The Centre for Industrial Sustainability's fifth annual Cohort Retreat was held at Losehill Hall in the Peak District from 18 - 22 January. Almost 70 senior professors, industrialists, post docs and researchers from 21 research institutions and seven organisations came together to share their passion for making manufacturing more sustainable. [more]

Following the success of the inaugural Sustainability Leadership Lab, Transforming business to deliver sustainable value, led by Prof Steve Evans and Dr Doroteya Vladimirova in collaboration with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), booking for the next one is now open. Join us for two days of intense workshop and peer learning at Madingley Hall, Cambridge on 26-27 May 2016. [more]

Registration opens in early March for the Fifth Annual Conference of the Centre for Industrial Sustainability on 7 - 8 July 2016 at Churchill College, Cambridge. Hear inspiring and thought-provoking talks, enter the discussion at the Centre's Sustainable Business Tools exhibition, get an in-depth look at the Centre's tools at the Tool Taster Workshops, and join the conversation during the ample networking sessions.  New this year will be a pre-conference symposium on Sustainable Business Models at the Institute for Manufacturing, Cambridge on the afternoon of 6 July followed by dinner that evening at Madingley Hall.   We hope to see you there!

Dr Doroteya Vladimirova and PhD Researcher Sudhir Rama Murthy of the University of Cambridge launched a new two-year project for the Centre for Industrial Sustainability (CIS) in collaboration with Croda, the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and NiTech Solutions. The CIS team will investigate new business models for the adoption of NiTech’s COBR (continuous oscillating baffle reactor) technology, and the shift from batch to continuous manufacturing in the process industry. The project is part funded by Innovate UK and EPSRC in the IUK ‘Flexible Manufacturing’ competition.

Dai Morgan has been appointed the Deputy Director of the MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development and will be responsible for key aspects of the planning, development, delivery and management of the programme. Dai will be taking up his position in March whilst retaining links with the Centre. 'I look forward to continuing my relationship with the Centre and collaborators so that the latest developments and insights in Industrial Sustainability can be reflected in the training of engineers, and also to continue my research interests, particularly in the area of sustainable industrial systems. [more]

The EPSRC Centre for Industrial Sustainability has been granted a 6 month extension on the 5 year funding commitment from the EPSRC. The Centre which formed in June 2011 will continue to be funded through December 2016.

In a new collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Development, University of Cambridge, Dr Doroteya Vladimirova and Ian Bamford led a workshop to investigate new opportunities for sustainable value creation by Kingspan Insulation. This engagement brought the Centre’s work on sustainable business models into a collaborative enquiry about future business opportunities for the company.

It’s time to talk manufacturing and engineering with industry leaders and insiders. EEF’s annual National Manufacturing Conference on 24 February 2016 in London is recognised as the must-attend event for UK manufacturing and engineering. Inspirational and high profile speakers as well as a larger-than-ever exhibition hall draw hundreds of industry delegates (and, therefore, networking opportunities) [more].

Steve Evans and Dai Morgan participated in the World Federation Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) Manufacturing Forum 2015, 'Beyond lean manufacturing', in Hong Kong on 2 - 3 December. Steve gave a keynote talk, 'Circular Manufacturing', on the first day and also facilitated discussion throughout, with leaders in the sporting goods industry sharing their views on the trajectory of the industry. Steve and Dai also facilitated a workshop on circular manufacturing, exploring a product's life to find opportunities to improve value. [more]

Congratulations to Dr Alessandro Simeone of Loughborough University who has been accepted as a Research Affiliate into the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP). CIRP is the world leading organization in production engineering research and is at the forefront of design, optimization, control and management of processes, machines and systems. Young researchers, whose research contribution in the area of production/manufacturing science has been deemed significant, can be officially nominated as CIRP Research Affiliates.

In Mid-December, Steve Evans, Dai Morgan and Sandra Morioka were invited guests at the 8th plenary meeting of TU Berlin Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1026, 'Sustainable Manufacturing – Shaping Global Value Creation'.  Steve Evans delivered a keynote presentation on 'More value, less waste' whilst Dai Morgan lead a workshop on Value Mapping. The exchange of ideas proved extremely thought provoking and we look forward to continuing discussions and developing collaborative activities in the future. [more]

The York Management School's final year students are working for a number of companies on short-term consultancy assignments to develop operations plans, undertake market research as well as an industrial symbiosis brokerage mechanism and environmental strategy development.

Congratulations to Peter Ball who has taken a new position as Professor of Operations Management in The York Management School.  ‘I am delighted to be welcomed by the York Management School.’ said Peter. ‘I've joined a vibrant operations management group within a wider management school with interests that include social enterprise and value creation.’ Prof Mark Jolly will take over Peter's role as Centre Co-PI at Cranfield. You can contact Peter at peter.ball@york.ac.uk.

Written by Prof Peter Ball (York) with contributions from Steve Hope (Toyota Motor Europe), Prof Steve Evans (Cambridge), Martin Baxter (iema) and others, this recently published insight draws on cases of leaders in sustainability to capture key features of how they operate. Its purpose is to demonstrate that we can and must pursue the ambition that others have set. Read the insight here.

Dr Leila Sheldrick has moved to a new position as a Lecturer in Sustainable Design at the new Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London. She will be involved in helping to develop a new undergraduate MEng programme, as well as teaching on the double Masters programmes with the Royal College of Art. 'Although sad to leave Loughborough', said Leila, 'I am very excited to be taking on a new challenge, and am honoured to be joining the growing team of extremely interesting academics working to build this new school.'

Congratulations to Dr Doroteya Vladimirova who was appointed a Fellow of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL).

The 2016 National Manufacturing Debate, Accelerating UK Manufacturing Growth, will take place on 25 May 2016 at Cranfield University. Now into its seventh successful year, this free event brings together manufacturing professionals from a range of sectors to discuss and debate current challenges in the industry, and encourage networking and collaboration across the sector to enable continued and long-term growth. For more information and to register your place visit www.national-manufacturing-debate.org.uk.

Lloyd Fernando of the University of Cambridge presented his PhD research on Competencies for transformation to next-generation sustainable factories & industrial systems at the Sustainable Food and Beverage Manufacturing Conference and Exhibition on 2 December 2015 in Birmingham. For information about this research contact Lloyd at ldf21@cam.ac.uk.

The Centre is delighted to welcome back Dr Curie Park.  Curie joined the team at the Institute for Manufacturing, Cambridge as a Research Associate on the REDRESS project in November 2015.  She was previously a doctoral researcher at Cranfield and completed her theses on 'Influencing factors for sustainable design implementation in the front-end of new product development process within the Fast-Moving-Consumer-Goods sector' in late 2014.

Cambridge doctoral researcher, Sotirios Levakos, presented his paper Exploring the Role of Systems Thinking in Scenario Building, at the Scenario 2015, Improving Scenario Methodology: Theory & Practice conference, on 14 - 15 December 2015 at Warwick Business School (UK). Read the abstract here.

Stefan Hemel, a PhD researcher from Cranfield, conducted a research visit to the European headquarters at Toyota Motor Europe in Brussels, Belgium. Toyota commits to a variety of sustainability-oriented projects aimed at providing sustainable value to the economy, society and the environment. The purpose of the visit was to present Stefan's work on the search for sustainability-oriented innovations in collaboration with NGOs. After presenting the work as well as a framework to Toyota members in a feedback session, identified projects were presented and classified in regard to their opportunity potential. Then, further data on past and ongoing projects were collected in 5 interviews. Stefan is grateful for the help of Steve Hope, General Manager, Toyota Motor Europe, to support this work. Further research visits are currently planned with other Toyota subsidiaries for the next two months. For more information contact stefan.hemel@cranfield.ac.uk.

Miying Yang, who completed her PhD research at Cambridge last September, has taken a position as a post doctoral researcher at Cranfield University. Miying will be joining the Technology Choices Project with Prof Mark Jolly. 

Many congratulations to Dr James Colwill and his wife on the birth of their son Anthony James Christopher Colwill on the 23rd December 2016 .