car causes the most emissions from its manufacturing and use phases.
  • Local jobs from renewables give positive contribution to social sustainability.
  • Renewable electricity in electric carpool cause least socio-ecological impact.
  • Car Pooling is more cost-effective for those who drive from 2000 to 8500 km.
  • People travel less than 13,500 km/year should not consider owning a car.

Read more

Applying the FSSD-based strategic model for cross-sector and inter-disciplinary community planning suggested in the first paper of this tandem, this second paper has arrived at…
… a preliminary sustainability vision for EV systems in southeast of Sweden.
… an initial development plan for road transport towards sustainability.
… a validation of the four planning perspectives and the iterative process suggested in paper 1.

Read more

The study found an approach for strategic sustainable development of transport, and…
… an iterative planning process for cross-sector community cooperation,
… four planning perspectives to ensure quality and anchoring of the process results,
… validation via a case study about sustainability visioning for EV’s, and
… usefulness of the approach for sustainable community planning beyond transport.

Read more

Övergripande slutsats: Eldrift av bussar har en stor potential att fungera i dagens och morgondagens kollektivtrafik.

Read more

Slutsatserna från studien under 2013 är att bussar för stadstrafik i medelstora städer som primärt drivs av el (från lokala vindkraftsandelar) jämfört med dieseldrift är…

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The study aims to emphasize on sensitivity analysis for the total cost of ownership (TCO) to reduce uncertainty by identifying which factors of interest that most likely cause the estimated cost values for the electric bus. The result shows that the percentage change of line distance (km/year), operational years, and investment cost would be the most influential and significant factors on TCO.

Read more

Some see the possibility to move beyond a narrow focus on efficiency or carbon dioxidereductions towards an integrated sustainability perspective. This paper uses this perspective to build and test a new assessment approach that should enhance decisions on bus transport powertrains and energy carriers for Swedish medium-sized cities. The study suggests that a superiority of electric powertrains is revealed if a traditional economic analysis is integrated with a strategic sustainability perspective.

Read more

Planning for low-carbon mobility that promotes public transport, walking and cycling modes is a key step towards sustainable mobility in cities. Choosing the right pathways to sustainable mobility is of particular importance to growing cities, which are faced with a high population growth rate, pressurized public transport systems and a heavy reliance on the private car.

Frequently Asked Questions Popular >>

For further interests please contact Judith

Judith Oginga Martins
judithachieng.oginga@bth.se
Researcher, Urban and Regional Planner
Urban Electric Mobility Initiative (UEMI) 
SustainTrans Research Group (BTH)
BTH – Blekinge Tekniska Högskola/ Swedish School of Planning

Electric mobility is beginning to enter East African cities. This paper aims to investigate what policy-level solutions and stakeholder constellations are established in the context of electric mobility (e-mobility) in Dar es Salaam, Kigali, Kisumu and Nairobi and in which ways they attempt to tackle the implementation of electric mobility solutions. The study employs two key methods including content analysis of policy and programmatic documents and interviews based on a purposive sampling approach with stakeholders involved in mobility transitions. The study findings point out that in spite of the growing number of policies (specifically in Rwanda and Kenya) and on-the-ground developments, a set of financial and technical barriers persists. These include high upfront investment costs in vehicles and infrastructure, as well as perceived lack of competitiveness with fossil fuel vehicles that constrain the uptake of e-mobility initiatives. The study further indicates that transport operators and their representative associations are less recognized as major players in the transition, far behind new e-mobility players (start-ups) and public authorities. This study concludes by identifying current gaps that need to be tackled by policymakers and stakeholders in order to implement inclusive electric mobility in East African cities, considering modalities that include transport providers and address their financial constraints.

Read the full article here >>

For further interests please contact Judith

Judith Oginga Martins
judithachieng.oginga@bth.se
Researcher, Urban and Regional Planner
Urban Electric Mobility Initiative (UEMI) 
SustainTrans Research Group (BTH)
BTH – Blekinge Tekniska Högskola/ Swedish School of Planning

This conference paper reveals a comprehensive catalogue of 42 solutions for sustainable cross-border and regional public transport, but also a 7-step process for planning towards such transport.

Read more in the following link.

Contact

Our main contact point is henrik.ny(at)bth.se and/or telephone +46455385500

Less sky version

We are located at BTH campus at the beautiful naval town Karlskrona, about 3 hours from Copenhagen by train, and 2 hour flight from Stockholm via Ronneby airport, and 8 hours ferry trip from Gdansk in Poland. Please check BTH website for further guidance, and the local public transport Blekingetrafiken or ’Resrobot’  to arrive in a convenient and environmental friendly way.

Arriving with an electric car? Electric-Car-Batteries-620x256There are several fast charging facilities for different cars along the E22
and national roads leading towards Karlskrona from Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö/Copenhagen. Find the most recent information about charging locations on the website ’uppladdning.nu’.

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