Six students received this year's Sustainability Thesis Award, GUSTA

News: Nov 27, 2020

Six students at the University of Gothenburg were given this year’s GUSTA award for their outstanding theses written on topics related to sustainable development. The winning theses covered a broad range of topics across several programmes in various faculties which include: Political Science, Innovation & Industrial Management and Global studies.

The University of Gothenburg’s Sustainability Thesis Award, GUSTA, was launched in 2019 with the aim of motivating students’ critical engagement with sustainability challenges and search for more knowledge towards a sustainable world. The award addresses all bachelor's, magister and master's students in all programs across the University.

Awardees 2020

Bachelor’s program

• Rebecca Hillman, ARE WOMEN LEADERS OF NATURE? - a quantitative study on the effect of women’s political representation on environmental politics in European countries.
• Mattias Rosander and Ludwig Åkerström, Social sustainability issues of cobalt sourcing for electric vehicle batteries: a case study of Volvo Car Group
• Emma Ramirez, Balancing social and environmental sustainability: A qualitative case study about the social impacts of the Payments for Ecosystem Services program on rural farmers in Costa Rica

Master's program

• Frida Bergqvist, ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE IN SÁPMI: An interview study with Indigenous reindeer herding Sami in the context of climate change
• Carina Pussnig, WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AS A DETERMINANT OF HOUSEHOLD FUEL CHOICES FOR COOKING IN RURAL INDIA: A cross-sectional study using India’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) 2015-16

The awardees were selected by a scientific committee comprised of eight professors from seven different faculties at the University of Gothenburg. Apart from a high scientific quality of the theses the evaluation criteria include: holistic integration of different dimensions of sustainable development, originality, critical thinking, and contribution to the current knowledge in sustainable development. Johan Boman, Chair of the Scientific Committee, is impressed by the contributions:

- This second GUSTA year we received 28 contributions covering a range of topics across faculties within the University of Gothenburg. The core quality sought in the theses was the holistic integration of the three pillars of sustainability. Most of the theses demonstrated this quality making the evaluation hard for the scientific committee to pick the most outstanding ones.
 

The 2020 award was handed out by Pro-vice-chancellor Mattias Goksör in an online ceremony during the University of Gothenburg’s and Chalmers University of Technology’s joint sustainability week, Act Sustainable, in November.
 

Find video presentations by the awardees, links to awarded theses and more information about the award here

About GUSTA

The University of Gothenburg's Sustainability Thesis Award, GUSTA, recognizes and offers awards to outstanding theses written on sustainable development related topics within the University of Gothenburg. The award is administrated by the Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development. GUSTA was launched in 2019.

Scientific Committee

• Chair: Johan Boman, The Faculty of Science, University of Gothenburg
  
• Johan Bengtsson, The Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg
  
• Deliang Chen, The Faculty of Science, University of Gothenburg
  
• Christian Isendahl: The Faculty of Humanities, University of Gothenburg
  
•  Beniamin Knutsson, Faculty of Education, University of Gothenburg
  
• Gunnar Köhlin, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg
  
• Ylva Norén Bretzer, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Gothenburg
  
• Birgit Penzenstadler: The IT-Faculty, University of Gothenburg

Contact: Project manager Kassahun Weldemariam, kassahun.weldemariam@gu.se
 

BY: GMV