Dr. Lewis Akenji

Executive Director

Lewis is Executive Director of Hot or Cool Insitute. He is a political economist with an interest in institutions and policies, and the fair allocation of resources and opportunities for collective wellbeing within ecological limits.

Lewis has served as Executive Director of SEED, founded as a UN partnership at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development to promote entrepreneurship for sustainable development. Prior to that, he was Director for Sustainable Consumption and Production at the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in Japan. He has consulted with organizations including United Nations agencies, the Asian and African Development Banks, the European Commission, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and has served as technical or science-policy adviser to several national government delegations, including Finland, Japan, Sweden, Indonesia, Hungary.

Lewis is a Full Member of the Club of Rome, and a Transformational Economics Commissioner with the Earth4All project, and is Board member of several organisations.
Lewis has an M.Sc. Sustainable Resource Management (Technical University Munich, Germany) and a Ph.D. Political Economy (University of Helsinki, Finland).

  • Current

Research Highlights and Accomplishments

 
  1. Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity. A report to the Club of Rome. 2022. New Society Publishers (contributor)
  2. 1.5-Degree Lifestyles: Towards A Fair Consumption Space for All (Lead author) 2021. Hot or Cool Institute. Berlin, Germany.
  3. Ossified materialism: introduction to the special volume on absolute reductions in materials throughput and emissions. Akenji, L., Magnus Bengtsson, Raimund Bleischwitz, Arnold Tukker, Heinz Schandle. 2016. Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 132, 20 Sept. 2016, Pages 1–12. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.03.071
  4. Making Sustainable Consumption and Production the Core of Sustainable Development Goals. Akenji, L., & Bengtsson, M. 2014. Sustainability, 6(2), 513–529. doi:10.3390/su6020513
  5. Consumer Scapegoatism and Limits to Green Consumerism. Akenji, Lewis, 2013.  Journal of Cleaner Production, DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.05.022
  6. Circular Economy and Plastics: A Gap-Analysis in ASEAN Member States. Akenji, L.; Bengtsson, M.; Kato, M.; Hengesbaugh, M.; Hotta, Y.; Aoki-Suzuki, C.; Gamaralalage, P.J.D. & Liu, C. (2019) Brussels: European Commission Directorate General for Environment and Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development, Jakarta: Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Plastics
  7. A Framework For Shaping Sustainable Lifestyles: Determinants and Strategies. Akenji, L. and Huizhen Chen. 2016. United Nations Environment Programme, Paris. Accessed from: http://www.scpclearinghouse.org/resource/framework-shaping-sustainable-lifestyles-determinants-and-strategies
  8. Sustainable Consumption and Production: A Handbook for Policy Makers. Global Edition. Lewis Akenji, Magnus Bengtsson, Emily Briggs, Anthony Chiu, Giuseppe Daconto, Zinaida Fadeeva, Stefanos Fotiou, Rajan Gandhi, Charlie Mathews, Graciela Metternicht, Brahmanand Mohanty, Janet Salem, Janya Sang-Arun, Tunnie Srisakulchairak, Heinz Schandl, Mario Tabucanon (2015). United Nations Environment Programme.
  9. Sustainable Consumption and Production in Asia — Aligning Human Development and Environmental Protection in International Development Cooperation. Akenji, L., Magnus Bengtsson, and    Patrick   Schroeder. 2017. In Sustainable Asia: Supporting the Transition to Sustainable Consumption and Production in Asian Developing Countries. Pg 17 – 43. World Scientific Publishing. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/9789814730914_0002
  10. Household time use, carbon footprints, and urban form: a review of the potential contributions of everyday living to the 1.5 °C climate target. Wiedenhofer, D., Smetschka, B., Akenji, L., Jalas, M., & Haberl, H. 2018. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2018.02.007
  11. Improved modelling of lifestyle changes in Integrated Assessment Models: Cross-disciplinary insights from methodologies and theories. Nicole J. van den Berg, Andries F. Hof, Lewis Akenji, Oreane Y. Edelenboschde Mariësse A. E. van Sluisveld, Vanessa J. Timmer, Detlef P. van Vuuren. 2019. Energy Strategy Reviews, Vol. 26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2019.100420
  12. Static analysis of technical and economic energy-saving potential in the residential sector of Xiamen city.  Guo, F., Akenji, L., Schroeder, P., Bengtsson, M. 2017.  Energy Volume 142, 1 January 2018, Pages 373-383. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.10.042

Hot or Cool Institute is a public interest think tank that explores the intersection between society and sustainability, we bring together researchers and practitioners to facilitate solutions to global problems. 

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