Emmy

Wassénius

PhD

Postdoctoral researcher

emmy.wassenius@su.se

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Profile summary

  • Sustainability risk
  • Systemic risk
  • Nature-related financial risk
  • Corporate sustainability disclosure
  • Investor guidance
  • Natural resource production systems
  • Social-ecological systems

Emmy Wassénius researches how risks are created and excacerbated by unsustainable practices and complex social-ecological interactions

Wassénius unpacks today’s risk landscape with systemic and compounding risks by investigating the mechanisms through which risks are created or exacerbated. Part of this work is to further research on how shocks and compound risks are shaped by the interaction between human practices and the environment.

Wassénius specifically works with understanding how compound risks are created by and manifest in corporations and understanding the leverage points that investors can have in reducing these risks. This work therefore also entails furthering research on corporate sustainability disclosure and nature-related financial risk and developing non-academic materials to guide companies and investors to reduce unsustainable practices and mitigate compound risks. Wassénius works towards all sectors, but with particular focus on the primary sector and natural resource production systems.

Wassénius is part of the Finance to Revive Biodiversity (FinBio) programme, funded by Mistra.

Wassénius holds a PhD in Sustainability Science from Stockholm University. Her thesis is titled: “Sustainability Risk: A social-ecological systems perspective” and explores what risk means in Sustainability Science. She also holds a MSc degree in Social-Ecological Resilience for Sustainable Development from Stockholm University and a BSc (Hons) in Marine Biology from the University of St Andrews (UK).

Key publications

Wassénius, E., Crona, B., Quahe, S., 2024. Essential environmental impact variables: A means for transparent corporate sustainability reporting aligned with planetary boundaries. One Earth 7, 211–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2024.01.014

Wassénius, E., Crona, B.I., 2022. Adapting risk assessments for a complex future. One Earth 5, 35–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.12.004

Publications by Wassénius, Emmy

Creative destruction in academia: a time to reimagine practices in alignment with sustainability values

Journal / article | 2023

Emmy Wassénius, Anne Charlotte Bunge, Mary K. Scheuermann, Kajsa Resare Sahlin, Agnes Pranindita, Moa Ohlsson, Abigayil Blandon, Chandrakant Singh, Kristin Malmcrona Friberg, Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez. 2023. Creative destruction in academia: a time to reimagine practices in alignment with sustainability values. Sustainability Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-023-01357-6

Academia has experienced acceleration and expansion in parallel with the Great Acceleration, which has shaped the Anthropocene. Among other pressures, the expectation to be internationally mobile conflicts with many values held by sustainability scholars and results in disillusionment. The changes in the academic system can be seen through the framework of the adaptive cycle, which can help us understand historical parallels a...

A global analysis of potential self-sufficiency and diversity displays diverse supply risks

Journal / article | 2023

Emmy Wassénius, Miina Porkka, Magnus Nyström, Peter Søgaard Jørgensen. 2023. A global analysis of potential self-sufficiency and diversity displays diverse supply risks. Global Food Security. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2023.100673

International trade plays a fundamental role in today's globalized food system, however, trade-related disruptions to national food supply have become increasingly prevalent. Although national food self-sufficiency and the resilience of domestic food production are both increasingly discussed, they are rarely investigated in tandem. This hinders our understanding of the diversity of risks to national food supply. In this artic...

Four ways blue foods can help achieve food system ambitions across nations

Journal / article | 2023

Beatrice I. Crona, Emmy Wassénius, Malin Jonell, J. Zachary Koehn, Rebecca Short, Michelle Tigchelaar, Tim M. Daw, Christopher D. Golden, Jessica A. Gephart, Edward H. Allison, Simon R. Bush, Ling Cao, William W. L. Cheung, Fabrice DeClerck, Jessica Fanzo, Stefan Gelcich, Avinash Kishore, Benjamin S. Halpern, Christina C. Hicks, James P. Leape, David C. Little, Fiorenza Micheli, Rosamond L. Naylor, Michael Phillips, Elizabeth R. Selig, Marco Springmann, U. Rashid Sumaila, Max Troell, Shakuntala H. Thilsted, Colette C. C. Wabnitz. 2023. Four ways blue foods can help achieve food system ambitions across nations. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05737-x

Blue foods, sourced in aquatic environments, are important for the economies, livelihoods, nutritional security and cultures of people in many nations. They are often nutrient rich, generate lower emissions and impacts on land and water than many terrestrial meats, and contribute to the health, wellbeing and livelihoods of many rural communities. The Blue Food Assessment recently evaluated nutritional, environmental, economic ...

Reframing the local-global food systems debate through a resilience lens

Journal / article | 2023

Wood, Amanda, Queiroz, Cibele, Deutsch, Lisa, Gonzalez-Mon, Blanca, Jonell, Malin, Pereira, Laura, Sinare, Hanna, Svedin, Uno, Wassenius, Emmy. 2023. Reframing the local-global food systems debate through a resilience lens. Nature Food. https://doi.org/10.1038/S43016-022-00662-0

Despite the growing knowledge that food system solutions should account for interactions and drivers across scales, broader societal debate on how to solve food system challenges is often focused on two dichotomous perspectives and associated solutions: either more localized food systems or greater global coordination of food systems. The debate has found problematic expressions in contemporary challenges, prompting us to revi...