Increasing consumer awareness of the environmental and social externalities of food supply chains in developed countries instigates the opening of grocery stores that renounce the use of disposable plastic packaging for their entire product range. The opportunities these novel stores offer in moving to an alternative, more sustainable retail system are currently not well understood. Semi-structured interviews with representatives of seven stores across Europe and six food supply chain experts were conducted in order to address this gap. Findings suggest that these stores may induce more resource-efficient behaviour in suppliers and consumers due to the reduction of packaging and food waste. Social benefits range from the support of small, regional farmers, to higher transparency along the supply chain and better informed consumers. However, these benefits come at the expense of consumer convenience due to slower shopping operations and limited product variety. A wider adoption of zero packaging will require influencing consumer behaviour, convincing suppliers to change their packaging practices, and solving the dependency of food logistics on packaging. In order to achieve wide-ranging, significant environmental and social benefits, zero-packaging stores will ultimately have to offer service levels that are comparable to conventional supermarkets. Potential pathways illustrating how zero-packaging could overcome current market limitations are presented

Photovoltaic (PV) panels offer significant potential for contributing to the UK's energy policy goals relating to decarbonisation of the energy system, security of supply and affordability. The substantive drop in the cost of panels since 2007, coupled with the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) Scheme in 2010, has resulted in a rapid increase in installation of PV panels in the UK, from 26.5MWp in 2009 to over 5GW by the end of 2014. Yet there has been no comprehensive analysis of the determinants of PV deployment in the UK. This paper addresses this gap by employing spatial econometrics methods to a recently available data set at a fine geographical detail. Following a traditional regression analysis, a general to specific approach has been adopted where spatial variations in the relationships have been examined utilising the spatial Durbin model using the cross-sectional data relating to the UK NUTS level 3 data. Empirical results indicate that demand for electricity, population density, pollution levels, education level of households and housing types are among the factors that affect PV uptake in a region. Moreover Lagrange Multiplier test results indicate that the spatial Durbin model may be properly applied to describe the PV uptake relationship in the UK as there are significant regional spillover effects

The ageing of existing energy system infrastructure, the threat of climate change and uncertainty in the movement of energy prices have resulted in a widespread agreement on the need for a transition to a low carbon energy system. Yet the nature of this transition (i.e. what, when, how and where) and its socio-economic outcomes at different scales are not well understood. The interdependence of the energy sector and economic growth has been mostly studied at the national level (via some general equilibrium or econometric models) whilst sub-national studies at community or urban levels mostly focus on the governance of transitions. Hence, we suggest that a regional perspective to energy policy and research promises to integrate these two approaches by providing a more robust and comprehensive understanding of the implications of low carbon transitions, as well as contributing to the development of more effective policies. By building on recent ideas on geographical aspects of energy transitions, this article offers insights on the changing relationship between the spatial organisation of economic activities and energy systems, and identifies tools and methods from urban and regional planning to help with the delivery of efficient and equitable policy outcomes