Barry Ness

Keywords

Sustainability Science; sustainability transitions; transdisciplinarity; interdisciplinarity; urban living labs; sustainability assessment; sustainable energy systems; sustainable development goals

Current research & leadership

Barry Ness is an associate professor at LUCSUS. He was the past director of the local interaction platform in Skåne for the Mistra Urban Futures project (2017-2020), the past Director of Studies of the PhD Research School at LUCSUS(2013-2019), and LUMES graduate program (2011-2013).He is an editor for Challenges in Sustainability (Librello Publishing), and is a member of the Centre for Healthy Indoor Environments (CHIE), at the Faculty of Engineering. His current research interests include inter- and transdisciplinary approaches for both comprehending complex sustainability challenges and approaches and efforts for transitioning them to greater sustainability. Barry is a researcher and work package leader for the Globally and Locally-sustainable Food-Water-Energy Innovation in Urban Living Labs (GLOCULL) project, 2018-2021, focusing on an urban living lab approach for the food-water-energy nexus, and a work package co-leader in the TRANSFORM project (2018-2025) facilitating small- & medium-sized enterprise sustainability experimentation. 

Past research

Barry Ness' past research is diverse. He has been active with research on how simple, sustainable innovations can be more effectively diffused in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa, on knowledge systems around direct trade coffee production chains, and on the governance of large land acquisition projects in Africa. His PhD research concentrated on understanding the variety of tools that exist for sustainability assessment, conceptualizing complex problems of sustainability based on scale and cross-scale interactions through the case of the sugar production system in Sweden. Early research included socio-economic analyses of municipal solid waste treatment systems, wastewater purification systems, and qualitative and quantitative modelling of food commodity systems.

Teaching

Since 2003, Barry Ness has coordinated and/or taught in a variety of sustainability-related courses, especially at Masters and PhD levels. Teaching topic examples include inter- & transdisciplinarity, life-cycle assessment, EU agricultural policy, tools & frameworks in sustainability, scenarios & visioning, and research ethics. He is currently course coordinator for the Sustainability Science (Master’s and PhD levels) and the Knowledge to Action course, and is a thesis examinerforthe LUMES program. Furthermore, he was the past coordinator for the Energy & Sustainability course in LUMES. Barry has been the thesis supervisor for approximately 50 graduate students since 2004. Hewas also a part of the teachers’ teamfor the Global Field Exercise (GFE) in the Global Leadership Initiative in Sustainability Science at the University of Tokyo (2017 and 2018).

Outreach

Much of Barry Ness' current research involves engagement with actors outside of academia to promote a sustainability transition. Currently, outreach efforts focus on how to improve the sustainability of craft beer production and consumption systems in southern Sweden, SustBeerLab, via experimentation with hydroponic hop growing and craft beer sustainability principles creation. 

News article: Researchers are testing new ways to make your beer more sustainable

Research projects

GLOCULL

TRANSFORM

Centre for Healthy Indoor Environments

LUCID