What started as a research on Australian Indigenous Knowledge Systems and the circular economy (CE), turned into a much more complex and personal journey of what it means to do respectful and collaborative research with Indigenous communities. In this thesis, I attempted to build an understanding of the very rich and complex tapestry of Australian Indigenous knowledges, to explore how they may inspire alternative designs for a CE. The main assumptions, principles, and limitations of the conventional model of the CE are explored, and an Indigenous-inspired circular economy model is proposed. Alongside this research aim, I also documented my own learning process as I grappled with the challenges of conducting Indigenist research, and confronted the essential question of how we can genuinely value and engage with Indigenous communities in the realm of academic research.

One of the biggest current challenges for Earth and humanity is climate change. To lower the impact of already existing effects and decrease potential future effects of rising temperatures, countries have decided on actions with the goal of keeping the temperature rise no higher than 1.5°C. One part of those actions is a transition in the energy system from polluting fossil fuels to renewable energy carriers, such as wind, solar, or hydropower.
In the Netherlands, hydropower is clearly lagging behind compared to other European coun- tries, for various reasons. Some pioneering companies are still trying to utilize the potential of hydropower they see in the large water system in the Netherlands. However, they are struggling to progress and deploy their solutions, as happened at the Bosscherveld project in the south of the Netherlands, Maastricht. The companies involved there claimed that stakeholder processes were the main causes for barriers that stalled project advancements.
Within energy transition projects, stakeholder management often causes problems, and the ac- tual factors that make an actor oppose or stall a project are multifaceted and hard to grasp. Additionally, there is a lack of tools and methods for a company working on technologies in this field to gain a thorough understanding of their stakeholders and translate that understanding into concrete strategic decisions on how to behave in such a project. With this research it was attempted to identify the most important stakeholder-related factors for a company to consider when working within an energy transition based project. This should add managerial guidance as well as the ability to assess the status of a project. For a company already working on the project or that joins it, they can estimate the condition the project is in and see what is missing for its success, improving the overall certainty for potential revenues.
With a mixed-framework approach consisting of the definition of the main structural compo- nents and policies of the technology innovation system (TIS) surrounding the SHP, a classic stakeholder analysis using a power-interest-grid, and semi-structured interviews to create an expert model for the small-scale hydropower (SHP) project has been applied. The first two areas were mainly used to get an understanding of the technology’s surrounding market and to make assumptions regarding the roles involved in the project. The interviews were aimed to fully understand the project’s processes and each stakeholder’s perceptions on barriers in those processes, so that an ideal process and the stakeholders’ views on most important factors for such a project could be derived.
With this approach it was possible to identify 25 stakeholder-related factors that are important to consider for a company working on such a project, as well as understanding their interconnec- tions and reasons for why they are important. The factors then could be classified into themes
covering Motivation, Purpose, Effective Teamwork, Investment, Entrepreneurial Activities, Base of Collaboration, and Macro-Environment and clustered into areas that build the Foundation of the Venture the factors that are Supporting Collaboration, and the ones that influ- ence and define the Stakeholder Interest. The first area consists of factors, that need to be present at the beginning of the project or need to be established within the starting phase such as resources, a business model, and trust. The factors to support the collaboration are fostering continuous interaction and general rules for how it should be worked together, such as planning and ownership. The factors of stakeholder interest, achieve a higher resolution of how a stakeholder’s interest is formed, and what should be looked at during the stakeholder analysis, to understand the actors positioning within and towards the project, like a stakeholder’s drive, their personal vision, or simply what they can gain from the project. This must be done on a continuous bases, since a stakeholder’s motivation and gains can change due to unforeseeable events or a change in for instance a country’s policy.
Therefore, it could be seen that not one or a few instances or factors could be identified that resulted in the halt of the project, but a variety of aspects combined hampered its progress.
Furthermore, it has been pointed out that the previously identified factors are only partly ad- dressed by an adapted TIS framework by Ortt and Kamp (2022), which has been applied at the end of the research, due to its claim that it had an improved managerial perspective for companies working in a niche environment, trying to bring their technology to a wide market diffusion.
The possibility of generalizing the conclusions regarding the crucial factors regarding stakeholder participation for a company working on an SHP project in the Netherlands are limited due to the specificity of the project and the limited number of stakeholders and perspectives that could be gathered. Therefore, it is suggested to investigate additional hydropower projects in the Netherlands, compare them with the Bosscherveld case, and see whether the concluded factors can capture the dynamics there as well or if further refinements are necessary.

Ensuring the air we breathe is clean and healthy is one of the core tenets of developing a more sustainable living environment, but even in the Netherlands up to 11,000 premature deaths occur every year. These deaths could be reduced if the air quality standards outlined by the World Health Organization are met. To achieve these standards however, significant changes have to be achieved in Dutch society. In the Netherlands currently, air quality is regulated at all four of the major levels of government, that is the supranational, national, provincial and local (municipal) level. Each of these levels of government play a key role in ensuring that the air in the Netherlands is safe to breathe. Up till now however, only limited research has been performed on how air quality governance occurs at the municipal level. Furthermore due to the diffuse characteristics of air pollution, where emission and deposition may occur in places significantly geographically situated, reducing air pollution is very difficult. To aid with this a wide variety of models have been developed for use in supporting policy processes. These models allow municipalities to determine aspects like exposure of the population and sources of emissions. The use of these models is not always straightforward however, as political considerations regularly take precedence in the municipal air quality policy process. It therefore remains a challenge to determine how the municipality might improve its air quality governance, and the role that models might.
With this in mind, this thesis aims to develop an understanding of the municipal air quality policy process, and the role of models therein. This is reflected in the research question, which is as follows: What potential improvements in the Dutch municipal air quality policy process can be made, and what role can models play in this? To answer this question, this study used a qualitative research approach, making use of a combination of scientific and grey literature as well as expert interviews to create a representation of the municipal air quality policy process in case study of Eindhoven. The interviews were conducted with representatives from key organizations in the air quality policy process. This was combined with scientific literature on multi-level governance, air quality modelling and policy processes as well as grey literature on air quality governance in the Netherlands. The results of this research was then tested in interviews with experts from other regions in the Netherlands.
It was found that there are a host of areas that could be developed to improve the municipal air quality policy process, with four key ones. These improvements applied to all levels of government, from the European Union all the way down to the municipal policy advisors, and were found in four main areas: (1) Increased air quality standards and cooperation frameworks. (2) Improved modelling tools for air quality modelling and monitoring. (3) Increased citizen engagement and awareness on air quality. (4) Improved air quality regulation through integrated decision making with other relevant issues facing the municipality.

PURPOSE
Addressing the issue of gender inequality in Dutch energy organisations has become increasingly important, but understanding the complex interplay of personal factors and various aspects of gender inequality that contribute to the perception of this wicked problem remains a challenge. This study aims to explore the refracted reflections of gender inequality among employees in Dutch energy organisations by examining the metaphorical prisms formed by societal, organisational, and individualistic aspects. This multi-dimensional analysis seeks to identify aspects contributing to gender inequality, to show the interdependencies of the issue, and to highlight potential intervention points for implementing change while considering the dynamic interaction between the prisms and personal factors.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
A qualitative transdisciplinary case study approach was used to explore perceptions of gender inequality within Dutch energy organisations. Data collection methods included in-depth interviews with gender experts and employees, an employee survey, conversations with researchers, and observations at relevant events. The research design incorporated theoretical frameworks such as problem framing and process-based decision making to guide the study. Content analysis was used to identify patterns, relationships and trends in the data collected, providing a comprehensive understanding of the societal, organisational, and individualistic aspects that contribute to gender inequality.

FINDINGS
The study resulted in the development of a novel, comprehensive framework that presents the interplay of wicked problem perceptions through the metaphorical prisms formed by societal, organisational, and individualistic aspects. The framework suggests that mental representations of experienced problem situations, informed by the personal factors of environment, knowledge, and intersectionality, influence cognitive processes such as assumptions and awareness. These mental representations shape the perceptions of the issue, which then determines prioritisation of certain aspects. The framework acknowledges the existence of causal loops between assumptions, awareness, and prioritisation, as well as the dynamic interaction with personal factors.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
The comprehensive framework derived from this study provides valuable insights for Dutch energy organisations and other industries seeking to address gender inequality by understanding and addressing the underlying aspects and personal factors that shape employees’ perceptions. This knowledge can be used to design targeted interventions, organisational policies and practices that promote a more inclusive and equitable work environment.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE
This thesis presents an original approach to understanding gender inequality in Dutch energy organisations, a representative case for other male-dominated technical sectors. It offers a novel, comprehensive framework that captures the interplay of societal, organisational, and individualistic aspects with personal factors to show how perceptions of gender inequality emerge. The value of this research lies in its transdisciplinary approach and its applicability in facilitating real-world interventions and strategies to mitigate gender inequality

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are one of the latest topics getting attention among companies and universities. This reflects societal representation for gender ratios and many organizations have set goals on gender equality in creating a sustainable and innovative workplace. However, the statistics show that there is sluggish growth for women in managerial positions. This is creating a problem for promoting equity at leadership levels in every organization. Equity and equality are not the same as the former is closer to justice creating the same opportunities for all people with different abilities. Even though organizations can able to promote gender equality and achieve it with a better ratio, there is a struggle to increase women's representation at different leadership levels. The global scenario also shows that the representation of women on board and C-suite (Chief executive level like CEO, CFO, etc) is very low demanding gender equity at leadership levels. Thereby, a case study is performed in Celanese, a materials company that has better gender equality across the organization.

This research is executed as an embedded single case study in both the global and Dutch context to understand this scenario and their gender representation at the management level. This is, in particular, to relate gender equality ratio progress and effectiveness for development programs to promote more women leaders supporting equitable workplace. The embedded case study is performed through ethnography research in terms of observations, qualitative interviews, and focused group discussions inside the organization. This approach helps to understand the existing scenario for women's representation and leadership development opportunities in a typical materials company. This is extended for industrial benchmarks at the global level as a comparison of gender equality ratios against their competitors. The leadership interviews with both genders focusing on women leaders are done and the outputs showed the driving factors, challenges, and future requirements to create equity-focused leadership. Further analysis is done to extract the key elements impacting gender equity for leadership development programs.

Whereas, focused group discussions are aimed at involving employees at different levels and employees who are closely involved in leadership programs. So, focused group discussion is done with the Young professional group that comprises employees at different levels and Human Resources team who drives leadership programs. These discussions acted as data triangulation for qualitative interviews and provided more insights into leadership development programs from different perspectives. As a result, the existing gaps and challenges for the leadership development of women employees in an organization are studied. Facts derived from the organizational level and qualitative results provided enough reasons for ineffective development programs in supporting equity at leadership levels. This is evident that leadership levels demanded more women employees and necessary driving factors to motivate them. This also emphasized how HR policies and role model representation can contribute better in driving more female employees into leadership levels.

However, the missing factor is equitable actions in leadership development programs to create an inclusive environment. Thereby, a leadership development cycle is developed to strengthen various processes making the leadership program as equity-focused and motivating female employees for leadership positions. However, the recommendations are derived using the embedded single case study and explained briefly about a roadmap showing the next future phases for equity at leadership levels and their decision-making impact on innovation. Finally, a leadership development framework is developed showing the possible methods and processes for driving more female employees from the organizational level to the leadership level. This leadership framework shows how women leaders need effective equity-focused development programs using equitable actions considering both social and professional barriers. Using this framework, the practical implications are summarized for promoting women leaders at leadership levels through equity-focused leadership development programs.

Background
This research is initiated to investigate the underrepresentation of women in technical occupations, particularly in the male-dominated field of the construction industry. The Netherlands is a country where this gender gap has been observed, with a significant disparity in the representation of women in the industry. Despite the recognized importance of gender diversity and equity in promoting gender equality and empowerment, there is a lack of comprehensive frameworks that address these issues within organizations.

Purpose and methodology
This study aims to enhance understanding of gender diversity and equity in the workplace, particularly focusing on challenges faced by women in the Dutch construction industry. It seeks to offer insights and recommendations for promoting gender diversity by examining different organizational roles. The research contributes to existing literature, informs company diversity initiatives, and provides insights applicable to similar industries. The objective is to explore perceptions, challenges, and opportunities related to gender diversity within Strukton Rail from the perspectives of employees, top management, and HR partners. This is achieved through a combination of methods including interviews, questionnaires, and observations, enriched by the researcher's unique position as a Strukton Rail employee, allowing comprehensive exploration of the organization's culture, practices, and policies.

Findings and Recommendations
This research explores gender diversity and equity perspectives within Strukton Rail. Different roles (employees, top management, and HR) have varying viewpoints. There's recognition of a male-dominated culture, but differing acknowledgment of its impact on female employees. Some top management members claim gender-blindness but exhibit underlying biases. Work-life balance is valued by employees, especially female employees, while management prioritizes operational needs. Biases may affect perceptions of adaptability and caregiving roles. To address challenges, management commitment is crucial, involving a gender diversity vision, bias challenge, and clear women's representation goals. Open dialogue is vital for understanding diverse perspectives and driving change. Compliance with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is also highlighted.

Practical Implications
The description of the framework for organizational change provides organizations in the construction industry with a way to assess the gender diversity and equity status within their organization. This can aid in challenging and assessing challenges that hinder the inclusion and retention of women within the industry.

Value
This research describes an approach to understand organizational factors influencing gender diversity and equity in the construction industry. In present a novel framework that can shed light on the gender diversity and equity within an organization and can be the blueprint for organizational change. The value of this research is rooted in the ethnographic methodology, combined with the case study design. Combined with the dual position of the researcher as both employee and researcher, highly in-depth, contextual data forms the basis of this research.

Addressing the growing problem of phishing attacks requires nurturing a reporting culture within organizations. This research examines the factors influencing reporting behavior and the role of infrastructure & support in enhancing reporting rates. By adopting a mixed methods approach and analyzing phishing simulation logs and user perspectives, the study utilizes the COMB model to identify key factors that affect reporting behavior. The research emphasizes the importance of reassessing the desired level of reporting to ensure the benefits of reporting do not overshadow the associated costs. To foster a reporting culture, organizations should ensure a user-friendly reporting process and offer regular reminders and training programs. Emphasizing communication, transparency, and trust-building are vital in encouraging reporting and providing timely feedback. Leveraging technology to optimize the reporting process and appreciating users' efforts further enhance reporting rates. Overall, embracing a paradigm shift that recognizes users as part of the solution is crucial in nurturing a reporting culture and ensuring a secure digital environment.

in this research, I study the Nitrogen Crisis by comparing Twitter content to real-life events, answering the following research question: How does the intensity of emotions and discussed topics on social media relate to the characteristics of real-life demonstrations during a sustainability policy crisis? To characterise online events, sentiment analysis and topic modelling are applied to analyse tweets about the nitrogen crisis to paint a picture of what subjects were discussed online, and how people are feeling about them. To characterise offline events, a codebook is developed with categories that reveal information on the scale, intensity and extremism during real-life demonstrations. The most promising finding is that topic models with higher numbers of topics but lower coherence scores prove to be more interesting sources of information on underlying topics and trends on Twitter.

Impact investors can play a major role in fighting inequalities regarding gender and increasing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) for women. This is important as societies that value women and men as equal are safer, healthier and have better economic prosperity. Nonetheless, impact investors face many challenges to be effective and research into the topic is still lacking. To assess how impact
investors can be effective in increasing EDI, this thesis will perform a case study in the form of a system analysis of which the subject will be the Aqaba-Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance Project (AAWDCP).
This methodology in combination with in-depth interviews led to the identification of a preferred policy for this particular project.
Additionally, the findings led to more general recommendations for impact investors: if they want to enhance EDI in their projects, they must consistently work with local organizations and put the needs of the impacted community ahead of their own KPIs. Furthermore, in order to be able to achieve increased EDI in the projects they finance, impact investors must first increase EDI within their own investment teams.

The Port of Rotterdam is one of the largest CO2 emitters of the Netherlands. One method to reduce its emissions is by implementing carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technologies. In this research two different CCU routes for industrial-scale n-caproate production are compared. The first route utilizes microbial electrosynthesis (direct route). The second route uses syngas formation via electro-reduction combined with syngas fermentation (indirect route).

Based on the European Union's technology readiness level, the maturity of both routes is ranked as 3 to 4. This indicates that both routes are in the demonstration phase. In this phase scientists play an important role, as the focus is on researching the technology's overall feasibility. It is also the phase in which financial barriers are the most pressing. Early-stage investors can help overcome these barriers, by allocating (financial) resources. Nonetheless, an assessment method taking both scientists' as well as early-stage investors' perspectives into account is missing. This research contributes to filling this knowledge gap.

The methodology applied is bricolage, using a mixture of literature research, simulation data and interviews. Data of the direct route is retrieved from literature research. To obtain data of the indirect route, a simulation is made in Aspen Plus v12. An overview of important assessment parameters are acquired via the conducted interviews.

In total 15 participants are interviewed, of which; 8 scientists working on CCU technologies, 5 early-stage investors, 1 governmental policy executing party and 1 NGO. These interviews, combined with metrics found in literature research, led to an overview of parameters to be assessed for a performance analysis.

Overall, 10 metrics are selected and used for the performance assessment. These include technical, economic, environmental and strategic metrics. The technical assessment showed that the indirect route has a significantly higher energy consumption compared to the direct route (0.35 GJ/kg caproate compared to 0.1 GJ/kg caproate). However, the indirect route has a higher production selectivity towards n-caproate. The economic performance assessment resulted in a lower CAPEX and OPEX for the direct route. Still, for both routes, the minimum n-caproate selling price is below the current n-caproate market price. The net carbon footprint of the indirect route is 7.3 kg CO2 per kg caproate, indicating that a significant amount of CO2 is being emitted during its production.

While an analysis at this maturity stage of the production routes comes with uncertainties, it gives a first sound indication of its performance and bottlenecks. For the indirect route, the energy consumption is dominated by the two electrolyzers used and the downstream processing. This energy consumption is also the main contributor to the OPEX (47%) and the carbon footprint (79%). Another factor largely responsible for the carbon footprint are the emissions during fermentation (19%). The main cost item of the equipment cost is the water alkaline electrolyzer (42% of total cost).

To conclude, the indirect route shows the potential of industrial-scale n-caproate production with a high selectivity. Nonetheless, it is key to reduce its energy consumption and implement more efficient off-gas recycling to improve its techno-economic and environmental performance.

The Indonesian government has announced a national strategy to achieve net-zero emissions through energy transition and justice. However, there are no extensive studies that assess the impact of this strategy and the growing demand in the Kalimantan power system. Therefore, this thesis project aims to conduct a techno-economic and energy justice analysis of the power system with the research question: “What is the optimum configuration of renewable energy integration in the interconnected Kalimantan power system in 2050 to achieve net-zero carbon emissions while considering some energy justice parameters?” The research is conducted using spatiotemporal power system modelling as well as qualitative analysis. This research concludes that RE integration and transmission system interconnection could lower the levelized system costs in 2050. The LCOE from the Kalimantan power system model could decline from 72 USD/MWh in 2021 to 31 USD/MWh in 2050. The electricity generation mix could evolve from 90% fossil fuel in 2021 to 100% RE plus battery storage in 2050, consisting of 76% hydro, 11% solar, 9% biomass, and is supported by 3% battery storage. It includes achieving net-zero carbon emissions and improving energy justice in terms of affordability, availability, and intra- and inter-generational equity in the Kalimantan power system.

Energy Communities are initiatives ran by members of the same or different communities with the aim of producing, distributing and consuming cleaner energy. The potential of these initiatives, as identified from this clean energy production, to play a key role in the energy transition is assumed to be vital as recognized by the European Commission’s Clean Energy for All package and the provision of a legislative framework for their operation in European countries. In the light of this, European policy makers assume that promoting the engagement of more citizens in such initiatives will lead to a rise in energy justice and a fairer energy transition. However, several researches show that this assumption maybe flawed as the relation between the two is not explicitly verified. Through the acknowledgement of minority groups, this research aims to investigate whether an increased citizen engagement in energy communities could lead to a rise in energy justice. For this, the research is broken down into three key steps involving: 1) investigating what factors could affect the willingness of citizens to engage in energy communities by conducting a literature review and then evaluating potential influence of the identified factors for the city of The Hague as case study area, 2) investigating the distribution of the identified factors around areas with energy communities to find out whether there are any social groups favoured by the distribution of these factors around neighbourhoods with 24 energy communities. This is done by conducting spatial data analysis to investigate whether the engagements of any particular social groups or classes of people might be favoured by the spatial locations of energy communities in specific areas of The Hague 3) finally by conducting one on one interviews with 8 board members of energy communities in The Hague, the research seeks to investigate the relation between the identified factors potentially affecting citizens' desires to engage and the three tenets of energy justice. The results show that in the city of The Hague, although a majority of neighbourhoods in which energy communities are located are characterized by a high number of minority groups, a high majority of the energy communities interviewed (7 out of 8) acknowledge that minority groups are generally less involved. However for the classes of people engaging in such initiatives, a majority seeks to raise their powers and that of other community members in the decision making process. Hence, this allows to conclude that for the case study area, energy communities might only lead to a limited rise in Energy justice due to the partial or non-acknowledgement of minority groups.