Advanced Polymer and Perovskite Solar Cells

This special issue was designed to draw attention to photovoltaic technology, which harnesses sunlight—the most promising renewable energy source—for our sustainable future [...]

Perspectives on the pervasive energy-systems transformations

Energy is central for the global decarbonization and the achievement of a sustainable future for all. This calls for a fundamental energy-systems transformation that would bring multiple co-benefits for health, climate and other challenges facing humanity and especially those without access to affordable and clean energy services. Pervasive transformation toward zero-carbon electricity and electrification of energy end use are central to achieving higher efficiencies, decarbonization and net-zero emissions. This is not merely a technical and economic issue. It is about people, about societies and about values and behaviors. Technology is an integral part of the society and an expression of collective intentionality through aggregation of sundry individual choices. The next disruptive transformation toward a sustainable future may indeed be powered by the digital revolution. It poses dangers for privacy, dissemination of alternative realities and erosion of evidence-based information but it also offers a great promise of catalyzing the emergence of a sustainable future by augmenting human capabilities by new, more convenient, more efficient and decarbonized goods and services. The key question is whether humanity will have the political will to collectively achieve the energy-systems transformation toward a sustainable future and net-zero emissions in merely three decades.

Re-purposing Universities: The Path to Purpose

As the extent of damage to environmental systems from our business-as-usual activity becomes ever more alarming, Universities as core social institutions are under pressure to help society lead the transition to a sustainable future. Their response to the issues, that they themselves have helped reveal, has, however, been widely criticised for being wholly inadequate. Universities can be observed to engage with sustainability issues in ad-hoc ways, with the scale of attention and commitment dependant mainly on the level of pressure exerted by stakeholders that works to overcome aspects of inherent inertia. Sustainability initiatives can therefore be regarded mainly as bolt-ons. This mirrors how other sectors, including businesses, have tended to respond. As the environmental and social crisis mounts and the window for adaptive change to ensure long-term wellbeing for all narrows, the pressure for deeper systemic change builds. It is in this context that transformation to a “purpose-driven organisation” has emerged as a systemic approach to change, enabling an organisation to align deeply and rapidly with society's long-term best interest and hence a sustainable future. Nowhere has this concept been taken forward more obviously than in the business sector. As business leadership towards purpose becomes more apparent, so the lack of action in this area by universities appears starker. In this paper we clarify what it means to be a purpose-driven organisation, why and how it represents a deep holistic response to unsustainability, and what core questions emerging from the business world university leaders can ask themselves to begin the practical journey to transform their institutions into purpose-driven universities.

Plasmonic catalysis with designer nanoparticles

Catalysis is central to a more sustainable future and a circular economy. If the energy required to drive catalytic processes could be harvested directly from sunlight, the possibility of replacing...