SustainNET Leader & Co-Lead for Research
Areas of Interest: Primarily, my interest in sustainability centres around food and health. More specifically, how to support the transition to a sustainable, healthy diet for all in a culturally acceptable way. As such, I am interested in the role of policy and the global food system in shaping the food environment, individual behaviours, and access to healthy food.
What Sustainability Means to Me: To me, sustainability means reimagining how we live so that the health and wellbeing of all (humans, non-human animals, and the wider natural world) are supported.
Dr Nonso Nnamoko
Co-Lead for Research
Areas of Interest: My research focuses on multimodal Artificial Intelligence and behavioural data modelling, particularly the use of heterogeneous and complex data to generate decision-relevant behavioural evidence for real-world systems. My interests include generative AI, large language models, knowledge graphs, behavioural modelling, and AI-driven evidence generation for sustainability, healthcare, and socio-technical systems.
What Sustainability Means to Me: To me, sustainability means using AI and behavioural insights to support more responsible, efficient, and inclusive systems that align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). My research explores how behavioural AI can help address real-world sustainability challenges.
Sonia Edwards
Leader for Education for Sustainable Development
Areas of interest: I have studied and practiced environmental conservation and implemented sustainable development practices within many educational and community institutions. My passion is to share with others how their behaviour affects the world around them.
What sustainability means to me: To me sustainability means being aware of the balance within the world, understanding and managing the activities we undertake so the living world can remain healthy.
Elaine Beesley
Co-Lead for Communications & media
Areas of Interest: My interests centre around sustainability communication, environmental campaigning, digital accessibility, and community action. I am especially interested in how websites and digital platforms can be used to connect people, share knowledge, and encourage positive environmental change. Outside of my professional work, I am also an active environmental campaigner a volunteer litter picker, an advocate for local environmental action, believing that meaningful change happens through both institutional collaboration and individual responsibility.
What sustainability means to me: To me, sustainability means creating systems, communities, and ways of working that allow both people and the environment to thrive long term. It is about recognising our responsibility to future generations, reducing harm where we can, and actively contributing to healthier, fairer, and more resilient societies. Sustainability is not only about protecting the natural world, but also about encouraging collaboration, inclusion, education, and practical action that can make a real difference
Olivia Furness
Student member and President of the Sustainability Society
Area of interest: How to make productions more Sustainable on set.
What sustainability means to me: I am a part of a community trying to raise awareness of what we can do as a society, to make positive changes to the environment and each other.
Dr Elke Weissmann
Co-Lead for Student Engagement
Areas of Interest: I am interested in all things television and sustainability in its widest sense. That includes how television can be utilised to help the transition to net zero, the way that television production itself needs to change to become less exploitative of natural resources, but also how these issues connect to issues of power, inequalities and culture.
What Sustainability Means to Me: Sustainability for me is not just about the survival of the planet (and thus humanity) but also a more just, equal and fair future. We need to recognise that different approaches, more collective, equitable and connected ones, are needed to guarantee the survival of all life on our planet.
Dr Susie Marriott
Co-lead for Communications & media
Areas of interest: Where social marketing tactics can be implemented around sustainability, i.e., current project with United Utilities
What sustainability means to me: Sustainability is an area that everyone needs to invest in. Evaluating how nudges to make small changes across our beautiful campus setting will help all of us, and create positive change overall.
Dr Laura McGuire
Co-Lead of Research
Areas of Interest: My research explores the psychological and behavioural aspects of climate change, with a particular focus on how people understand, communicate about, and respond to environmental challenges. I am interested in how attitudes, emotions and individual psychological characteristics shape climate-related beliefs and behaviours, and in how different approaches to climate communication and education can encourage meaningful engagement and sustainable action. My work brings together psychology, education and the creative arts to explore innovative ways of communicating climate change and supporting positive behavioural change.
What Sustainability Means to Me: Sustainability, to me, is about empowering people to be part of positive change – today and for the future. By giving people the knowledge, confidence and opportunity to make a difference, we can create a better world for ourselves and for the next generation
Alison Clark
Co-Lead of Student Engagement
Areas of Interest: I enjoy working with students and supporting their development throughout their student journey, with a particular focus on creating inclusive communities where students feel a sense of belonging. I am also interested in how sustainability can bring people together to create positive change. I believe that when students feel connected, supported and valued, they are better able to thrive both personally and academically.
What Sustainability Means to Me: For me, sustainability is about everyone working together and recognising that small actions can make a big difference. It is about making thoughtful choices that support people, communities and the environment, both now and for the future. No one person can solve every challenge, but collectively, the steps we take each day can have a lasting impact.
Professor Geoff Beattie
Co-Lead of Research
Areas of Interest:
Understanding the motivators and barriers to sustainable behaviour, including identifying the cognitive and emotional biases preventing action. Rethinking the ‘value-action’ gap between attitudes and behaviour by focussing on (and measuring) the implicit attitudes that underpin much of everyday, non-reflective behaviour, including routine behaviours with implications for climate change. Appraising novel approaches to changing underlying implicit attitudes. Understanding climate anxiety and how it manifests in different people, and its implications for mental health and climate action. Developing new ways of alleviating this often serious condition without necessarily pathologising this form of anxiety.
What Sustainability Means to Me:
A future! Sustainability is about turning concern for the future into the everyday choices we make in the present. It means understanding the gap between what we value and how we actually behave, and critically finding ways to close it.