Our lab actively works with top-tier organizations including K-water, Haezoom, Daejeon Metropolitan City, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), and Thingspire to deliver impactful research and real-world solutions.
This project investigates how smart social learning can drive end-user-led energy transitions in three cities: Hong Kong, Seoul, and Bristol. As government policies and market mechanisms alone are insufficient to achieve carbon neutrality, citizen engagement is increasingly essential. By leveraging smart energy technologies such as smart meters and home energy storage, households can shift from passive consumers to active participants in energy conservation and renewable energy generation.
The study explores how social learning—through data-enabled envisioning, experimentation, and deliberative participation—can be scaled up to drive lasting behavioral change at the community level. Using a mixed-method approach, it combines real-time energy data analysis with qualitative insights from household interviews and workshops.
Conducted by a 13-member international research consortium (led by the Asian Energy Studies Centre at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) in collaboration with an international research consortium, including KAIST, Stanford University, Kyoto University, and York St. John University. The consortium consists of 13 researchers from 5 institutions), this interdisciplinary study provides a comparative analysis of different energy cultures and policy environments, generating valuable insights for policymakers and advancing strategies for smart, citizen-driven energy transitions.
The traditional centralized water management system struggles to address Jeju’s unique challenges, including its heavy reliance on groundwater, water scarcity exacerbated by climate change, and growing water demand driven by population growth and economic development. Efforts to develop alternative water resources, such as reclaimed wastewater and desalinated seawater, face significant challenges due to high costs, energy-intensive processes, and potential increases in greenhouse gas emissions, which could hinder Jeju’s progress toward its carbon neutrality goals.
This study seeks to address these issues by proposing an optimized water circulation strategy for Jeju, integrating renewable energy sources to enhance the sustainability and efficiency of alternative water resource utilization. Through a tailored approach that considers Jeju’s unique environmental and economic context, the research aims to balance economic feasibility with environmental objectives, contributing to Jeju’s carbon neutrality and offering valuable insights for other regions facing similar challenges.
The traditional centralized water management system struggles to address Jeju’s unique challenges, such as groundwater dependency, water scarcity from climate change, and increasing demand due to population growth and economic development. Developing alternative water resources like reclaimed wastewater and desalinated seawater introduces high costs, energy consumption, and potential greenhouse gas emissions, which conflict with Jeju’s carbon neutrality goals.
This study proposes an optimized strategy for Jeju’s water circulation system by integrating renewable energy with alternative water resource development to enhance energy efficiency and sustainability. The research aims to balance economic feasibility with environmental goals, contributing to Jeju’s carbon neutrality and providing a model for other regions with similar challenges.
Aimed at generating 381 or more emission factors, this research will produce the first set of spend-based emission factors that are uniquely tailored for seamless integration with any existing enterprise resource planner (ERP) in Korea, thereby helping organizations to measure and report Scope 3 emissions at ease. Thingspire’s spend-based emission factors from this ongoing research will complement its existing global emission factors database, which has its core strength in Asia-Pacific coverage. In addition, it can serve as a benchmark for both sustainability and purchasing managers to meet their sustainability KPIs.
Organizations in Korea face mounting pressure and challenges from global regulatory bodies due to their critical position in the upstream of global supply chain. As stricter reporting and reduction standards emerge, the often resource-stricken Korean small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are left to cope with the downstream pressures such as Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act. Offered as both API and cloud-based web service, Thingspire’s carbon accounting software, “Carbonscope,” is already filling this void by onboarding SMEs across major industrial complexes in Korea. Hundreds of SMEs have already begun measuring their carbon footprints to secure their place in the global supply chain, using industry-specific data entry forms prepared by carbon analysts.
This project is a basic research to fulfill legal obligations under the Enforcement of the Basic Act on Sustainable Development (July 5, 2022) and to establish a sustainable development policy for Daejeon City.
The D-SDGs address a number of issues in terms of social inclusion, economic development, and environmental preservation for sustainable growth in Daejeon. This is done from the perspective that topics related to quality of life such as economy, culture, inequality, energy, health, and peace are linked to the ecological environment and are not free.
The D-SDGs were developed based on the needs of citizens and have been developed in consideration of policy feedback. To this end, the Daejeon Sustainable Development Goals, centered on the Daejeon Sustainable Development Council, closely examines the performance of the D-SDGs and establishes strategies for the D-SDGs by collecting opinions from citizens and relevant experts.
In addition, the D-SDGs follow the indicator system proposed by the K-SDGs and cover various issues such as poverty, gender equality, education, jobs, innovation, community, culture, human rights, and cooperation in four areas: society, environment, economy and cities, and social capital.
Along with policies related to the city's economic, environmental, and community transformation, which Daejeon Metropolitan City has been focusing on, the D-SDGs include social values such as human rights, justice, peace, communication, and cooperation.
KEPCO Management Research Institute (KEMRI) is one of the research institutes of the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). KEPCO is a state-owned company responsible for various tasks related to electricity supply in South Korea, including electricity generation, distribution, energy efficiency improvement, and renewable energy development and management.
The KEPCO Research Institute supports KEPCO's research and development activities and conducts research on management strategies and policies for the power industry. The institute conducts research on a variety of topics related to power market trends, energy policy, environmental issues, renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency, and power infrastructure development, and serves as a source of knowledge and information for the power sector in South Korea
The Center For Anthropocene Studies aims to provoke a paradigm shift in academic research, public policy, and artistic creation. CAS is financially and institutionally supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
The National Research Foundation of Korea was established in 2009 as a merger of Korea Science and Engineering Foundation, Korea Research Foundation, and Korea Foundation for International Cooperation of Science and Technology. It provides support for research into new theories for the advancement of science, the arts, and the Korean culture in general. The foundation was first established in 1981. Basic Research in Science and Engineering ($1.864 million), Humanities & Social Sciences ($234 million), National Strategic R&D Programs ($2.032 million), Academic Research & University Funding ($2.071 million), International Cooperation ($67 million), Others Areas ($159 million)
The Supergen Bioenergy Hub works with academia, industry, government and societal stakeholders to develop sustainable bioenergy systems that support the UK’s transition to an affordable, resilient, low-carbon energy future. This is supported through the Hub’s whole system research approach that encompasses all aspects of bioenergy expertise to identify pathways for delivering bioenergy with wider social, economic and environmental benefits.
The vision of the Supergen Bioenergy Hub is to enable and stimulate the development of a sustainable UK bioenergy sector. Our work programme covers the full chain of biomass and bioenergy, including research on biomass resources, pre-treatment and conversion technologies, energy vectors and bio-based products, and whole systems analysis.