2024

Lehtimäki, Hanna; Galvão Lyra, Mariana; Taylor, Steven S

We have all heard about the environmental problems caused by human activity. Environmental problems that contemporary societies are now facing include the loss of biodiversity, climate warming, resource depletion, and excessive pollution. They are caused by unsustainable production and consumption patterns. Furthermore, our electricity, construction, and food have been found to cause harm to the environment. The socio-economic activities of humans do not fit the planetary boundaries and have negative consequences for the well-being of other species and the future generations of life on Earth. These worsening problems cannot be addressed only by incremental improvements and simple technological fixes. Instead, radical shifts to new kinds of socio-cultural and socio-technical systems are needed. These radical changes in society and business are called ‘sustainability transitions’ (Köhler et al., 2019).