April 2026

Editor's Choice:Why sustainability transitions are starting to accelerate via technical innovations but not through social innovations: five reasons and some critiques of transformations research.

Frank Willem Geels.

This paper addresses environmental problems like climate change urgently requires the acceleration of sustainability transitions. This Intelligence Briefing explains why this is starting to happen for technical innovations like renewable energy technologies and electric vehicles. Drawing on socio-technical transitions theory, it discusses five acceleration mechanisms that reduce cost, improve performance, change actor orientations, mobilise finance, and increase socio-political support. While not denying their potential relevance, the Briefing also shows that these acceleration mechanisms are not (yet) being activated for social innovations and deep lifestyle change. The Briefing, therefore, also criticises wishful thinking tendencies in some sustainability transformation research strands.

December 2025

Editor's Choice: Research Article: Telecoupled social–ecological systems: the case of avocado in Chile

Andrea Monica D. Ortiz, Sebastián Baeza-González, Magdalena Jensen, Ana Huaico Malhue, Uranía Lavín-Oviedo and Juan L. Celis-Diez

This paper, as the entire collection, brings forth the necessity to study sustainability beyond a place-based focus. The paper by Ortiz et al. is an excellent and a tangible illustration of what telecoupling is and why sustainability in an interconnected, inter-dependent world is so hard to achieve. The paper brings to fore the global implications of lifestyle choices of those who can afford, natural, but not necessarily local, food choices and how this can cause very significant consequences globally that are ecological, economic and social in nature.

June 2025

Editors Choice: Research Article: Nature connectedness and other transformative qualities associated with pro-environmental attitudes, behaviors, and engagement across scales: the direction of compassion matters

• Cecilia U. D. Stenfors, Walter Osika, Luis Mundaca, Silke Ruprecht, Lena Ramstetter, Christine Wamsler
• Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 April 2025, e15

We chose this study because it explores the links between meditation, transformative qualities (e.g. mindfulness, compassion, nature connectedness), and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors- something which has not been done before. Among the interesting findings are that that meditation was associated with stronger environmental concern and action, particularly when combined with compassion toward others and nature connectedness. Mental wellbeing also supported pro-environmental behavior, while stress hindered it. The study sheds light on lesser studied aspects of transformations, personal and organisational, and the role that personal inner qualities and outer pro-environmental behaviours have in this.  

January 2025

Editor's Choice: Research Article: Toward a responsible exit from the research field: lessons from transdisciplinary regional envisioning in a Japanese municipality (Masaaki Takahashi, Yoshinori Nakagawa, Tatsuyoshi Saijo)

In sustainability science, the challenge of responsibly exiting the research field is often overshadowed by the focus on co-design and implementation. This article by Takahashi, Nakagawa, and Saijo distinguishes itself in our Editor’s Choice, for its bold exploration of the ethical and practical dimensions of concluding transdisciplinary research collaborations.

Drawing on their experience in a Japanese municipality, the authors provide a nuanced framework for ensuring that collaboratively developed initiatives remain impactful and sustainable after researchers leave. This approach reflects a deep respect for local autonomy and underscores the critical importance of a lasting self-sufficiency in sustainability transitions. It also calls out how not being sensitive to future development and responsible exit research methods, may result in undesirable helicopter, parachute and even worse mosquito science practice consequences.

Amid a growing body of work emphasizing transformations, engagement and participation, this article offers a rare and valuable perspective on closure—highlighting it not as an end, but as an integral and often overlooked part of the research process. Its focus on ethical responsibility as part of enduring collective solutions makes it a valuable contribution to the field and a key highlight in Global Sustainability’s 2024 publications.