Professor Deborah Andrews

I am Professor of Design for Sustainability and Circularity in the School of Engineering. My research focus is sustainable design and manufacture, the Circular Economy, Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, user-centred design and behaviour. I have 20+ years experience in this area and have published 60+ related papers and book chapters. I am an active member of the Institution of Engineering Designers and sit on the Education and Training Committee, course and professional accreditation panels. I am also a Chartered Environmentalist and guest editor for a special edition of Frontiers of Sustainability journal.

I regularly collaborate with industry: enterprise work includes new product development for SMEs and start-ups via the ERDF A2i, Low Carbon London and SimDH programs and InnovateUK KTPs. Research includes collaboration with the commercial refrigeration, solar shading sectors and the data centre industry.
Since 2018, I have led an ERDF / Interreg-NWE funded project – CEDaCI – which is developing a Circular Economy for the Data Centre Industry. This project includes 30+ industrial, non-profit, and academic partners in the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands. The project has already made a significant positive impact and in 2019, it was runner up as Non-profit Industry Initiative of the Year for the Data Centre Dynamics Global Awards, and in 2020 CEDaCI was highlighted as an exemplar of good practice by the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform, European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee. The CEDaCI Capitalisation Initiative is building on and extending current work and will run until end of 2023.

I teach Product and Engineering Product Design students about sustainable design & manufacture; design for the Circular Economy, User-centred and Inclusive design, Design Contexts & Communications; I lead the final year Design and Culture (dissertation) module and 1st year Design for A Sustainable Society module and supervise under and post-graduate student final year projects; I also teach MSc Building Services Engineering students about Life Cycle Assessment and sustainable development and supervise PhD and MRes researchers.