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Annual Conference 2014 - Registration Open

Registration is open for the 3rd Annual Conference for the EPSRC Centre for Industrial Sustainability, Delivering Impact - knowledge into action.  Hear how leading companies have made effective sustainable changes and learn from case studies about the practical applications of sustainability research in businesses. Speakers include Toyota | William Jackson Foods | IntelliSense.io | Riversimple | M&S | Vitsœ | CMAC | Extremist Technology | Unilever | UNIDO.  See a full conference programme and register >here.

Successful Completion to the SustainValue Project

SustainValue concluded in March 2014 after 3 years of stimulating research and collaboration across six research and four industrial partners. The project which was funded by the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) was focused on new industrial models for sustainable and efficient production.  [more]

Funding Success for CIMIS and Partners

The Centre for Industrial Sustainability has recently been awarded funding from the EPSRC and the TSB for three innovative projects in collaboration with industrial and academic partners. [more]

Positive Outcome from CIMIS Mid Term Review

We have a keen eye on the future at CIMIS, not only the future for sustainable manufacturing but also our role in enabling it. As we passed the half-way point of our initial EPSRC grant funding, we conducted two programs to help ensure we are constantly learning, improving and planning for the long term.

At the end of 2013 we conducted a review of Strategy and in early March this year we invited in an independent team to carry out a Mid Term Review of review our progress and plans. [more]

Best Paper for CIMIS Researchers at SDM2014

Congratulations to Dr Nancy Bocken, Samuel Short, and Dr Padmakshi Rana whose paper, ‘Using the value mapping tool for sustainable business thinking,’ won the best manufacturing management paper at the first International Conference on Sustainable Design & Manufacturing in Cardiff, Wales from 28-30 April 2014 (SDM2014).

Centre PhD researchers also presented papers at the conference, Lampros Litos (Understanding eco-efficiency through environmental performance benchmarking – a qualitative approach), Lloyd Fernando (Case study of an organisation trying to re-imagine its place in the supply chain: transformation towards industrial sustainability), Curie Park (Hierarchy of sustainable design factors within the fast-moving-consumer-goods sector), and visitor Maria Holdago (An integrated assessment platform for sustainability performance in value networks: a proposal and first evidence from industry).

New Roles for CIMIS Researchers

Dr Nancy Bocken and Dr Samir Doshi have recently accepted new roles at other institutions. Nancy is now working part time as a senior researcher at Tu Delft while continuing in her role with CIMIS as a senior research associate at Cambridge University.  Samir will leave his current role as a post doctoral researcher with CIMIS in Cambridge this September to take on a new role in the United States as AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the White House and USAID.  [more]

Visit to Stockholm Resilience Centre

Researchers from CIMIS visited the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) in March to develop a knowledge exchange and collaboration between the two Centres.  The visit began with a forum on how manufacturing global supply chains and the built environment can contribute to the sustainability and resilience of social-ecological systems.  The forum was co-facilitated by Dr Samir Doshi of CIMIS and Prof Per Olsson of SRC. On the second day Prof Steve Evans gave a seminar, ‘Where does industry fit into a sustainable future?’ at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the SRC and their greater community (Stockholm Environmental Institute and the Beijer Institute for Ecological Economics).  You can listen to the seminar >here.

Dr Doshi will return to Stockholm this June to continue developing collaborative projects and ideas that came out of the joint CIMIS and SRC World Café Forum and co-author publications between the research centres.

Resilience 2014

Prof Steve Evans, Dr Samir Doshi and PhD student Elliott More participated in the latest Resilience conference in Montpellier, France, with attendance of over 1000 people. [more]

Highly Commended Paper

Congratulations to Dr Nancy Brocken, Dr Dai Morgan, and Prof Steve Evans whose paper, "Understanding environmental performance variation in manufacturing companies" was selected as a Highly Commended Paper by the Editorial Team of the International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management. [more]

CIMIS visit to Huddersfield Textile Centre of Excellence

In April Prof Steve Evans, Dr Dai Morgan, Lloyd Fernando and Ioannis Mastoris visited the Huddersfield Textile Centre of Excellence a major conference, research and training facility based in Huddersfield.

Established in 1976 to unite the local textile industry, the private, not-for profit company now provides training and facilities to support UK industry and is also involved in helping develop new technologies and representing the industry in Europe.

The introductions were made by Lynva Russell, who has an advisory role in both Centres. The groups shared current activities which may be of common interest – the Centre highlighting activities with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, and firms trying to improve their sustainability of their apparel supply chains, performance variation and configuration agendas.

Scholarships for CIMIS PhD Researchers

Centre PhD Researchers Pu (Jacky) Liu and Curie Park have recently been awarded academic scholarships.  Jackie won a China Scholarship Council (CSC) Cambridge Scholarship which will cover his tuition college fees and expenses while studying at Cambridge. Jacky began his PhD under the supervision of Claire Barlow in January. His research interests are the end of life process of wind turbine blades and advanced materials for wind turbine blades.

Curie was awarded a grant from the Hammond Trust Fund for overseas students who are nearing the end of their study in the UK. The grant will help Curie finance the last few months of her PhD research and writing. Curie is a student at Cranfield University. Her research is on identifying distinctive success factors for sustainable design implementation in the new product development process with FMCG.

Congratulations to both Jacky and Curie!

CIMIS at the Cambridge Science Festival

Staff from the Centre for Industrial Sustainability entertained children and young people with their 'Sustainability Games' during the Cambridge Science Festival at the Institute for Manufacturing on 22 March 2014.  Centre PhD researchers and staff explained the life of a plastic bottle from raw material, to plastic, to a filled bottle. [more]

CIMIS in Print

Predicting the unpredictable: the future of manufacturing. Dr Dai Morgan reflects on the UK government's Foresight report on the future of manufacturing in the first issue of the Institute for Manufacturing Review.

The Added Value of Sustainability. Dr Nancy Bocken discusses the EPSRC CIMIS and opportunities in pursuing sustainable business models in an interview with the Italian business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.

The Future of Manufacturing Or Why I'm Still Waiting for my Jetpack.  Prof Steve Evans events discusses some of the ideas emerging from the Foresight Future of Manufacturing process in the World Federation Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) Online Magazine 2014.