Sustainability Within HCT
We develop key technologies that contribute in various ways to addressing the Grand Challenges of society.
Most of the work at the Department of Human Centered Technology can be related to the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals in one form or other. Examples of applied and targeted work towards sustainable development goals are presented below.
We would also like to point to the MID4S team at MID devoting their whole research agenda to projects that aim to reduce carbon emission and the transition to a more sustainable society.
Goal 3 Good health and wellbeing: for example, through designing for a rich and healthy life through soma design and engaging with female health topics, increasing accessibility for homeless people or enabling accessibility through sound and music.
Goal 4 Quality Education: for example, in a project to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Goal 5 Equality: for example, through policy work on creating equitable digital solutions for all people regardless of gender, function or national background.
Goal 7 Affordable and clean energy: for example, through ethnographic studies to explore consumers’ understanding and use of smart grid technologies in order to change behaviors, decrease energy use and enable the transition to a renewable energy system.
Goal 8 Decent work conditions and economic growth: for example, through our research on digital work environments and accessibility works to endure an efficient and effective work situation for everyone.
Goal 10 Reduced Inequalities: for example, in a project on changing practices in society to address accessibility and participation in design processes for vulnerable user groups such the homeless.
Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production: actively designing for reduced energy consumption through novel design processes, applied to e.g. electric vehicle interaction design, and, to decrease food waste at retail and consumer levels through novel low-tech technologies at the supermarket and in the home.
Goal 13 Climate action: for example, in a project on visualizing flight patterns and CO2 emissions from business travel to support the KTH climate targets of reducing CO2 emissions from air travel 60% reduction between 2020 and 2030.
