The agricultural sector is at a critical crossroads, facing an array of challenges driven by climate change, resource depletion, and the need for sustainable practices. In the Netherlands, a leading global exporter in the agrifood industry, the transition towards sustainable agriculture is both urgent and complex. This study investigates the role of Knowledge-Intensive Intermediaries (KIIs), particularly innovation consultancies, in facilitating this transition. KIIs act as mediators who engage with a diverse range of clients and understand their varying needs, they possess a deep understanding of the sector and the differing values of its stakeholders. This unique position enables them to effectively drive technological adoption, foster collaboration, and address systemic barriers within the agricultural sector. Through a qualitative case study approach involving in-depth interviews with farmers, agricultural IT firms, policymakers, and academic representatives, this research provides a comprehensive analysis of how KIIs, such as Epiic, support the implementation of sustainable agricultural technologies and assist in innovation adoption.

The findings reveal that while technological advancements such as precision farming and digital agriculture offer promising solutions for enhancing productivity and sustainability, the adoption of these innovations is hindered by a range of factors. These include financial constraints, knowledge gaps, regulatory challenges, and socio-economic disparities among farmers. KIIs play a crucial role in mitigating these challenges by acting as knowledge brokers, boundary spanners, and systemic innovators. They facilitate knowledge transfer, provide strategic consultancy, and create collaborative networks that bridge the divide between various stakeholders, including farmers, researchers, and policymakers. Furthermore, KIIs contribute to fostering an inclusive transition by addressing the economic and social dimensions of sustainability, ensuring that small-scale farmers and marginalized groups are supported in adopting new technologies without facing disproportionate burdens.

This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the multifaceted roles of KIIs in the agricultural innovation ecosystem, particularly within a multi-stakeholder environment. It demonstrates their potential impact on both the technological and social aspects of sustainability, showcasing how their deep understanding of diverse stakeholder needs enables them to drive innovation and collaboration effectively. It underscores the importance of a holistic approach to agricultural reform, one that integrates technological innovation with socio-economic and environmental considerations. The research offers valuable insights for policymakers, practitioners, and researchers on the strategic roles that KIIs can play in promoting sustainable agricultural practices. Ultimately, the study proposes a framework for understanding how KIIs can drive systemic change in agriculture, paving the way for a more resilient and sustainable future for the sector in the Netherlands and beyond

As the global energy sector shifts towards electrification to achieve a net-zero future, the demand for photovoltaic (PV) systems is expected to surge. By 2050, an estimated 63.4 TW of installed PV capacity will be required, with annual additions reaching up to 4.5 TW, to help limit global temperature rise to below 2°C. This significant expansion will substantially increase the demand for aluminum, a key material in PV systems. This study presents a material flow model to analyze aluminum demand and its environmental impacts in global PV systems from 2020 to 2050. The model captures the flow of aluminum through module frames, mounting systems, and inverters, while also considering the influence of various parameters such as PV efficiency, aluminum intensity of components, component lifetimes, and recycling rates. In the baseline scenario, cumulative aluminum demand is projected to reach 830.98 mega tonnes (Mt) by 2050. However, through advancements in PV efficiency, reduction in material intensity, extension of component lifetimes, and improvement in aluminum recycling rates, the demand could potentially be reduced to 568.65 Mt.

Despite these mitigation strategies, the rapid growth in PV deployment poses significant challenges for aluminum supply, as global aluminum production is projected to be only 176 Mt by 2050, suggesting substantial supply pressures. Moreover, aluminum production is both energy- and carbon-intensive, contributing significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions. The cumulative emissions associated with aluminum use in PV systems are projected to reach 3534 Mt CO₂eq from 2020 to 2050, highlighting the urgent need for decarbonization in aluminum production. The study emphasizes the critical importance of developing a closed-loop aluminum recycling system for PV components to form a circular economy, which could reduce primary aluminum demand and associated emissions. By adopting a multi-faceted approach, including improvements in technology, materials, and recycling processes, the PV industry can mitigate its environmental impact and support the global transition towards sustainable energy.

Overeducation, where workers possess more education than required by their jobs, has become a concern in labor economics. The problem of overeducation and its impact on wage is due to its negative consequences on wage dynamics, economic efficiency, and the returns on educational investments of the individual and society. Overeducation generally leads to a wage penalty compared to properly matched people with the same education and a wage premium compared to workers with the same job who are properly matched. Despite the vast amount of studies covering the topic of overeducation, there is a gap in understanding how its effects on wages vary across different industries and occupational groups. Also, Dutch data has not been used to examine the Dutch labor market in detail. This study aims to address this gap by answering the following research question: To what extent does overeducation’s effect on the wage of a worker vary across occupational groups and industries in the Netherlands?

This thesis examines the impact of overeducation on wages across various industries and occupations in the Netherlands, utilizing data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC).
Regression analyses are used to examine the influence of overeducation on wages and the influence of industry and occupation types on this relationship. For control variables age, gender, and work experience are used.

The key findings of this research is that Dutch overeducated workers face a wage penalty compared to properly matched workers with the same education. However, the extent of this penalty varies across certain industries and occupations, namely the construction industry and high skilled blue collar workers.
The findings contribute to academic discussions on overeducation and its impact on wage, while highlighting the need to examine the influence of occupational groups and industry types. The insights are relevant for individuals, employers, educational institutions, and policymakers. Individuals can better assess the value of their educational investments and educational institutions and policymakers can create policies to mitigate the negative impacts of overeducation.

This study addresses the revenue losses from network congestion of an Offshore Wind Farm (OWF) resulting from the implementation of an Offshore Bidding Zone (OBZ) and explores potential measures to mitigate these effects. The quantitative analysis involves a model that simulates a hypothetical OWF located in the North Sea between Norway and the Netherlands, operating with historical electricity prices and wind data. The OBZ approach is compared with the traditional home market approach to analyse revenues and explore the magnitude of the losses. The implementation of mitigation measures provides insights into their impact on revenues, congestion rents, and compensation. Additionally, the role of long-term contracts is examined to clarify how they influence the effectiveness of these measures. This is followed by an exploration of the different perspectives of the wind farm and the government to understand how these could shape the OBZ market design. Finally, an analysis of different future alternative market connections is conducted to understand their implications and the trade-offs that must be made for designing the OBZ market. In the end, the following research question is answered: How can revenue losses from network congestion of wind farms be mitigated in an offshore bidding zone in the North Sea?

This thesis aimed to explore how the Leontief price model could be best used in carbon taxing research through a case study about carbon taxing impacts on the purchasing power of the elderly in the Netherlands. Previous studies highlighted the importance of preventing distributional impacts on the elderly to gain public support for carbon taxing. Previous research also suggested that the Leontief Price Model has the tendency to overestimate price impacts due to its inability to capture input substitutions in response to taxes. This thesis used two different input-output models: a conventional Leontief Price Model and a ’flexible’ cost-push model developed by the Dutch National Bank that can incorporate additional price impacts of input-substitution. The Consumer Price Index was calculated to estimate the tax impacts on the purchasing power of elderly in the Netherlands.

It was discovered that the overall effects on the purchasing power of Dutch elderly remained marginal in the case of both an economy-wide Dutch carbon tax and a tax on the Dutch electricity sector. The inflation rates for the elderly ranged from 0.9% to 4.5% for the Dutch tax and 0.4% and 2% in the case of the electricity tax. Yet, compared to other age groups in the Netherlands, carbon taxes could still pose a risk to the purchasing power of the elderly, particularly to their ability to afford essential expenses such as electricity. All scenarios resulted in striking increases in electricity prices. The most ambitious scenarios, a Dutch carbon tax of €250 per tCO2, could result in a 25% increase in electricity prices. Given the limited disposable income and already weak purchasing power of Dutch elderly, carbon taxing could, thus, potentially worsen energy poverty among this group. Due to difference in consumption patterns and total income between age groups of main earners, elderly above 75 are more vulnerable to the tax compared to other age groups, including the elderly between 65 and 75. In addition, the case study highlighted the limitations of domestic forms of carbon taxing for a trade-oriented economy such as the Netherlands, since the displacement of emissions is disregarded here. Furthermore, this thesis confirms the conventional Leontief price model’s tendency to overestimate price impacts, as the flexible cost-push showed systematically lower outcomes. Although the flexible cost-push model improves on the conventional model through the inclusion of input-substitution, the results also showed that the flexible model is still somewhat limited in its ability to capture input-substitution. This thesis, therefore, also identified several opportunities for refining the flexible cost-push model to enhance its value in future research.

This thesis is an important contribution to the limited recent research on flexible input-output models by suggesting improvements to the flexible input-output model developed by the Dutch National Bank, which to the best of our knowledge had not been empirically tested since its development. This thesis also builds on existing literature by showing that the consumption pattern is not only vital in determining vulnerability to carbon taxing between income groups and countries, but also between different age groups of main earners. All in all, the findings once again emphasize the importance of explicitly considering both environmental effectiveness as well as social sustainability in carbon taxing design to not further exacerbate existing inequalities.

This master thesis provides a review of dynamic energy contracts and their role in shifting electricity consumption in households in the Netherlands. In this research the mixed-methods approach is used to identify changes in electricity consumption behavior of consumers with a dynamic energy contract compared to consumers with a fixed energy contract. Dynamic energy contracts are recently introduced in line with the Clean Energy for all package of the European Commission (2019) and the need for more flexibility regarding electricity consumption in individual households. Qualitative research found that individual households are only willing to be flexible in their demand with activities that are not time-critical such as washing and cleaning, while there was almost no demand flexibility with activities such as cooking and watching television. Based on real-time consumer data of a Dutch energy supplier, a difference-in- difference (DiD) regression analysis is performed to analyze the effect of dynamic energy contracts on electricity consumption. This study revealed that consumers with a dynamic energy contract have a different consumption behavior pattern compared to their own behavior pattern under a different contract and compared to consumers with a fixed energy contract. These findings indicate that the dynamic energy contract can change the consumption behavior pattern of individual households, which can be explained by paying the hourly electricity price in this type of contract. This research can form an inspiration and knowledge base for future research that can elaborate on the role of dynamic energy contracts in demand load shifting.

Carbon pricing is a common and constantly changing policy tool with the goal of stimulating the re duction of carbon dioxide emissions and the transition to cleaner technologies. The combination of a carbon tax and the new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is causing price effects in the EU. There is currently a lack of research using the latest high-granularity data to identify price effects by country and sector in the EU. Additionally, only a few methodologies exist to validate and enhance models of current carbon policy price effects. This thesis estimates the price effects of carbon taxation across EU sectors and countries using 2021 FIGARO data with high sector granularity. Using traditional input-output modelling the tax was first applied to value-added- the standard method- and subsequently the approach of taxing intermediate sales was explored. The results from the value-added method were extended to estimate changes in trade flows and subsequently placed into the context of the broader political economy. Additionally, the outcomes from the intermediate sales method were compared to those from the value-added method. This showed that the EU will experience an ave age price increase of 1.26%, and CBAM changes a competitive disadvantage from -0.98% to a 1.46% competitive advantage. It is therefore seen that price increases remain moderate, and CBAM achieves its goal of protecting the EU’s competitiveness. However, for a carbon tax and CBAM to be fully effective in stimulating a transition to cleaner technologies, they should be implemented in combination with subsidies, investment in markets and infrastructure, as well as effective dissemination of research and development. The model was limited to examining the effects within the EU, and more research is needed to expand it to understand the impacts on trade partners. Additionally, further analysis is needed to understand the mechanics of the tax on intermediate sales method

Sustainability is a crucial topic in the day to day life as well as in industries. With the help of innovation and new technologies, the negative impacts on sustainability can be decreased. During the development of technologies, the concept of sustainability should be included at all times. This can be done with the help of sustainability assessment methods. However, companies (like the case company of this study) often only adopt one or a few sustainability assessment methods in their product development process. These methods might not necessarily be suitable for the technology under investigation. Furthermore, guidance on when to use which method can be identified as missing within the literature and in practice.

This thesis study aims to fill this gap by developing decision support for the selection of a sustainability assessment method during technology development. Coming from a comprehensive set of sustainability aspects (social, environmental and economic), during the thesis the focus was put on the environmental aspect exclusively. A literature study is used to identify a set of the possible sustainability assessment method. The identified methods are compared to a set of selection criteria based on the method's acceptance, type of assessment, and sustainability pillar covered. Four methods/method groups are identified as suitable for the defined criteria and the study scope. The selected methods are analyzed in more detail to gain a deeper understanding. Based on the knowledge acquired, a flow chart is developed to support selecting the most suitable sustainability assessment method. In order to be able to compare the selected assessment method with other available method, a ranking is developed. The ranking is based on a qualitative comparison and data obtained from the literature. The ranking is displayed in two ways, by a set of spiderweb diagrams and a ranking with numbers. A partial validation of the developed ranking is done by applying two methods to a use case and comparing the practical results with the theoretical ones. Here a mismatch between the ranking obtained from the theoretical data and the one from practical experience can be identified.

The result of the study is the development of decision support consisting of a flowchart and method ranking. Once both steps are followed, it should be possible to provide a fast and easy method selection for non-experts. Furthermore, the common practice of using only one sustainability assessment method (Life Cycle Assessment) is looked into. It can be seen that no sustainability assessment method is best in all criteria and application cases. Therefore, it is impossible to define one most suitable method in all cases. Choosing the right method depends on the scope (substance, product, or material) and the intended outcome. Thus, relying solely or predominantly on Life Cycle Assessment cannot be recommended. Alternative methods should be adopted and applied, also within the case company.

Climate change is going to be the main problem this and future generations will face. Wind energy is promising to be one of the industries that could help mitigate this impending crisis. In literature many different models and predictions can be found to describe the possible futures of wind energy. But there is still a lot of uncertainty in this field as to what factors play which role in its development.
This research contributes to this challenge by comparing the economic attractiveness of windmills expressed as Net Present Value(NPV) with annual added wind capacity in five countries for 2008 till 2019. The countries used for this research are Germany, Denmark, Canada, Texas and Sweden. This research found an exponential relationship between the NPV and added wind power capacity. A 10% increase in NPV(AC/MWh) found an increase of 15% for the annual added wind capacity(MW/TWh) of added windmill capacity per TWh of electricity produced. The vast amount of data sources used could have lead to a higher uncertainty regarding their uniformity and trustworthiness. Doing a sensitivity analysis yielded no improvements in the results. The simple economic model used was able to describe the growth in wind energy in countries, though there is still a significant spread in the results. A likely explanation for this spread is the lack of several important aspects such as permits, company influences, cultural differences and social-economic challenges which were all not taken into account. This research also makes several recommendations regarding possible policies countries could in order for them to reach their wind or clean energy goals.

The residential energy consumption and energy affordability are crucial in policy design, with regard to energy efficiency and energy poverty. This has become even more relevant now, as the energy transition is taking off and the energy prices are soaring. Given the inequality in the energy consumption and energy affordability, it is therefore critical to know which factors are impacting these phenomena, and how they are impacting these phenomena. The housing-related factors are the least understood factors impacting the energy consumption and energy affordability, even though these factors are key pillars of energy policy. Thus, this research assesses how housing-related factors impact the residential energy consumption and energy affordability in the Netherlands. For this assessment, multiple data sources are combined over the years 2016 to 2018, covering a total of more than 8 million Dutch households. A regression analysis is performed on a postal code 6 level using the housing-related factors as predictors, while controlling for socio-demographic and weather factors. This revealed that the housing-related factors impacting energy consumption and energy affordability are relatively similar. This study finds that the WOZ-value is a strong predictor for both phenomena as houses with a higher WOZ-value have a lower energy efficiency. Furthermore, it shows that rental households consume less energy but spend a similar percentage of their income on energy, and that the impact of the year of construction on both phenomena has increased significantly, when compared to earlier studies. Based on this, it is concluded that rental houses and houses with an older year of construction deserve more attention in Dutch energy policy. Furthermore, low-income households should be targeted in short-term energy policy, as this study shows that the current soaring energy prices have a severe impact on the energy affordability in the Netherlands. Insights are however broader, and can be pivotal in energy demand and energy affordability projections, both in the Netherlands and the rest of Western Europe.

The world is under the spell of the energy transition due to climate change. In 2015 197 parties agreed to the Paris-agreement, settings goals for limiting global warming. The transportation sector contributes for almost 25% of all global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). A promising pathway to decrease emissions from fossil fuels in the transportation sector is to replace conventional internal combustion engines (ICE) with Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV).
This thesis analyses how the introduction of BEVs in Europe can be accelerated. Five countries were selected and categorised, based on Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory.
Based on a literature analysis, the factors influencing the adoption of the BEV were identified and selected. From these factors, an analytical research model was created. This analytical research model was applied to each country in order to compare the countries and draw conclusions. The analytical model consisted of the factors: government regulations and incentives, purchase price, total cost of ownership, charging infrastructure, model availability, consumer characteristics and BEV adoption.
The study concluded that governments have two tools to stimulate the BEV adoption: make the BEV cost effective compared to the ICE and stimulate the charging infrastructure. If it is financially more attractive to drive a BEV in a country than an ICE, this will have a major impact on BEV adoption. Making the BEV financially attractive can be done with tax measures and subsidies. In general, countries with relatively high car taxes can make BEVs more financially attractive than countries with relatively low car taxes, which results in a higher BEV adoption
In addition, a country must ensure that the charging infrastructure grows along with the BEV adoption. In general, it is a pre-condition to develop its slow charger network to stimulate BEV adoption. However, it depends on the country how the slow charger network should be set up. An indicator for this is the percentage of detached houses. If this percentage is high, a country must focus on private charging when setting up its slow charging network. With a low percentage of detached houses, a country must focus on public charging when setting up the slow charging network. Furthermore, it is expected that private parties will jump into the fast charging market. These private parties will only step in if a country has a relatively high BEV adoption, such as Norway and the Netherlands, because it is only then profitable. The study also shows that in countries with a large surface area, it is a precondition to develop its fast charging network. Therefore, when a country has a low BEV adoption, but a large surface, incentives are needed from the government to stimulate a fast charging network.
A financial attractive BEV environment and a well-developed charging infrastructure has as consequence in increasing the number of BEV models. When more BEV models enter the market in a country, consumers have more choice, and this has a stimulating effect on BEV adoption in a country.

Several studies have posed that international cooperative initiatives lead by businesses could aid in mitigating global warming in ways that are additional to national policies. However, evaluations on their progress are rare due to many informational issues. This research gap is worrisome since such initiatives can also have negative effects on global commitment due to effort fragmentation and greenwashing.

This thesis evaluates progress in two initiatives that have featured prominently in the literature: the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and RE100. The group of companies evaluated was reduced to the Fortune Global 500, a ranking of the largest firms by revenue.

Large datasets were created with the targets set by these companies, their emissions and energy use, among others. Progress was evaluated in four aspects: the ambition of targets, the robustness of their disclosure of sustainability metrics, the implementation of changes to their energy profiles, and finally the substantive progress seen in their collective carbon footprint.

It was found that among the two initiatives, SBTi appears posed for larger emissions mitigation, while RE100 is better at promoting more effective renewable energy purchasing practices. However, direct emission reductions are mostly concentrated on a reduced number of firms in energy intensive sectors, with the remaining members focusing on reductions through indirect methods that might not be additional at the global level. Similarly, it was found that informational barriers remain high even in these firms, with a plethora of inconsistencies that complicate year-by-year comparisons.

Since the last decade, climate change and environmental awareness has received increasingly more attention from politicians and companies. In order to preserve earth’s climate, a lot has to be changed in current industry standards. In 2018, heavy-duty road transport was responsible for 680 million tonnes kg in transported commodities in the Netherlands (CBS, 2019). This resulted in 10.176 million tonnes of emitted CO2 in the same year (CBS, 2020). As these transportation activities are a big part of the current pollution, there is a lot to be gained in this area. Therefore, industries are investigating to make their transportation activities more sustainable.Large manufacturing plants often apply specific supply chain strategies in order to reduce waste. One of those wastes are warehousing costs. Just-in-Time (JIT) and Just-in-Sequence (JIS) are supply chain strategies that aim to reduce these costs (Bányai & Bányai, 2017). A JIT supply chain strategy refers to a strategy where commonly used parts are delivered at the plant when needed, therefore reducing storage capacity. A JIS strategy goes even further. When products are customizable, a JISstrategy ensures that the required parts are delivered in the sequence of production.Upon till now, a lot has been researched with regard to alternative fuels in heavy-duty transport, especially in the hydrogen and battery electric area. However, these studies often stay on a general logistics level. Specific concepts such as JIT and JIS may influence choices for alternative fuels due to more important time constraints such as a predefined and strict pearl chain horizon. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to research the feasiblity ranking of alternative fuels (hydrogen, battery electric, HVO and LNG) in a JIT/JIS supply chain.

Digitisation of businesses and keeping up with technological trends has become a pivotal factor for organisations to remain competent in the current market. Owing to the array of advantages that the Cloud offers many businesses have been moving towards cloud-based environments. A technological transition like Cloud adoption is often not restricted to a technological change but also influences every other aspect. Because of the agile nature of the process, it is often complex and convoluted. Given the large spectrum of possibilities, multiple organisations and academic researchers over time have explored this line of interest to create generic frameworks to help companies move from on-premise to cloud. This scientific research was also directed towards creating a generic framework for the cloud transition. The goal of this research is “To develop an integral framework to assist companies in realising control while moving their applications to the cloud”. The integral framework is aimed to function as a generalised document by integrating various aspects, actors and factors to help organisations plan end-to-end strategies and thus to realise control. The framework includes a governance module that addresses 5 broad aspects required to formulate an End-to-End strategy, namely, Business and IT Drivers, Cost, Security, People and Resources and Platform and Operations. There are about 15 agile steps in the hybrid cloud transition process. For every step in the critical path, the governance module is considered. The possible challenges and boundary conditions are addressed and included in the framework design. The detailed steps- and aspects-based organisational measures list is made with best practice guidelines to increase transparency. Finally, the integral framework is evaluated at organisational contexts and conclusions are derived.

By signing the Paris Climate Agreement, The Netherlands has committed itself to curtail its CO2- emissions in order to keep global warming well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Pivotal to achieve these targets is the phase-out of CO2-intensive electricity generation technologies and investments in renewables. Current investments aiming to decarbonise the electricity system are predominantly allocated to solar PV and off- and onshore wind energy. However, this trajectory might change as the development of Dynamic Tidal power (DTP) might soon enable The Netherlands to harvest the North Sea’s currently unutilised tidal currents to generate clean electricity. DTP uses a 30-70 kilometre long dam perpendicular to the coast to capture the North Sea’s tidal currents. The alternating currents that proceed parallel to the coast create a hydraulic head over the dam, which turbines in the dam convert into electricity. However, the variable availability of solar irradiation, wind, and tidal currents makes it increasingly complex and costly to match electricity supply and demand as their shares in the electricity mix increase. To ensure electricity security, freely dispatchable energy generators (e.g. natural gas, biomass or coal turbines) are deployed to cover the electricity load that could not be met by the variable renewable energy (VRE) generators. However, due to the fuel used to generate electricity, dispatchable energy sources tend to emit CO2 and bear higher marginal energy generation costs than VRES. To address this problem, the portfolio shares of solar PV, offshore wind, onshore wind and DTP that minimise the need for dispatchable backup capacity and the energy generation costs were computed in this study. Due to its novelty, special attention was paid to the effect of DTP on a VRE system’s ability to efficiently match supply and demand. In order to achieve these objectives, a novel application of the Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) was used. The MPT originates from the stock market but is often used to comprise VRE portfolios that maximise the electricity output. However, as the aim was to minimise the residual load, demand-variability was introduced into the MPT. Existing literature had not covered this topic. Hence, by assessing to what extent including demand-variability in the MPT affects the selection of efficient VRE portfolios, this study filled a gap in the literature and serves as a starting point for future research into the application of the MPT. In total, three different electricity demand scenarios were optimised; the contemporary load profile (1), increased peak loads due to an extreme penetration of electric vehicles (EV) and electric heat pumps (HP) (2), and a flat load profile due to an extreme penetration of demand-responsive measures (3). The most efficient portfolio shares for each demand scenario were found by computing how 35GW should be distributed among solar PV, offshore wind, onshore wind and DTP in order to minimise the need for backup capacity and energy generation costs. The results of this study indicate that regardless of the demand profile, The Netherlands’ VRE system would be most cost-efficient in meeting demand when comprised of approximately 75% DTP and 25% offshore wind. However, only under the condition that the DTP-dams are geographically dispersed. Geographically dispersed DTP-dams, for example, located in Zeeland (south of The Netherlands) and off the coast of Texel (north of The Netherlands), cancels out the volatility in the electricity output caused by high and low tide. This reduces a VRE system’s volatility in electricity output and stabilises the electricity output from the dispatchable backup system, which minimises the system’s electricity generation costs. However, in terms of the amount of backup capacity required, it was found that a system comprised entirely of DTP with an integrated battery storage system would be even more efficient. The battery storage system eliminates all variability in the electricity output from DTP, which minimises the need for dispatchable backup capacity. However, as battery storage costs are significant (approx. 100,000 €/MWh), it is unlikely that a DTP-dam with a storage system large enough to flatten its electricity output is economically viable under the current market circumstances. This might change when DTP is combined with other storage systems or if battery storage costs reduce due to learning-effect, economies of scale or technical innovations. As DTP is still in its initial development phase, it is not certain DTP will successfully penetrate the power generation market. If DTP fails to enter the market, the current VRE system (61% solar PV, 8% offshore wind and 31% onshore wind) is fairly cost-efficient. However, if the aim is to reduce the amount of dispatchable backup capacity required to ensure energy security, future investments should be allocated to offshore wind. The overarching conclusion is that there is no unequivocal VRE portfolio that is most efficient to meet demand as it depends on the perspective taken (required backup capacity versus electricity generation costs). However, this study shows that the current VRE system benefits from the inclusion of DTP, both in terms of the required amount of backup capacity and the system’s energy generation costs. Only if DTP is combined with a large battery storage system to flatten its electricity output do the system’s energy generation costs surpass the costs of the current VRE system. In regards to the effect of including demand-variability in the MPT, it was found that demand variability has a limited effect on the selection of efficient VRE portfolio shares. Only in a scenario (2) with increased peak loads did the share of offshore wind slightly increase. This is due to the fact that the peaks in electricity supply from offshore wind coincide with the peaks in demand from electric HP (winter).

Carbon accounting in the financial sector has experienced a rapid growth over the last years. Both private and public institutions have focused their attention on the role the financial sector can play in accelerating the transition to a low carbon economy. More than 80% of the financial institutions worldwide acknowledge the importance of GHG accounting for their loans and investment. However, less than 20% of these institutions actually measure and report on their climate impact. An often heard argument for this lacking carbon disclosure is data quality and the need for estimation models to improve this data. Less attention in academic research has been focused on the basics of carbon accounting methodologies. The larger part of capital in the world finds itself in the financial sector in public and private institutions. Accelerating the transition to a low carbon economy will require a shift of this capital to a more sustainable focus. In order to identify carbon intensive investments and to track the decarbonisation of loans and investments as a financial institution, carbon accounting plays an important role. This research aims to improve the approach that forms the basis for carbon accounting used in financial institutions. More attention in this field can possibly trigger a line of events with more attention to the climate impact of the investing world. Ideally this can lead to more sustainable investments and carbon reduction on a global scale. The question aimed to answer in this research is the following: What is the most adequate approach for financial institutions to measure financed emissions?

This study goes into the existing carbon accounting methodologies and metrics. The current approaches are analysed and the four most common metrics selected. The major accounting issue following from this overview and related interviews is that there is no approach combining investments in equity and debt when allocating emissions. Based on this observation three alternative accounting approaches are proposed and assessed on their contribution and sensitivity in order to come to an improved practice for carbon accounting. The three discussed approaches are the use of Enterprise Value Including Cash, Balance Sheet Total and separate allocation for equity and debt. The alternatives of using Enterprise Value Including Cash and Balance Sheet Total together with four of the existing carbon accounting metrics are evaluated on a set of 7 qualitative criteria. This evaluation brings the use of Enterprise Value Including Cash forward as the preferred metric. The second evaluation of the metrics is done through a quantitative approach using a sample investment portfolio to test the metrics in a practical situation. Here, the four remaining metrics are compared in their performance over a time-span of 5 years. With the use of experiments this performance is evaluated, where the use of Enterprise Value Including Cash and Balance Sheet Total show the most potential.

The research concludes that the use of Enterprise Value Including Cash is the preferred approach. This approach enables the financial institution to assess the carbon footprint of their investment portfolio for both equity and bonds investments in listed companies. The advantage of this method is that it avoids double counting and the emissions are allocated to the actual invested values. A downside of the Enterprise Value Including Cash is the dependency on market development and therefore market volatility. This can cause issues when analyzing the trend of decarbonisation of an investment portfolio. This research recognizes this problem and proposes research into corrections to mitigate the issue. This improved practice should enable the financial sector to harmonize their approach in carbon accounting to ensure higher comparability, transparency and consistency in the landscape of carbon accounting. The next step would be piloting the improved methodology in a real investment environment on real-time data.

Consumption of environmentally friendly products has grown more widespread than it was a few years ago. As a result, consumers are becoming more conscious of the environmental effect aspect while making purchases of goods and services. The consequence is that FMCG firms are attempting to develop creative solutions, such as altering the production process, the kind of packaging materials used, modifications to the supply chain, and logistical techniques.
Because of the complex structure of the company and the low-profit margins per product, pricing FMCG goods may be a difficult task to master.

Specifically, the thesis study investigates the sustainable efforts implemented by a particular brand. Through the case study, in-depth information about the brand is collected, including pricing practices and sustainability methods. In addition, the critical ICT tools are identified, and their impact on the product's pricing is analyzed through interviews and desk research.

The research output focuses on leveraging the data and information to maximize the profit margins based on the investment made. Furthermore, based on the ICT architecture observed throughout the study, suggestions are given that will assist organizations in achieving a better return on their investments.

Our planet is witnessing an unprecedented increase in temperature that is causing frequent damages such as extreme weather conditions, acidification of oceans and extinction of species that may soon become irreparable. Various studies have reported that greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from human activities in industries that produce 'material goods' like transportation, energy, manufacturing and agriculture have been the chief drivers of the climate change crisis. Even as greener and renewable energy technologies are increasingly being adopted, since consumption of material goods in the rich parts of the world continue to increase, it may not be enough to solve the environmental problems in time. However, we may be able to solve them by adopting a different way of living. In order to do so, we need to understand the purpose of the economy. According to Aristotle, Eudaimonia or the 'good life’ which is the full development of human capabilities or virtues is the ultimate end of human life and the purpose of the economy or the production and consumption of material goods by people are simply a means towards this ultimate end. A similar idea that human beings have an ultimate end towards which all actions are directed can also be found with the more popularly known Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This essentially means that human beings need material wealth only insofar that it supports the fulfilment of their non-material needs: the development of capacities/virtues. 'Non-material' can refer to needs such as enjoying a classical dance performance, or studying philosophy or engaging in therapy. This perspective allows us to rethink growth in terms of a shift from material to non-material needs, which could also help solve the world's environmental problems as long as non-material needs can be met in less polluting ways (as compared to how material needs are met). Following this, economic activities are classified as physical (or goods-producing) or non-physical. Activities in the physical economy meet material needs and have a higher potential for productivity growth. Activities in the non-physical economy, including health care, education, research and arts, meet non-material needs and have a lower potential for productivity growth since human work is generally the final output. Based on this classification, it is observed that, in the advanced economies, the share of the physical economy in total demand is getting smaller, while the share of the non-physical economy is getting bigger over time, reflecting human development from material to non-material growth. If the non-physical economy − which consists mainly of human work such as a doctor's advice, a lesson, a concert − is relatively less polluting, such a shift could mean good news for the environment. While this looks promising, a consequence of the lower potential for productivity growth in the non-physical economy is that their activities can be expensive. Baumol (1993), termed this the 'cost disease' and argued that people in the rich parts of the world can afford the expensive 'personal services' when funds resulting from the productivity gains in the physical economy (due to labour-saving innovations) are transferred to the non-physical economy. Yet, nowadays, the standard response to the 'cost disease' is to replace human work with technology through standardisation, computerisation and robotisation of hitherto human tasks as a way to minimise costs. Due to the nature of work in the non-physical economy, the growing technology/ material-intensity can affect the quality of the non-material value created, while it may also increase the pressure on the environment. This led me to investigate the impact of the rising technology-intensity in the non-physical economy on the quality of outcome and on the environment. One of the main activities in the non-physical economy, health care, is 'an art and a science' in the sense that it takes care of the health of a human being in order to enable him to develop intellectually and psychologically and it is not just about 'fixing' what is broken. Doctors, therapists and nurses are people who possess besides clinical knowledge, interpersonal skills such as understanding and empathy to carry out complex human interactions with patients. Yet, in recent times, especially in the United States, technologies such as electronic health records (EHR), e-prescribing, tele-medicine and health apps are increasingly being adopted to displace some of the creative work performed by health care professionals. The main drivers of such trends identified are: the privatisation of health care, the systems of 'Managed Care' and government measures such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 that allocated funds to incorporate health information technologies in health care facilities across the country. Some of the common experiences found with the adoption of technology in health care are: a supplier-induced demand for drugs and medical technologies due to a 'fee-for-service' payment model for doctors, a 'technology arms race' between hospitals and ‘direct-to-consumer’ advertising of medicines and medical technologies. Some of the consequences of these trends found are: unnecessary testing leading to increased overall health care costs, 'physician deskilling' due to decreased clinical knowledge and psychological and health implications for patients due to less physician-patient interactions and more 'end-of-pipe' solutions. From a brief review, it is also found that the health care system in Canada is less technology-/material-intensive than the health care system in the U.S. with (roughly) the same quality of service which shows that different kinds of health care systems can coexist with one another. A second activity of the non-physical economy, education, is one that enhances the intellectual and spiritual development of students, guided by a curriculum. According to various studies, teachers are indispensable in this activity in terms of their personal knowledge, their pedagogical capacities and their ability to instill curiosity, enthusiasm, sympathy, and morality in students through complex and dynamic interactions. Yet, similar to health care, even the creative work of teachers are being displaced with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) such as: talent management software, digital learning technologies, MOOCs, allegedly to improve quality of education. In the United States, some of the trends commonly found to promote such technologies are: a pay-for-performance model for teachers to improve productivity of student grades, a common core standard curriculum and standardized tests for students to get them ready for college and careers. Some of the consequences of the growing technology intensity in education are found to be: teacher deskilling, lack of evidence of improved student performances and psychological implications for students such as diminished social skills, lack of creative and original thinking etc. These findings suggest that the growing technology-intensity in health care and education may have not significantly improved the quality of service provided, especially since the nature of work in these activities are different. Besides this, they could also lead to a higher environmental burden. In this thesis, I investigate whether the latter is the case, which is done in two steps. First, I investigate whether the non-physical economy is less polluting than the physical economy. Next, I examine the environmental consequences of the rising technology-intensity of the non-physical economy. The empirical research method applied is the Environmentally Extended Input-Output (EE-IO) analysis, which is used to compute the direct and indirect environmental effects of the physical and the non-physical economy. Direct effects refer to the pollution recorded at the place where it arises (for example, emissions due to health care). Indirect effects refer to the pollution caused by industries that supply inputs to health care, and for which the health care sector (as sector of use) is (indirectly) responsible. Through an EE-IO analysis, environmental effects (such as emissions) are ascribed to the sector of use, by reallocating emissions from the sector where they originate (sector of origin) to the sector that uses the goods or services supplied by this sector. The EE-IO analysis makes use of an Input-Output (I-O) table which records intermediate deliveries of goods and services between sectors in an economy, as well as each sector's deliveries to final demand. In addition, it uses the environmental accounts of each sector to compute the total emissions for which a sector can be held responsible, which consist of its own (direct) emissions plus the emissions that are related to the inputs it purchases from other industries. The two equations that guide this computation are B=b*(1-A)¯¹ and E=B*f where B= a vector of total (direct+indirect) emission intensities (per sector); b=direct emission intensity vector; (1-A)¯¹= the 'Leontief Inverse matrix' (derived from an I-O table) that represents the technical coefficients or the total (direct+indirect) inputs required per unit of a sector's output; f=final demand and E=a vector of total (direct + indirect) emissions per sector for a given level of final demand f. The results found were that the non-physical economy in the United States is less polluting in terms of global warming and acidification potential, energy use and tropospheric ozone gas emissions, even if emissions are re-allocated from sector of origin to sector of use. This result suggests that the impact on the environment will be lower if human beings become increasingly interested in non-material rather than material growth. However, this result may not come about if the non-physical economy gets more technology-intensive. To empirically investigate the increase in technology-intensity in health care and its corresponding environmental burden, two comparative studies based on the EE-IO analysis were carried out. The first one compared the health care system in the United States between 1995 and 2015. After adjusting both I-O tables for inflation (using Miller & Blair’s (2009) "double deflation" method) and regrouping them for comparable sector classifications, it is shown that the health care sector's technical (Leontief inverse) coefficients increased for 'computer, electronic & optical equipment', 'post & telecommunications', 'electricity & water supply', and 'renting & other business services' − indicating that the technology- or material-intensity (in terms of medical technology, ICT, administrative technology) as well as the electricity-intensity of health care increased from 1995 to 2015. Although the use of 'chemicals & pharmaceutical products' in the health care sector itself decreased, final demand for chemicals & pharmaceuticals per capita almost doubled between 1995 and 2015. In sum, the results found showed that technology/material-intensity in terms of ICT, medical technologies, energy use per unit of output and medicines per capita increased from 1995 to 2015. These data support, or at least do not falsify, the hypothesis of a trend towards higher technology-intensity of health care. However, the result for the environmental burden of the increased technology-intensity was found to be mixed. Firstly, total CO2 emission intensity of health care and the indirect contribution from 'post & telecommunications', 'computer, electronic & optical equipment' and 'renting & other business services' decreased from 1995 to 2015, largely due to an economy-wide switch to less carbon-intensive sources of energy. Although the shift from coal to natural gas reduced CO2 emissions, it also led to other types of environmental problems, such as those associated with increased production of shale gas. Secondly, the indirect emission contribution from 'electricity & water supply' industry to health care's carbon intensity increased due to the increase in energy use per unit of output (possibly due to increased use of medical equipment and other technologies in hospitals). This also led to higher total (direct+indirect) emissions from the health care sector in 2015 than in 1995 for the respective levels of final demand. Therefore, as long as the technology-intensity of health care keeps rising, this is likely to involve rising pressure on the environment (not only in terms of emissions but also in terms of increased use of earth's finite resources). The second study compared the health care system in the United States with the health care system in Canada for the year 2014. The results showed that the U.S. health care sector's technical coefficients were higher than those of Canada's health care for the relevant sectors examined in the previous study. This shows that U.S. health care is more technology-/ material-intensive in terms of medicines, medical technology, ICT and administrative technology than Canada's health care while reliance on human work is lower. Next, the total (direct+indirect) carbon-intensity of U.S. health care was also found to be higher than that of Canada's health care. This is mainly because the indirect emission contribution from sectors, namely, 'chemical & pharmaceuticals', 'renting & other business services', 'electricity & water supply' 'computer programming & information services' to health care are higher in the U.S.. However, the indirect emission contribution from sectors 'telecommunications' and 'computer, electronic & optical products' are found to be lower in the U.S. (in spite of a higher use of their goods per unit of output), possibly due to a lower carbon-intensity of these two sectors in the U.S. than in Canada. All in all, the important insight from these two studies is that even though increased purchase of medicines, ICT and related medical & administrative technologies by health care activities in the U.S. between 1995 and 2015 has not led to higher total CO2 emission intensity of health care, we know that as of 2014, high-tech health care in the U.S. is still more polluting than Canada's health care. This supports the argument that replacement of human work with technological solutions in the non-physical economy may lead to a higher environmental burden. In conclusion, since there is lack of conclusive evidence that the promotion of general, country-wide transition to high-tech health care (or education and arts) reduces costs while improving quality and reducing environmental burden, it may be desirable that free choice of technology in the non-physical economy is encouraged. The resulting diversity, or mix of low-tech and high-tech approaches in health care, education, arts, etc. would be less polluting than a linear high-tech approach in the non-physical economy, while leaving providers as well as recipients of services in the non-physical economy free to explore different technological paths.

The automobile industry has been continuously working on bringing automation in motor vehicles for the betterment of human life. Advancement in technology has helped companies manufacture cars that can drive and navigate on their own called Autonomous vehicles (AVs). There are numerous effects of AVs on society. The AVs are forecast to bring enormous changes in the labor market. The objective of the study is to understand how the introduction of AVs will impact the labor market related to skills and job types in The Netherlands. There has been a fear that changes in geography and technological change threatens the employee’s mismatch with their skill and job. Over multiple decades this mismatch has increased the demand for new skills and the supply is maintained by increasing the education level of workers. This demand for skill is due to technological change and it is predicted that there will be similar changes due to the introduction of AVs. To achieve the objective of this research, 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the academicians from the universities of The Netherlands and experts from labor organizations of The Netherlands. Interview questions were generated with the help of the conceptual model which was generated by the literature. From the result of the interview, it can be concluded that the AVs will not be having a major impact on the labor market and the problem will be very minimal related to skill and job types. Skill mismatch is not a major concern in The Netherlands and it will be only persisting for a short duration. There will be an increase in jobs and skills related to ICT and the supervision of AVs. Furthermore, interviewees claimed that the skill mismatch problem will not emerge if the introduction of AVs to the society is done incrementally and gradually. Based on the result, it is recommended for the future study should focus on quantifying the impact of AVs on the labor market based on the wage effect and inequality. And also expand the study in other countries if the effect is different compared to The Netherlands.

Accurately forecasting charging demand is a major factor in energy providers’ ability to meet said demand. A number of methods have been proposed in the literature. This master thesis aims to provide a framework for energy providers to forecast charging demand due to increased EV adoption. Specifically, this research examines the effects that rental EV adoption has on charging demand at Icelandic energy provider ON Power’s fast charging stations. Further, it establishes how increased technological developments and infrastructure spending can be balanced to avoid unnecessary costs, and if ON Power’s charging infrastructure is prepared to meet the electricity demand that a fully electrified rental car fleet would bring. To answer these questions, an agent-based modeling framework was constructed to simulate charging demand in ON Power’s network. The model simulates all tourists that use rental cars in driving the Icelandic ring road as if the entire fleet consisted of EVs. A case study is conducted where the Icelandic ring road is split into nine zones, and six scenarios that each reflect different technological developments are simulated using the modeling framework. The research findings indicate a significant change in charging demand. Firstly, rental EVs affect seasonal charging demand with more than half of the demand occurring in the summer months of June-August. Secondly, geographical charging demand shifts from mostly being in the greater capital area, to mostly being outside of it. Thirdly, a sufficient charging infrastructure at Keflavík Airport is a major factor in the electrification of the Icelandic rental car fleet. The research findings further indicate that with the right strategy, it is well within reach for ON Power to handle the rental EV charging demand. A strategy is proposed for ON power to avoid unnecessary spending while still meeting charging demand, which considers current demand, future demand, and how new charging station locations should be determined.