Research summary

My research, Climate Change and Transitions in UK Energy and Materials Use, in the Understanding Risk group, centres on exploring perceptions and discourses on the circular economy and changed materials use among SME engineering business decision-makers and other stakeholders involved with manufacturing, business and the circular economy.

I am carrying out a discourse analysis to provide insights into the conditions that underpin what, how and why perceptions of risk in transitioning to a circular economy exist that have a role in constraining or enabling the decisions and actions of businesses.

Undergraduate education

I graduated as a chemical engineer in 1989.

Postgraduate education

I completed an MSc in Environmental monitoring and assessment in 1994 from Coventry University and recently obtained a  distinction on the PgDip Social Science Research Methods at Cardiff University before embarking on my PhD in July 2017.

Employment

I have spent the last 25 years working in consultancy encouraging  businesses to adopt resource efficient practices. Following an initial consultancy career as a risk and safety consultant for the chemical and nuclear industry, I became a programme manager and change management consultant on a range of government programmes including Advanced Fuel Cells programme, BIOWISE, Environmental technologies best practice, Envirowise, Public Sector Waste Minimisation campaign and innovation programmes before setting up the Welsh office of AEA technology (now Ricardo-AEA). In 2011, I joint founded an  independent consultancy, The Environment and Sustainability Partnership (EandSP), focussing on reuse, material resource efficiency in SMEs, food, tourism and textiles before coming back into academia.