About Sustainability…

Institute for Global Environmental Strategies
  • 4.0 (3)
  • NATURAL SCIENCES
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

About Sustainability… is a podcast presented by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, featuring IGES staff and guests having in-depth discussions about sustainability-related topics. Each episode addresses a different topic of conversation -- be it an upcoming event, a debate of interest, or an interesting research finding. With the topic as a starting point, we see where the conversation takes us. We aim at a broad audience, so we avoid using jargon and try not to assume lots of pre-existing knowledge on the topic. Views expressed during the podcast are those of the speaker at the time of recording and are not the official positions of IGES or other organisations involved.

  1. 11/14/2025

    The Science of Change (Part 1): Behavioural Insights for Sustainability

    Welcome to About Sustainability…, a podcast brought to you by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES). In this episode, hosts Dwayne Appleby and Alice Yamabe are joined by Philipe Bujold, Senior Behavioural Scientist at Rare’s Centre for Behavior & the Environment.  The Center for Behavior & the Environment (BE.Center) at Rare is an international non-profit that works to put behavioural science into practice, applying behavioural insights and design thinking to address issues such as climate change, coastal overfishing, plastic pollution, and biodiversity loss. This episode is the first in a three part series exploring how behavioral science can help us tackle some of today's most urgent environmental challenges. We discussed what behavioural science is, where it comes from, and how organisations like Rare are applying behavioural insights to real world issues. We explore key concepts such as nudges, sludges and behavioural levers.  Resources mentioned Rare’s Centre for Behavior & the Environment: behavior.rare.orgNudge by Richard Thaler and Cass SunsteinThinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky"About Sustainability..." is a podcast brought to you by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), an environmental policy think-tank based in Hayama, Japan. IGES experts are concerned with environmental and sustainability challenges. Everything shared on the podcast will be off-the-cuff discussion, and any viewpoints expressed are those held by the speaker at the time of recording. They are not necessarily official IGES positions.

    58 min

  2. 08/07/2025

    Environmental negotiations: Discussions that shape our future

    In this episode, Dwayne Appleby and Andre Mader had an illuminating discussion about multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and their negotiations. Their guest was none other than IGES Executive Director, Hiroshi Ono.  With a wealth of experience as part of Japan’s negotiation team at various meetings in the past, Ono-san sheds light on how these agreements work and why it is so tough to come to decisions.  "About Sustainability..." is a podcast brought to you by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), an environmental policy think-tank based in Hayama, Japan. IGES experts are concerned with environmental and sustainability challenges. Everything shared on the podcast will be off-the-cuff discussion, and any viewpoints expressed are those held by the speaker at the time of recording. They are not necessarily official IGES positions.

    58 min

  3. 03/07/2025

    SDG10 and Beyond: Ensuring a Just Transition for All

    Join us on "About Sustainability," a podcast by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES). In this episode, we explore what the just transition means, tracing its roots back to labour movements of the 1970s and its evolution into international debates and sustainable frameworks. Our guests share innovative case studies that showcase how just transition principles are being implemented locally across the world, with a special focus on Asia. The conversation also explores the ongoing challenges and successes in implementing these principles in various contexts. Speakers Dr. So-Young LEE is a Research Manager at the Integrated Sustainability Center at IGES. Her work focuses on governance in sustainability transitions and climate social co-benefits for the underprivileged. Dwayne Appleby is a Programme Manager in the Sustainable Consumption and Production team at IGES. His work focuses on issues of sustainable consumption and production at the local, national, regional, and global levels. References & Further Reading: Lee, So-Young. “Net-Zero Transitions for All? Considering Applications in Asia”. (2023). Ashish Kothari, Ariel Salleh, Arturo Escobar, Federico Demaria, and Alberto Acosta. Pluriverse: A Post-Development Dictionary (2019), which explores diverse local sustainability practices.Michael Sandel's course on Justice at Harvard, a freely available course on Youtube which investigates the philosophical underpinnings of justiceGarrido, Leonardo and Kate Hughes. “Policy Options for Just Transitions in Asia.” (2023). A report identifying impacts associated with low carbon development in Asia, and policies for just transitions.Wang and Lo. “Just transition: A conceptual review” (2021). A review summarising the pre-pandemic positions on the Just Transition.Newell and Mulvaney. "The Political Economy of the 'Just Transition'" (2013). Discusses political trade-offs in policy design for just transitions. Henry, Brazilian, and Markuson “Just transitions: Histories and futures in a post-COVID world” (2020). This paper delves into the significance of "the pace of change, and the extent to which communities have a say in what comes next", as well as outlining how "the socio-economic aspects of the energy transition remain both emergent and essential to an equitable transition"."About Sustainability..." is a podcast brought to you by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), an environmental policy think-tank based in Hayama, Japan. IGES experts are concerned with environmental and sustainability challenges. Everything shared on the podcast will be off-the-cuff discussion, and any viewpoints expressed are those held by the speaker at the time of recording. They are not necessarily official IGES positions.

    1h 6m

  4. 10/02/2024

    Depopulation, shrinking cities and urban-rural migration

    In this episode Alice Yamabe and Andre Mader speak with two IGES colleagues, Fernando Ortiz Moya and Yasuo Takahashi, about the phenomenon of depopulation. Fernando has been studying shrinking cities, and Yasuo has been doing research on urban to rural migration, so we have two quite different angles on this subject. To many it may seem counterintuitive to worry about depopulation in a world in which the human populations continues to grow. But population growth rates have been slowing for decades, and have become negative in a growing list of countries. Interestingly, at least in Japan, this has not necessarily been good for people or the environment. On the other hand, perhaps we need to accept and adapt to this reality.  "About Sustainability..." is a podcast brought to you by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), an environmental policy think-tank based in Hayama, Japan. IGES experts are concerned with environmental and sustainability challenges. Everything shared on the podcast will be off-the-cuff discussion, and any viewpoints expressed are those held by the speaker at the time of recording. They are not necessarily official IGES positions.

    1 hr

  5. 06/26/2024

    Let's talk about the material footprint and its significance for sustainability

    In this episode of About Sustainability, we talked to Heinz Schandl, who joined us from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), which is an Australian Government agency responsible for scientific research. He is an expert on natural resource use, and international resource flows. Among other things, Heinz explained about resource efficiency, the socioeconomic drivers of resource use, and about the possibilities of decoupling economic development and human well-being from resource use.  He also explained how resource use is measured through what we call the material footprint, and why it is important to capture the international dimension of that footprint.  We also learned about progress in indicators and data availability so that the international linkages between resource extraction and final consumption can be tracked and managed.   All these items are important for measuring progress across several SDGs including SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth, and SDG 12 on sustainable consumption and production.   "About Sustainability..." is a podcast brought to you by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), an environmental policy think-tank based in Hayama, Japan. IGES experts are concerned with environmental and sustainability challenges. Everything shared on the podcast will be off-the-cuff discussion, and any viewpoints expressed are those held by the speaker at the time of recording. They are not necessarily official IGES positions.

    1h 4m

  6. 05/09/2024

    A few perspectives on UNEP's 6th Environment Assembly and its "OECPR"

    In this episode Alice and Andre talked to Simon about the United Nations Environment Assembly, also known as UNEA, which is the decision-making body of the United Nations Environment Programme. UNEA takes place in Nairobi every second year and it is always preceded by the so-called OECPR, which stands for the Open-ended Committee of Permanent Representatives. This committee functions as the working level meeting that prepares decisions and resolutions for official approval by UNEA. This year, UNEA-6 took place in late February and I joined some of the preparations for that meeting, so in this episode we discuss some of the things that took place during the OECPR and UNEA to draw attention to those processes of international environmental governance that influence the agenda of domestic environmental policy making. Join us and listen. "About Sustainability..." is a podcast brought to you by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), an environmental policy think-tank based in Hayama, Japan. IGES experts are concerned with environmental and sustainability challenges. Everything shared on the podcast will be off-the-cuff discussion, and any viewpoints expressed are those held by the speaker at the time of recording. They are not necessarily official IGES positions.

    34 min

  7. 03/28/2024

    Looking back on the career of emeritus IGES Executive Director, Hideyuki Mori

    On this episode of About Sustainability…, Andre,  Alice and Simon celebrate the contribution of an IGES legend, Mr Hideyuki Mori. Mori-san has been a leader at IGES for most of the institute’s history, following diverse experience at other institutions including the United Nations Environment Programme and Asian Development Bank. He retired last year and we wanted to speak to him about his career including his long tenure at IGES. In this discussion we also reminisce about long-time colleague Peter King, who appeared on the podcast last year, but unexpectedly passed away a few months ago.  Mori-san and Peter were friends, and played a key role in steering IGES’ course as in international institute. This episode will probably be of particular interest to IGES staff members or prospective IGES staff, but there should be something for anyone who is interested in careers in the environment.  "About Sustainability..." is a podcast brought to you by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), an environmental policy think-tank based in Hayama, Japan. IGES experts are concerned with environmental and sustainability challenges. Everything shared on the podcast will be off-the-cuff discussion, and any viewpoints expressed are those held by the speaker at the time of recording. They are not necessarily official IGES positions.

    38 min

  8. 01/31/2024

    About Climate Action (SDG 13): Framing Climate Change as a Security Issue and Outcomes of UNFCCC-COP28

    On this episode of About Sustainability…, Alice and Erin were joined by Naoyuki OKANO and Nagisa SHIIBA, IGES experts working on Climate Adaptation. This episode, recorded in December 2023, offers a quick recap of what happened at COP28 in Dubai and then dives deep into the far-reaching impacts of climate change on human security.  Hosted in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) brought the world’s leaders together to discuss how to confront the climate crisis. Some of its main outcomes include the first Global Stocktake (GST), the agreement on the framework for operationalising the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA), and the agreement on the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund.  Naoyuki and Nagisa introduce us to their new research project on Climate Security in the Asia Pacific, funded by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We discuss how framing the climate crisis as a security issue can be a powerful approach to mobilising resources across areas and tackling global challenges. ABOUT OUR GUESTS Dr. Naoyuki OKANO is a Policy Researcher in the Adaptation and Water Unit of IGES. He works on issues related to the laws and governance of climate change adaptation, nature-based solutions, transboundary climate risks, and climate security.  Nagisa SHIIBA is a Policy Researcher at the Adaptation and Water Unit of IGES. She is engaged in research projects on climate change adaptation and supports the negotiation process for the Japanese delegation to the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS AND PROJECTS Asia-Pacific Climate Security Project (APCS) Website  TIMESTAMPS 00:10 - 02:10             Intro                                          02:10 - 05:06             COP 28                                    05:06 - 13:18             Global Goal on Adaptation      13:18 - 17:33             Loss and Damage  17:33 - 36:07             Climate Security  36:07 - 51:18             Climate Migration  51:18 - 54:22             Food Security  54:22 - 57:00             Balancing Security Issues in Climate Adaptation Plans  "About Sustainability..." is a podcast brought to you by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), an environmental policy think-tank based in Hayama, Japan. IGES experts are concerned with environmental and sustainability challenges. Everything shared on the podcast will be off-the-cuff discussion, and any viewpoints expressed are those held by the speaker at the time of recording. They are not necessarily official IGES positions.

    58 min
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About

About Sustainability… is a podcast presented by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, featuring IGES staff and guests having in-depth discussions about sustainability-related topics. Each episode addresses a different topic of conversation -- be it an upcoming event, a debate of interest, or an interesting research finding. With the topic as a starting point, we see where the conversation takes us. We aim at a broad audience, so we avoid using jargon and try not to assume lots of pre-existing knowledge on the topic. Views expressed during the podcast are those of the speaker at the time of recording and are not the official positions of IGES or other organisations involved.

Information

  • Creator
    Institute for Global Environmental Strategies
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2025
  • Episodes
    31
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Institute for Global Environmental Strategies
  • Show Website
    About Sustainability…