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Announcing the 3rd Annual Conference of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability

The Centre's third annual conference, Delivering Impact - knowledge into action, will be held at IWM Duxford from 16 - 17 September 2014.  In addition to some interesting and thought provoking talks the conference will include an exhibition with an opportunity to engage with the tools, research outputs, and conceptual models developed by Centre researchers. Booking for the conference will open in March. More information coming soon.

Food and Beverage Sector Non-Labour Resource Efficiency - Workshop and Report

Next Manufacturing Revolution* (NMR) led a UK Food and Beverage Industry Sustainability Road-mapping Workshop on 23 January 2014 in London.  The workshop brought together leading companies, industry associations, relevant government departments and subject matter experts to discuss resource efficiency barriers and enablers in the UK Food and Beverage Industry.

Outcomes from the workshop will be published in a report ‘Food and Beverage Sector Non-Labour Resource Efficiency: Unlocking Cost Savings, Jobs and Environmental Improvements’ which will be accessible from  http://www.nextmanufacturingrevolution.org/  >more.

Circular Resource Flows for Value Creation

There are substantial value creation opportunities for businesses developing circular resource flows, says Dr Doroteya Vladimirova, which can put them way ahead of the competition. A number of leading companies have moved beyond recycling to access greater value. They succeed by retaining control of their products, managing their products while in use, resolving reverse logistics challenges, building remanufacturing capabilities, and designing for longevity and circular resource use.  Read the full article on circular resource flows and the Next Manufacturing Revolution from the special edition of Inside Track on circular economy by Green Alliance >here.

CIMIS Working with Vitsœ on Factory Move

Vitsœ has tripled total sales since 2005 leaving its current production building in north London's trendy Camden district bursting at the seams, necessitating a move to pastures new. A team consisting of researchers from across the EPSRC Centre has been contributing to the process of developing the vision and reality of life post-Camden.

Vitsœ is looking for a new home that would take it closer to its suppliers of components while remaining well-linked to London. Furthermore, Vitsœ wants to go beyond your traditional industrial shed and develop a building system which offers the highest possible performance while – in keeping with its purpose of allowing more people to live better with less that lasts longer – maintaining a high degree of flexibility so that the company can respond to change.

The CIMIS team (Aanand Davé, Sudhir Rama Murthy, Simon Roberts, Jules Saunderson and Dai Morgan) is supporting the process in a variety of ways, supporting the selection of design partners and performance criteria for the building system and analyzing the existing production systems to help better understand possible future needs. As designs for the system emerge the team will also look to model the consequences of decisions and help develop the building system.

Vitsœ's managing director, Mark Adams, said "We are honoured to be working closely with the CIMIS team to hold our feet to the fire as we strive to deliver a building and working environment that really could make a small contribution to the quest for a more sustainable and humane way of working in the 21st century."

This project is part of the Configurations for Sustainable Industrial Systems grand challenge project that seeks to understand what configurations of the industrial system might deliver more sustainable outcomes. The aim is to develop tools help manufacturers make decisions about what gets made where and how it gets made. If you are interested in finding out more about this project and how you could be involved, get in touch with Dai Morgan at dcm32@cam.ac.uk.

Why can the environmental performance of different sites vary?

Nancy Bocken writes about Environmental performance variation at manufacturing sites as guest blogger on EEF's Environmental Blog. exploring the question, 'Why can the environmental performance of different sites vary?'.  Nancy explains that goal setting might help. Read the blog >here.

Hear more about the Environmental Performance Variation Grand Challenge Project  >here.

CIMIS and IEMA Workshop on Eco-efficiency in Production

Centre PhD researcher, Lampros Litos, in collaboration with IEMA, facilitated an exploratory workshop on eco-efficiency in production.  Although aimed mainly at industrial practitioners within the iema network with a working knowledge of production operations, the workshop also attracted a wider audience such as consultants and city council managers. The workshop provided an opportunity for colleagues facing similar challenges in eco-efficiency to learn from each other as well as an opportunity to contribute to leading edge research in eco-efficiency and environmental performance. >more.

Visiting Professor Appointment in China for Professor Steve Evans

Professor Steve Evans was recently awarded the title of Visiting Professor at the School of Management of the Northwestern Polytechnical University in Shaanxi province, China. Prof Evans was formally appointed by the Dean of the Management School in a ceremony held in the university on the 16th of December >more.

University of Malaya Academics Visit CIMIS

Academics from Malaysia’s highest-ranking university paid a visit to the Centre for Industrial Sustainability in Cambridge on 11th February 2014. CIS hosted a one-day workshop for Dr Salwa Hanim Abdul Rashid, Dr. Raja Ariffin and Dr. Yap Hwa Jen from the Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing, Faculty of Engineering at the University of Malaya. The researchers exchanged experiences about the differences and difficulties in conducting applied research with companies in the UK and Malaysia. Ideas for future collaborations were discussed. This visit forms part of a series of international outreach and collaboration workshops planned by CIMIS.

CIMIS 1st Industrial Sustainability Roundtable

This June the Centre is running its first in a series of Industrial Sustainability Roundtable conferences, 10 Year Industrial Sustainability Research Priorities.

The roundtable series seeks to engage thought leaders in strategic issues within the field of industrial sustainability. This first roundtable seeks to gather the latest thinking on industrial sustainability to assess the research priorities for the decade ahead. A small number of key leaders from academic, industry and related organisations from Europe and beyond will gather together for an intensive discussion of the future agenda on industrial sustainability underpinned by presentations, workgroups and lively debate.  2020 is a key date in many industrial, academic and government communications, and this rountable will consider what happens beyond that date.

Centre Cohort Week at Losehill

A fun and eventful time was had by all at this year's cohort retreat held in Losehill, Derbyshire in January. The annual retreat is a coming together of minds, a place to test bed and share new ideas, knowledge and thoughts around the subject of industrial sustainability. Many interesting challenges and current areas of work - natural systems as artificial systems, how to build 'academic-ness' in PhD communities, production systems design and operation, high value manufacturing and much more were raised on 'great-wall' of faces. >more.

Keynote at the Fall Meeting of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition

On the 19th - 21st of November 2013 the SAC (Sustainable Apparel Coalition) which represents more than a third of the global apparel and footwear market, gathered members (brands, retailers, manufacturers, government, and non-governmental organizations and academic experts) in La Coruna, Spain to discuss the future of manufacturing in their industry. The forum was attended by over 200 representatives of brands manufacturers  and Prof Steve EvansLloyd Fernando and Dr Dai Morgan of the Centre were in attendance >more.

Keynote and Value Mapping Workshops at WFSGI Manufacturers Forum in Taipei

On the 2nd and 3rd of December 2013 the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI) gathered members of the sporting goods industry together in Taipei to discuss the future of manufacturing in their industry. The workshop was attended by over 180 representatives of brands manufacturers.  Prof Steve Evans and Dr Dai Morgan of the Centre were in attendance providing support throughout the conference including a keynote address and two value mapping workshop sessions >more.

'Best Young Scientist' Award for PhD Researcher

CIMIS PhD Researcher, Yuan Tao, won the Young Scientist award for the paper, 'Policy Challenges to implement Industrial Symbiosis - Comparing UK and China', Tao, Y. Evans S. Morgan D., which was also awarded Best Paper at the Asian Association of Management Science and Applications Conference (ACMSA2013), 21-23 December 2013, Kunming, Yunnan, China  >more.

Promotion for CIMIS Post Doctoral Researcher

In January 2014 Dr Nancy Bocken was promoted to the role of Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, Department of Engineering.

In this new role, Nancy will be supervising PhDs and act as a co-investigator on future research projects. Additional supervision capacity will allow the Centre to accept more PhD candidates, and thus grow our cohort of quality PhD researchers. This also gives the Centre more space to attract research funding >more.

Congratulations to Cranfield PhD student Binxu Zeng

Cranfield PhD researcher Binxu Zeng recently passed his viva.  His thesis is titled ‘Validation of Energy Saving Novel Single Shot Melting Process for Foundry Industry’.  His research focused on energy saving in the foundry industry by novel single shot casting process (primary focus on Aluminium).  The core activities were: validating the novel casting process through numerical casting simulation approach; investigating the energy consumption and environment impact of the casting process through life cycle assessment; using lean management tools to assess the performance of the new casting process; and, using cost estimation method to evaluate the manufacturing cost of the casting process.

SMART Group Challenge

Loughborough University lecturers Elliot Woolley and James Colwill recently completed the 2nd Annual SMART Group Challenge.  The challenge is to each cover the distance to circumnavigate the UK (2,400 miles) within 12 months by cycling, running and walking.  Elliot and James finished on the same day with the majority of the miles being done by cycling to and from work – Elliot has a 30 mile round trip and James a 20 mile round trip. Post doctoral researcher Michael Barwood who started the challenge on a later date, is also on target to complete the full distance within 12 months. Well done to all three who, as Elliot said, are ‘not just talking the talk, but walking the walk (and cycling the bicycle) of sustainability’!

Public Presentations of Cranfield Master Group Projects

Cranfield’s masters group projects started 3 February and will end with public presentations on 30 April.  Centre members are welcome to attend.  Teams of 4-6 students work full-time on industrial challenges across design, manufacturing and materials.  One of the projects “CO2 Emission Estimation for a More Sustainable Global Steelmaking Industry” will deliver a generic methodology and tool to estimate CO2 emissions for a steel maker in Ukraine along with specific mitigation scenarios.  Another project “Product Passport+: Engaging technology to accelerate the transition towards a Circular Economy” for CISCO will explore and demonstrate how improved through-life product insight can enhance regeneration, redeployment and performance capabilities of material resources and contribute to profit growth.  Individual masters thesis projects are now being arranged to start at the beginning of May.

New Funding Opportunity for Collaborative Projects between Businesses and Universities

The new Low Carbon KEEP Innovation Voucher scheme allows SMEs in the East of England to engage in collaborations with UK Universities to support innovation, enhance academic research and develop ground-breaking products and services. The Innovation Vouchers cover 40% of the costs of purchasing specialist academic expertise to support a project for a value from £1,000 up to £5,000, as well as 40% of the cost of purchasing capital items, such as essential equipment or software, which are fundamental to the success of a Low Carbon KEEP Innovation Voucher.

To see the full details, please visit the Low Carbon KEEP Innovation Voucher website at www.anglia.ac.uk/lowcarbonvoucher or contact the Programme Manager, Carole Randall on 0845 196 4310.