Sustainable Places Research Institute

Sustainable Place Making

The Sustainable Places Research Institute is combining experts in buildings, energy systems, communities, the natural environment, infrastructure, health, and policy-making in a way which has not been done before. This will enable us to address the policy need for integrated place-based solutions, and also to address one of the biggest global questions we face; how can we create sustainable places?

The Institute aims to ‘model’ how changes in local and national infrastructures, individual changes in behaviour and global climate change will affect sustainable practices in the future, giving us real world examples of a more sustainable future.

Through new scientific approaches it will place stronger emphasis on sustainable living within sustainable towns and regions by studying the complex and dynamic interrelations between ecology, society and economy.

By studying these interactions at local, national and international levels, the Institute will place itself at the centre of global debates, drawing on existing expertise in the scientific fields of planning, applied social and psychological sciences, business and law, biological and earth sciences, engineering, architecture and health.