The EPSRC Centre for Industrial Sustainability held its Fourth Annual Conference at Fitzwilliam College on 6-7 July. The two-day conference, attended by 165 people, included a mix of presentations from industry and academia as well as an exhibition of tools developed for industry by Centre researchers and industrial partners. [more]

The Centre for Industrial Sustainability is part of 4 partner consortium which has been awarded £915,000, jointly funded by Innovate UK and EPSRC in the Flexible manufacturing call for the project, Extending UK manufacturing capacity through the introduction of continuous processing unit operations.  [more]

Prof Steve Evans and Dr Doroteya Vladimirova, with colleagues Dr Maria Holgado and Miying Yang, led the first Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) Sustainability Leadership Laboratory (Lab). The Lab entitled 'Transforming Business to Deliver Sustainable Value' was held on 16-17 July 2015 at the Moller Centre, Cambridge. The intensive 2-day Lab provided participants with a deep dive into new tools for sustainable businesses, with a specific focus on learning from real business challenges.[more]

Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) has today released the initial findings from its industry research partnership with Cranfield University; a white paper entitled Sustainable Manufacturing for the Future.

The paper considers the current and future landscape of sustainable manufacturing across the food and drink industry in Great Britain, investigating what challenges and opportunities industry needs to address to achieve rapid and fundamental change. [more]

The Manufacturing Commission Inquiry is seeking to understand how UK manufacturing can achieve long-term economic, environmental and social sustainability and is looking at government’s role in this. A number of organisations have provided written evidence, and the final oral evidence session was held last week. The summer will be spent chewing over the many interesting, sometimes worrying, and sometimes exciting inputs, culminating in a written report to be launched in Parliament in September. Watch this space!

More information about the inquiry can be found here. 

The eco-efficiency grand challenge team spent a month between May and June over in Vietnam with Industrial Partners – Saitex. The team worked with sustainability and lean production teams to help identify eco-efficiency improvements through the application of modelling.  A series of 3 models were created to show the current performance of factory energy and material resources. [more]

On June 4 the Centre for Industrial Sustainability hosted EEF's Climate, Energy & Environment Policy Committee at the IfM, University of Cambridge for their annual away day.  In a full-day event, the Committee members had the opportunity to meet PhD researchers and to understand how the Centre works. Prof Steve Evans, Dr Doroteya Vladimirova, Miying Yang and Dr Melanie Despeisse gave the attendees an overview of the current research and the tools developed on sustainable business models and eco-efficiency. Doctoral researchers presented their research during a poster showroom over lunch. The event finished with a debate on the challenges and lessons of measurement sustainability.

Over 70 people including Centre staff, members, and collaborators attended the Centre's annual All Stakeholders Day on 5 June in London.  During the morning Centre researchers presented on the progress and outputs of ongoing projects to staff and members.[more]

Starting in late June Centre doctoral researcher Kirsten Van Fossen embarked on a series of visits to a diverse range of research centres in the United States: the University of Connecticut Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, The University of Pennsylvania Wharton School Department of Marketing, and the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. [more]

Prof Steve Evans and Dr Jae-Hwan Park worked with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) on a project to assess the economic, environmental and social dimensions of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with the aim to encourage economic growth within the region. The ASEAN region includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Cambodia. [more]

Airbus visited the Institute for Manufacturing (University of Cambridge) on 20-21 May to run their Industrial Energy Efficiency Network Workshop. This quarterly workshop brings together representatives from all of the Airbus plants to share good practices, review current energy efficiency projects and plan future projects. This event was the first to be organised outside Airbus. It gave a new opportunity for the Airbus team to interact with the Centre's researchers and for knowledge exchange on research projects relevant to Airbus activities. [more]

Steve Evans and Dai Morgan were invited to visit the collaborative research centre 1026 - Sustainable Manufacturing, Shaping Global Value Creation - at TU Berlin, as guest researchers. The aim of the trip was to exchange knowledge on research, sustainability and practice in collaboration. Hosted by Prof Rainer Stark and Prof Gunther Seliger, they toured the facilities and shared current research and future plans. [more]

Dr Doroteya Vladimirova, Dr Maria Holgado and doctoral researchers Miying Yang and Na Jiao, have participated in the business model innovation workshop that was held on 1-2 June at the IfM as part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Seminar Series on Business Models. The workshop brought together academic and industry leaders on the subject of business model innovation to debate on the key emerging research themes on business models.

The CSIS project seeks to help manufacturers and related organisations find better, cheaper and faster ways of moving towards better futures for all. For the last 2 1/2 years researchers in the sustainable industrial systems theme have been exploring different aspects of how manufacturers might deliver against the challenges of sustainability. [more]

Several Centre researchers participated in the International Society for Industrial Ecology 2015 (ISIE 2015) conference held at the University of Surrey from 7-10 July. Cambridge doctoral researcher Sudhir Rama Murthy presented the paper, ‘Industrial Ecology Principles and Industrial Practice – Exploring the Linkage’ (authors: Rama Murthy, S., Morgan, D. and Evans, S). Dr Nancy Bocken presented the paper ‘Challenges and Opportunities in Circular Business Model Innovation for Clothing from a Retailer Perspective’ (authors: Bocken, N., Holgado, M. and Evans, S.) based on the work for project REDRESS. Nancy also introduced and chaired ISIE's first session on ‘Sustainable Business Models and Value Networks’. Cambridge doctoral researcher Daniel Summerbell  presented a poster ‘Performance Analysis of a Cement Plant’ and Yuan Tao presented the poster 'Policy intervention mechanism for promoting industrial symbiosis in China'. Cranfield doctoral researcher Fenna Blomsma gave a presentation on her research 'Circularity and cognitive embeddedness – developing the Circularity Canvas' and Imperial researcher Geraldine Brennan presented a poster 'Extending the Circular Economy: Power Dynamics & Organizational Influence'.

Congratulations to authors Peter Lunt (Airbus), Dr Peter Ball (Cranfield University) and Dr Andrew Levers (Airbus) on their paper 'Barriers to industrial energy efficiency' which was awarded  “Highly Commended” by Emerald.

Ref: Lunt, P., Ball, P. & Levers, A. 2014. Barriers to industrial energy efficiency, International Journal of Energy Sector Management, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 380-394. ISSN 1750-6220.

Steve Evans spoke on ‘Cleaner Manufacturing: How To Achieve It Affordably’ at The Engineer Design & Innovation Show on Wednesday 3 June at the NEC in Birmingham. On the same day Steve delivered a keynote to a conference organised by the National Business Association of Colombia (ANDI) via video conferencing.  The conference was inspired by the Next Manufacturing Revolution report and Steve spoke on this theme.  Just a few days later Steve spoke at Do Wales 2015 part of the Do Lecture Series.  The following Tuesday Steve spoke on ‘Zero Waste Manufacturing’ at the second Manufactured Yorkshire (MY15) show on Jun 9 in Huddersfield. The theme of the show is ‘Buy Local, Think Global’ and the purpose of the 2 day event is to strengthen supply chains to bolster re-shoring and raise Yorkshire’s profile as a leader in the Circular Economy.  It was another busy week but exciting to talk to so many different businesses all interested in making industry more sustainable.

Researchers at TU Delft are developing a European Remanufacturing Network: www.remanufacturing.eu as part of the Horizon 2020 project ERN. This network aims to boost the European remanufacturing industry, map the current industry and market for remanufacturing in Europe, and encourage knowledge exchange. The team are surveying the European market, and companies’ design, business model and supply chain strategies for remanufacturing. Anyone interested in becoming part of the network, or organisations wanting to take part in our remanufacturing surveys taking place now, can contact Dr Nancy Bocken, nmpb2@cam.ac.uk.

Cranfield doctoral researcher Handson Pimenta has been selected to attend a workshop on “Eco-food supply chain: exploring industrial ecosystems to minimise food waste and maximise social benefits”. The event is offered within the Newton Fund, the British Council, CNPq and CONFAP. Hanson is one of 20 UK researchers who have been selected to attend the workshop in August at Fundacao Getulio Vargas in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Congratulations to University of Cambridge research associate Maria Holgado who attended her PhD graduation ceremony on 15 June in Milan, Italy. Maria completed her PhD last December with her thesis “Sustainable value creation in manufacturing through maintenance services”.

Many congratulations to Cranfield doctoral researcher Stefan Hemel and family on their new baby boy, Jonas Sebastian, who arrived the 3rd of July.