A transdisciplinary approach and design-thinking methodology for energy transition

Abstract

The World is facing a climate crisis today. Since it is primarily due to the emissions from the use of fossil fuels, we must re-think and re-act on how we generate, transmit, distribute, and consume energy in industry, buildings, and transportation. Development of creative solutions and strategies to decrease emissions requires an energy transition framework and should involve every person, company, entity, and all governments. Such a framework can only be achieved with efforts at both local and global scales, which needs to convince (a) industries to change their traditional operation modalities, (b) people to alter their consumption behaviors, and (c) governments to change their rules, regulations, and incentives. The complexity and the magnitude of this enormous task demand coordination and collaboration of all stakeholders, besides the need for technological innovations. In this paper, we outline a transdisciplinary approach and design-thinking methodology (TADTM) to tackle this challenging task. Our premise is that such complex problems need a fundamental understanding of not only engineering solutions but also those for business operations, financing, socio-economic governance, legislation, and regulations. Also, these problems need to be considered by different decision-makers with seamless interactions and structured teamwork. Towards this, we emphasize the need for a solid transdisciplinary framework for industrial corporations to change their energy policies with the help of either/both practical and doable energy efficiency measures and using renewable/alternative energy in their operations.