The growing demand for meat and animal products in emerging economies has become a concern given its environmental and health impacts. The sustainable diets approach has emerged to address the multidimensional challenge of reaching a context-based diet that minimizes negative environmental impacts, provides health and nutrition to all segments of the population, and is affordable and coherent with the local culture and traditions. The aim of this study was to explore the prospects for meat consumption reduction and challenges encompassing the environmental, and health spheres. In order to do so, we analyzed: (1) The current carbon and water per capita footprints for two animal-based options and two plant-based options; and (2) the contribution of each food alternative to the local dietary reference intakes based on average per capita daily consumption and significant differences among the nutrient values for each food alternative through a two proportion Z-test. Our results show that the annual per capita carbon and water footprints for beef were higher compared to other alternatives, despite a higher per capita consumption of chicken. Also, our findings reveal that the average consumption of beef and chicken contributes 39% of the maximum recommended daily intake for cholesterol and 61% of the Recommended Dietary Allowance for protein in the country. Finally, relevant promoting forces and barriers related to meat consumption reduction were identified based on the two dimensions evaluated. This study calls for a joint effort to make changes in public policy, food systems, and consumer education.

This paper studies features of grassroots ecopreneurs’ leadership in their attempt to ignite transformations in production-consumption systems from the bottom up. It builds on a comprehensive approach of change agency based on institutional work, innovation, and learning intermediation literature. The paper describes grassroots ecopreneurs’ interaction strategies to resource business models for sustainability. Empirical data comes from an action research project that consisted of implementing a sustainability experiment in Sur de Bolívar (Colombia). The experiment shows grassroots ecopreneurs’ arrays of activities around making sense, shaping, securing support, nurturing, expanding, and scaling the value proposition, the business infrastructure, the customer interface and the financial model of their ventures. Our findings suggest that leading businesses transition into a more sustainable field requires grassroots ecopreneurs acting as change agents by performing a diverse array of boundary, practice, and knowledge circulation strategies, aiming at securing the societal and environmental impact of their ventures. Change agency manifests in the ways ecopreneurs maneuver to bring about transformations and strive to sustain it. The study contributes to a better understanding of processes of socio-technical change for sustainability in highly diverse institutional contexts, such as (but not exclusively) the developing world. An agency-based approach is proposed as an alternative to a managerial approach.

A growing number of local green roof niches across the globe are transitioning into the mainstream domain. Guidelines are key to this process, as they define technological environments and set the criteria for best practices in a given socio-technical setting. Although the German Forschungsgesellschaft Landschaftsentwicklung Landschaftsbau (FLL) cornerstone guidelines provided solid empirical ground and established technical parameters for the successful application of green roofs across continents, investigations about alternative green roof guidelines for emerging markets remain very scarce. The paper presents the inclusive approach followed by the Bogota Green Roof Guidelines, which were the result of a multi-actor participatory process that examined how to embrace a wide range of emerging green roof technologies and local adaptations while promoting quality of application at different scales, regardless of the system used, and despite the absence of local robust empirical data on performance parameters. As a result, Bogota’s Green Roof Guidelines incorporated ad hoc elements: (1) new definitions and taxonomy, (2) function-based contents, (3) multi-scale approach, and (4) performance scoping. These aspects are discussed to provide novel insights for the advancement of green infrastructure policies in diverse institutional settings aiming to promote quality and simultaneously support markets that make room for a wide variety of green infrastructure practices.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to uncover the ways in which companies either reproduce or challenge the growth-based roots of the social imaginary, in order to inform the degrowth debate at the firm level.Design/methodology/approach: This paper offers an epistemic analysis of the ways companies organise, revealing underlying conceptions of organisations' identities and their corresponding ways of organising.Findings: The epistemic analysis derives four conceptual findings allowing the authors to suggest ways of organising in a socio-environmental future not driven by economic growth. The paper suggests new research avenues to study alternative worldviews in organisations.Originality/value: This paper creatively contributes to the discussion about alternatives to the current unsustainable economy with a special focus on the micro level, where businesses act as a vital driving force for economic growth.

Purpose: This paper aims at explaining the design process of a learning model targeting potential entrepreneurs with no technical or business expertise aiming to develop sustainable business models in deprived areas. The case that the paper explores focuses on experiential learning and learning in adulthood to design a learning model that considers context and socio-demographic characteristics, makes clear the interconnections between sustainability principles, entrepreneurship rationale and design methodologies and includes actions and processes of reflection and contextual interaction. Design/methodology/approach: Following a recursive argument, the paper applies design research methodology (DRM) to systematically design the “transformative innovation model” that Product Co Creation Centers (PC3) from the University of Twente (The Netherlands) has developed. Findings: Building on Kolb’s cycle of experiential learning, the result of applying DRM is a learning cycle of confrontation, observation, practice and application. The proposed learning model is applied to a specific setting in Colombia, allowing to verify and validate whether the learning model leads to the expected outcomes. It is argued that an interdisciplinary approach, a focus on feedback loops and the consideration of the context are important elements for addressing and transforming complex problems related to sustainable development from the bottom-up. Originality/value: This paper contributes to academic research in management emphasizing a solution-finding approach based on a prescription-driven research process, informed by design science research.

This paper examines the relationship between sustainability transitions and local development through the case of Colombia's medicinal cannabis industry. It highlights how neglecting place‐specific needs and development expectations can hinder equitable transitions and reinforce existing socio‐economic disparities. Using qualitative methods such as interviews, participant observation, and secondary data, we explore how regulatory and geographic barriers exclude marginalised producers from the formal sector. This exclusion limits the transition's potential for social inclusion and reflects broader patterns of uneven development. Our findings underscore the importance of integrating local knowledge and development priorities into transition strategies to promote sustainable change. The study contributes to theoretical debates by challenging modernisation paradigms and advocating for context‐sensitive approaches. More broadly, it calls for inclusive policies that leverage the bioeconomy for sustainable growth in the Global South, emphasising the need for transition frameworks that address both environmental sustainability and social justice.