Research + Communications
Our research and communications work focuses on adding global economic context to sustainability-related topics such as energy transition, climate action, and environmental justice. Through quantitative analysis and critical commentary, we investigate pathways to more just and equitable wellbeing for all.
Research Papers & Articles
Topic Briefs and Blog Posts
Presentations
Social & Environmental Justice
A Degrowth Perspective on Environmental Violence. Many contemporary strategies for reducing environmental harm make the implicit assumption that the global economy can and must endlessly grow. We introduce ways to challenge this assumption while continuing to reduce environmental violence worldwide.
Published in Exploring Environmental Violence, Cambridge University Press, 2024.
Reconfigurations of Life Cycle Assessment: Valuing Life Over Lithium. While environmental impact assessment is getting ever more detailed and precise, such analytical tools can also make it easy to ignore global social dynamics implicated in the energy transition.
Presented at the American Society for Engineering Education Conference & Exposition, 2023.
Has the Economy Outgrown the Planet? An Introduction to Degrowth. A summary of degrowth principles, motivations, and frequently asked questions about global equity and technological progress.
Produced by the Degrowth Coffee Hour Colloquium at Purdue University, 2023.
Energy Transition
The Affluence-Technology Connection in the Struggle for Sustainability. Achieving a lower-impact future means seeking appropriate affluence alongside appropriate and sustainable technologies.
Published in Exploring Environmental Violence, Cambridge University Press, 2024.
Energy-Material Cycles: A materials-based perspective of vehicle energy systems. This paper describes the fundamental material cost of transitioning to low-carbon energy systems, highlighting the importance of pursuing a just transition within biophysical limits.
Published in Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2023.
The False Promises of Green Energy. A podcast episode discussing and debating the socioeconomic limits of green/clean technologies. Many of green energy’s promises are true; endless growth on a finite planet is not one of them.
Episode 145 of Doomer Optimism, 2023.
Circular Economy
Degrowth Demystified: The Movement Challenging Economic Orthodoxy. A conversation on pairing the circular economy with limits on economic growth, in order to deliver true and lasting impact reduction.
Season 4, Episode 4 of The Selling Circular Podcast, 2025.
Please, Stop Considering the Environment. A brief history of eco-conscious consumerism and its unintended consequences.
Published on Resilience.org, 2023.
Moving the Circular Economy Beyond Alchemy. The circular economy faces a “validity challenge”: It makes the economy more materially-efficient but does not adequately confront the relentless pursuit of growth, which undoes many of its potential benefits.
Published in Discard Studies, 2017.
Sustainability
Degrowth and Sustainable Consumption. This chapter defines Degrowth, for the forthcoming volume titled Language for Our Common Future: A Vocabulary for Sustainable Consumption and Lifestyles.
Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI), 2025.
Emerging Concerns in Sustainability Reporting: Disclosure of Tertiary Effects in the Home Appliance Industry. A systematic review of corporate sustainability reporting metrics. We find that macroeconomic context and important rebound effects are largely absent from their impact-reduction claims.
Published in Cleaner and Responsible Consumption, 2024.
The Macroeconomic Role of Efficiency: Eco-Labels’ Missing Story. From Amazon’s “Climate Pledge Friendly” icon to the green-leaf label you see on Google Maps directions - so many corporate eco-claims are based solely on making things more efficient. But what happens to the savings?
Published on John Mulrow’s research blog, 2024.