Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer | EPFL Graph Search

Claudia R. Binder, a Swiss, Canadian and Colombian citizen, was born in Montreal and spent most of her childhood in Switzerland and Colombia. She studied at ETH Zurich from 1985 to 1996, earning a degree in biochemistry and then a PhD in environmental sciences. After conducting her post-doctoral research at the University of Maryland in the US from 1996 to 1998, she returned to Switzerland and took a position as a senior research scientist at ETH Zurich, studying the interaction between human and environmental systems at the Institute for Natural and Social Science Interface. In 2006, Binder joined the University of Zurich as an assistant professor in the Department of Geography, and in 2009 moved to the University of Graz in Austria where she served as a full professor of systems science. In 2011, she took a position at the University of Munich’s Department of Geography as a full professor of human-environment relations.

Binder joined EPFL in March 2016 and set up the Laboratory for Human-Environment Relations in Urban Systems (HERUS) at ENAC; she also holds the La Mobilière Chair on Urban Ecology and Sustainable Living.

Her research involves analyzing, modelling and assessing the transition of urban systems towards sustainability. She looks in particular at how we can better understand the dynamics of urban metabolism, what characterizes a sustainable city, and what drives and hinders transformation processes. She does so by combining knowledge from social, natural and data science. Her research focuses on food, energy, and sustainable living and transport in urban systems.

In Switzerland, Binder was appointed to the Research Council, Programs Division of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) in 2016 and serves on the Steering Committee of the SNSF’s National Research Program 71, “Managing Energy Consumption” and the Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research (SCCER). She is also a member of the Steering Board on Sustainability Research for the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. In 2019, she was elected as a member of the University Council of the University of Munich (LMU).

At EPFL, Binder is the academic director of Design Together, a cross-disciplinary teaching initiative. She was appointed to the management team of the Energy Center in 2018 and as head of the working group on EPFL’s energy and sustainability strategy in 2019.

Promoting synergies for sustainability through peer-to-peer sharing: an analysis of drivers and barriers

Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer, Ralph Hansmann

Peer-to-peer (P2P) sharing may foster sustainability synergistically by saving resources, reducing costs and promoting satisfaction of consumer needs and social connectivity. A survey of Swiss and Swedish consumers (N = 1522) was conducted to analyze drivers and barriers for P2P sharing of household products as taker and/or provider in a complementary way referring to social exchange theory. More than two-thirds (69.1%) of the participants took or provided shared household products during the previous 12 months. The traditional mode of sharing was more prevalent (53.5%) than sharing on online platforms (14.5%). Nearly half of the participants (44.5%) both took and provided shared products, 18.1% exclusively took and 6.5% exclusively provided them, and 30.1% were non-sharers. The traditional mode of sharing involved more reciprocal sharers (66.7%), who both took and provided products, compared to online sharing. Reciprocal sharers were on average younger and had higher income and education levels than non-sharers. Furthermore, their ecological, social, and economic value orientations were stronger, and they rated the benefits of sharing higher than non-sharers. Knowledge about sharing and experience of positive emotions when sharing were consistently positively related to both the number of products taken and provided. To promote the sharing economy, online sharing platforms should enhance consumer's knowledge and trust through information campaigns and review or insurance systems. Marketing activities should communicate easy access and application of platforms, and the ecological, socio-emotional and economic benefits. A meaningful social interaction between takers and providers should be promoted to promote social connectivity and emotionally positive experiences.

TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC2023

Citizen Think Tanks: co-designing post-pandemic housing futures

Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer, Valentin Daniel Maurice Bourdon, Livia Bianca Fritz, Anna Pagani

During the first wave of COVID-19, Swiss residents found themselves spending most of their time in homes unable to accommodate the needs hitherto met by cities. While scholars and practitioners have proposed strategies to mitigate the effects of housing deficiencies on inhabitants’ wellbeing, the contribution of all citizens involved in housing production and use cannot be overlooked. Therefore, this research aimed to offer spaces for mutual learning to co-design post-pandemic housing futures. Two Citizens Think Tanks (CTTs) were organised in spring 2020 as part of the transdisciplinary project Swiss Corona Citizen Science, involving eight to ten participants in two online sessions. The first CTT aimed to discuss housing conditions before and during the confinement. The analysis of the recordings and whiteboards led to the identification of three variables, namely (i) space for oneself, (ii) physical private space, and (iii) space for social interactions, using which we developed possible scenarios for the future of housing. The latter were presented in the second CTT using short stories and images, shaping a shared imaginary. The most desirable scenario was voted on, followed by a collective reflection on pathways to achieve it. The scenario ‘reinvesting the community’, resulting from an increase in personal and social space and a reduction in the physical one, was voted as the most desirable. Obstacles and opportunities that this vision entails included sharing and learning to share; ways of recreating a neighbourhood ‘spirit’; designing housing that allows for encounters, welcomes different cultures, and addresses desires for appropriation. The CTTs highlighted how different types of knowledge can contribute to the production of strategies to cope with present and future crises, generating questions that open up new avenues of research. They offered an example of how scientists and practitioners can interact with and benefit from the multiple voices of inhabitants.

2022

Drivers and Barriers Toward Healthy and Environmentally Sustainable Eating in Switzerland: Linking Impacts to Intentions and Practices

Ivo Philippe Baur, Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer, Ralph Hansmann

Food consumption is among the activities with the most significant environmental impacts, and furthermore contributes to rising health costs. We explored the factors that foster or hinder healthy and sustainable eating in Switzerland. Based on an online household survey with 620 respondents, we first determined the disability adjusted life years and greenhouse gas impacts associated with individuals' dietary habits to measure healthy and environmentally sustainable eating. We then relate the nutritional health and environmental impacts to individual's intentions, and explore what interpersonal and societal factors foster or hinder healthy and sustainable eating. Results suggest that intentions for healthy eating are stronger than intentions to eat environmentally sustainable and that intentions for healthy eating transmit better into behavior than intentions for environmentally sustainable eating. Males and females had similar intentions but males showed substantially higher dietary related health impacts with 12 min of healthy life lost per day and 14% higher carbon footprint than females. Furthermore, vegan and vegetarian diets yielded very high nutritional health benefits of >23 min of healthy life gained per person and day, mostly realized through the reduced intake in processed and red meat and increased consumption of nuts, wholegrain, and to a lesser extent in fruits and vegetables. Meatless diets show concurrent high reductions in the carbon footprint of −42% for vegetarians and −67% for vegan. A key obstacle to healthier and more environmentally sustainable eating is that people do not recognize the high nutritional and environmental co benefits of vegetarian and vegan diets. This suggests that policies promoting healthy eating can target factors affecting intentions, while measures targeting environmentally sustainable eating should aim at overcoming the intention behavior gap, by informing on e.g. the importance of reducing meat consumption toward environmental sustainability.

2022

Drivers and Barriers Toward Healthy and Environmentally Sustainable Eating in Switzerland: Linking Impacts to Intentions and Practices

Ivo Philippe Baur, Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer, Ralph Hansmann

2022

Citizen Think Tanks: co-designing post-pandemic housing futures

Claudia Rebeca Binder Signer, Valentin Daniel Maurice Bourdon, Livia Bianca Fritz, Anna Pagani

2022