Ella Tolonen
Project Researcher
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Ella is a doctoral researcher in Industrial Management. Her research focuses on low-carbon transition and sustainability from the organizational perspective. In her dissertation, Ella studies incumbent organizations' activities in the unstable operating environment posed by decarbonization. Her topics include energy communities, degrowth, sustainable and circular business models, transition risks, and just transition.
She holds an MSc in Industrial Ecology from the Technical University of Delft (2018). Before her position at the university, Ella worked three years in sustainability consultancy at Deloitte, where she, for example, worked on multiple circular economy -related studies and supported organizations in their corporate sustainability work.
Publications:
- Tolonen, E. (2024). Keeping up with the decarbonization: Conceptualizing and investigating incumbents' responses to transition pressures in the post-Paris world. Journal of Cleaner Production, vol 476. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.143520
- Tolonen, E., Shakeel, S.R., Juntunen, J.K. (2023). Promoting Just Transition or Enhancing Inequalities? Reflection on Different Energy Community Business Models in Terms of Energy Justice. In: Shafie-khah, M., Gazafroudi, A.S. (eds) Trading in Local Energy Markets and Energy Communities. Lecture Notes in Energy, vol 93. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-21402-8_6
- Dagevos, H., Tolonen, E., & Quist, J. (2019). Building a Market for New Meat Alternatives: Business Activity and Consumer Appetite in the Netherlands. In D. Bogueva, D. Marinova, T. Raphaely, & K. Schmidinger (Eds.), Environmental, Health, and Business Opportunities in the New Meat Alternatives Market (pp. 183-201). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-7350-0.ch010
Work in progress:
- Autio, J. & Tolonen, E. Fostering a post-growth paradigm shift - How can organizations contribute to the transition towards a degrowth economy?
- Tolonen, E., Ruggiero, S., Franzo, S., European energy companies' operations in and views towards energy community developments
- Peixoto, I., Tolonen, E., Juntunen, J.K. Transition Risks in Low-Carbon Transitions – A Review and Research Agenda
Current research projects:
- EU Horizon project - A circular by design environmentally friendly geothermal energy solution based on a horizontal closed loop (HOCLOOP)
- Digitally mediated decarbon communities in the energy transition (Digi-Decarbon)
https://www.uwasa.fi/en/research/projects/digitally-mediated-decarbon-communities-energy-transition-digidecarbon
Past research projects:
- Managing transition risks in risk-bearing value chains (T-Risk)
https://www.uwasa.fi/en/research/projects/managing-transition-risks-risk-bearing-value-chains-t-risk