Dienst van SURF
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This report has been established within the Flexiheat project. Flexiheat has focused on increasing flexibility in district heating systems. The intelligent district heating network is a dynamic network: an open network where different waste heat and renewable energy sources are connected, that has multiple producers and groups of consumers and facilitates the connection between different energy infrastructures (gas, heat and electricity). Eventually this will lead to an optimal deployment of the available heat sources and an increased cost-efficiency of district heating. Flexiheat aims to develop new concepts for these intelligent, flexible district heating networks. One of the strategies is to allow third party access to the network. A smart control system is developed to manage the heat flows across the network. This system makes use of dynamic pricing. In this exploration the concept of third party access in relation to the Flexiheat project will be discussed. The development of new business and price models based on the Flexiheat approach has led to an analysis of possible alternative price models for consumers.
This paper describes a study into consumers' reasons for buying socially responsible (SR) products, such as Fair Trade products and organic meat. As opposed to other studies, we use a qualitative approach based on 25 in-depth interviews and include several different products in the research. This leads to several new results, such as: (1) buying SR products is perceived as an imperfect moral duty; (2) low quality of SR products is a dissatisfier, but high quality not a satisfier; (3) the attitude towards SR products is related to the reputation of charitable funds; (4) the demand for SR products is negatively related to the frequency of purchasing SR products; (5) reflection on SR products raises the demand for SR products; (6) consumers that have witnessed the social problems that SR products aim to alleviate purchase more SR products. Finally, we find that the demand for different SR products is correlated: if a consumer buys one SR product, it is more likely that (s)he purchases other SR products as well.
Abstract: Electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) is growing fast. The purpose of this study is to examine young consumers’ purchase intention of refurbished electronic devices (REDs) such as laptop, tablet, mobile phone and game console. From literature review the factors that influence young consumers’ purchase intention were identified as ‘environmental awareness’, ‘social acceptance’, ‘seller/brand reputation and availability’, and ‘affordability and value’. For each factor a few statements were developed and used as independent variables in a questionnaire. One statement was added about purchase intention as dependent variable. A Pearson correlation coefficient test us showed a clear positive correlation of ‘environmental awareness’ and ‘affordability and value’ with the intention to purchase REDs, but not for the other two factors. This analysis contributes to knowledge on young consumers’ perceptions of refurbished electronic devices and can inform the design of innovative value propositions and new business models for REDs that contribute to a circular economy
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De technische en economische levensduur van auto’s verschilt. Een goed onderhouden auto met dieselmotor uit het bouwjaar 2000 kan technisch perfect functioneren. De economische levensduur van diezelfde auto is echter beperkt bij introductie van strenge milieuzones. Bij de introductie en verplichtstelling van geavanceerde rijtaakondersteunende systemen (ADAS) zien we iets soortgelijks. Hoewel de auto technisch gezien goed functioneert kunnen verouderde software, algorithmes en sensoren leiden tot een beperkte levensduur van de gehele auto. Voorbeelden: - Jeep gehackt: verouderde veiligheidsprotocollen in de software en hardware beperkten de economische levensduur. - Actieve Cruise Control: sensoren/radars van verouderde systemen leiden tot beperkte functionaliteit en gebruikersacceptatie. - Tesla: bij bestaande auto’s worden verouderde sensoren uitgeschakeld waardoor functies uitvallen. In 2019 heeft de EU een verplichting opgelegd aan automobielfabrikanten om 20 nieuwe ADAS in te bouwen in nieuw te ontwikkelen auto’s, ongeacht prijsklasse. De mate waarin deze ADAS de economische levensduur van de auto beperkt is echter nog onvoldoende onderzocht. In deze KIEM wordt dit onderzocht en wordt tevens de parallel getrokken met de mobiele telefonie; beide maken gebruik van moderne sensoren en software. We vergelijken ontwerpeisen van telefoons (levensduur van gemiddeld 2,5 jaar) met de eisen aan moderne ADAS met dezelfde sensoren (levensduur tot 20 jaar). De centrale vraag luidt daarom: Wat is de mogelijke impact van veroudering van ADAS op de economische levensduur van voertuigen en welke lessen kunnen we leren uit de onderliggende ontwerpprincipes van ADAS en Smartphones? De vraag wordt beantwoord door (i) literatuuronderzoek naar de veroudering van ADAS (ii) Interviews met ontwerpers van ADAS, leveranciers van retro-fit systemen en ontwerpers van mobiele telefoons en (iii) vergelijkend rij-onderzoek naar het functioneren van ADAS in auto’s van verschillende leeftijd en prijsklassen.
Denim Democracy from the Alliance for Responsible Denim (ARD) is an interactive exhibition that celebrates the journey and learning of ARD members, educates visitors about sustainable denim and highlights how companies collaborate together to achieve results. Through sight, sound and tactile sensations, the visitor experiences and fully engages sustainable denim production. The exhibition launches in October 2018 in Amsterdam and travels to key venues and locations in the Netherlands until April 2019. As consumers, we love denim but the denim industry, like other sub-sectors in the textile, apparel and footwear industries, faces many complex sustainability challenges and has been criticized for its polluting and hazardous production practices. The Alliance for Responsible Denim project brought leading denim brands, suppliers and stakeholders together to collectively address these issues and take initial steps towards improving the ecological sustainability impact of denim production. Sustainability challenges are considered very complex and economically undesirable for individual companies to address alone. In denim, small and medium sized denim firms face specific challenges, such as lower economies of scale and lower buying power to affect change in practices. There is great benefit in combining denim companies' resources and knowledge so that collective experimentation and learning can lift the sustainability standards of the industry and lead to the development of common standards and benchmarks on a scale that matters. If meaningful, transformative industrial change is to be made, then it calls for collaboration between denim industry stakeholders that goes beyond supplier-buyer relations and includes horizontal value chain collaboration of competing large and small denim brands. However collaboration between organizations, and especially between competitors, is highly complex and prone to failure. The research behind the Alliance for Responsible Denim project asked a central research question: how do competitors effectively collaborate together to create common, industry standards on resource use and benchmarks for improved ecological sustainability? To answer this question, we used a mixed-method, action research approach. The Alliance for Responsible Denim project mobilized and facilitated denim brands to collectively identify ways to reduce the use of water and chemicals in denim production and then aided them to implement these practices individually in their respective firms.
Sea Lettuce, Ulva spp. is a versatile and edible green seaweed. Ulva spp is high in protein, carbohydrates and lipids (respectively 7%-33%; 33%-62% and 1%-3% on dry weight base [1, 2]) but variation in these components is high. Ulva has the potential to produce up to 45 tons DM/ha/year but 15 tons DM/ha/year is more realistic.[3, 4] This makes Ulva a possible valuable resource for food and other applications. Sea Lettuce is either harvested wild or cultivated in onshore land based aquaculture systems. Ulva onshore aquaculture is at present implemented only on a few locations in Europe on commercial scale because of limited knowledge about Ulva biology and its optimal cultivation systems but also because of its unfamiliarity to businesses and consumers. The objective of this project is to improve Ulva onshore aquaculture by selecting Ulva seed material, optimizing growth and biomass production by applying ecophysiological strategies for nutrient, temperature, microbiome and light management, by optimizing pond systems eg. attached versus free floating production and eventually protoype product development for feed, food and cosmetics.