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As the human population continues to grow and use resources, we must be mindful of our planet’s natural limits. Sustainable development provides a pathway to maintain and improve human life now while also ensuring that future generations will have the resources that they need. The long-term success of sustainability efforts rests on understanding the interplay between human actions and ecological systems.
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The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that entropy, or the amount of disorder in a system, increases each time energy is transferred or transformed. Each energy transfer results in a certain amount of energy that is lost—usually in the form of heat—that increases the disorder of the surroundings. This can also be demonstrated in a classic food web. Herbivores harvest chemical energy from plants and release heat and carbon dioxide into the environment. Carnivores harvest the...
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Organisms must balance energy intake with the energy required for growth, maintenance and reproduction. These trade-offs result in a variety of survivorship and reproductive strategies, including semelparity and iteroparity. Semelparous species, like annual plants, have only one reproductive episode in their lifetimes and consequently have short lifespans. Iteroparous species, by contrast, have many reproductive events during their lifetimes but have relatively few offspring. These two...
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Updated: Jul 11, 2025

Transformation of Organic Household Leftovers into a Peat Substitute
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Sustainability transitions in consumption-production systems.

Frank W Geels1, Florian Kern2, William C Clark3

  • 1Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, Manchester M15 6PB, United Kingdom.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|November 13, 2023
PubMed
Summary

Achieving sustainable development requires faster transitions. This paper offers insights into conceptualizing, evolving, and guiding sustainability transitions through policy, drawing on societal interactions with nature and technology.

Keywords:
consumption-production systemsinnovationmulti-level perspectivepolicy relevancesustainability transitions

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Area of Science:

  • Environmental Science
  • Sociology
  • Technology Studies

Background:

  • Growing recognition of the need for rapid and profound shifts towards sustainable development pathways.
  • Extensive academic research and policy implementation efforts are underway to address this need.
  • Consumption-production systems are a key focus in understanding societal interactions with nature and technology.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To present powerful insights on sustainability transitions from ongoing research and policy work.
  • To highlight how sustainability transitions can be conceptualized, evolve, and be guided by policy.
  • To identify unresolved "how" questions crucial for advancing sustainable development.

Main Methods:

  • Synthesizing insights from solution-driven research and policy advice.
  • Drawing on studies of human-environment interactions and human-technology interactions.
  • Leveraging contributions from a PNAS Special Feature on sustainability transitions in consumption-production systems.

Main Results:

  • Identified key insights into the conceptualization and evolution of sustainability transitions.
  • Highlighted the role of deliberate policy interventions in shaping these transitions.
  • Emphasized the interconnectedness of societal-environmental and societal-technological systems.

Conclusions:

  • Understanding sustainability transitions requires integrating perspectives on nature and technology interactions.
  • Further research is needed to address critical "how" questions for effective policy guidance.
  • Bridging disciplinary divides is essential for advancing sustainable development pathways.