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Equity is core to sustainability, but current interventions to enhance sustainability often fall short in adequately addressing this linkage. Models are important tools for informing action, and their development and use present opportunities to center equity in process and outcomes. This Perspective highlights progress in integrating equity into systems modeling in sustainability science, as well as key challenges, tensions, and future directions. We present a conceptual framework for equity in systems modeling, focused on its distributional, procedural, and recognitional dimensions. We discuss examples of how modelers engage with these different dimensions throughout the modeling process and from across a range of modeling approaches and topics, including water resources, energy systems, air quality, and conservation. Synthesizing across these examples, we identify significant advances in enhancing procedural and recognitional equity by reframing models as tools to explore pluralism in worldviews and knowledge systems; enabling models to better represent distributional inequity through new computational techniques and data sources; investigating the dynamics that can drive inequities by linking different modeling approaches; and developing more nuanced metrics for assessing equity outcomes. We also identify important future directions, such as an increased focus on using models to identify pathways to transform underlying conditions that lead to inequities and move toward desired futures. By looking at examples across the diverse fields within sustainability science, we argue that there are valuable opportunities for mutual learning on how to use models more effectively as tools to support sustainable and equitable futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breweries across the country are investing in energy efficient and low-carbon brewing practices. Drawing insights from the sustainable consumption and ecological economics literature, this analysis evaluates whether consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable beer and what predicts the value of the premium. Based on a survey of beer consumers from across the U.S. that contained one of two willingness-to-pay exercises, we evaluate what respondent attributes are associated with a higher willingness-to-pay for sustainably brewed beer. We find that the majority of beer consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable beer. Consumers who are prepared to pay a premium tend to already pay more per unit of beer, are more aware of their purchasing behavior and the manner in which their consumption patterns may affect the environment, and pursue lifestyles based on professional advancement, helping the environment, and helping other causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Survey of adult drivers in US cities on intent to purchase an electric vehicle. • Distinct profiles of respondents preferring different types of electric vehicles. • Plug-in hybrid vehicle interest is grounded in economic utility. • Image and perceived environmental impact drive battery electric vehicle interest. Abstract This study analyzes data from a survey of drivers (n = 1080) administered in late 2013 to assess factors that influence potential car buyers to consider two different types of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in the United States: plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The results indicate distinct profiles of respondents preferring PHEVs, which have a gasoline backup engine, versus battery BEVs, which rely solely on a battery for power. Respondents interested in selecting a PHEV consider it more for its economic benefits, such as reduced gasoline and maintenance expenditures. Respondents preferring a BEV are drawn to its environmental and technological appeal. The absence of range anxiety for PHEV is a major factor influencing potential PEV buyers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]