University of Greenwich

Part of our Profiled Universities

Institution: University of Greenwich 

Location: London and Medway, United Kingdom 

Focus Area: The Natural Resources Institute (NRI) a specialist research, development, and education organisation focused on food, agriculture, environment, and sustainable livelihoods. Circular economyCircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. thinking is applied across a breadth of research work and increasingly in teaching across faculties and programmes across the University. 

Expertise: Applied research focused on circularity relating to a number of areas detailed below (including the built environment, entrepreneurship, tourism, work and employment, procurement, biotechnology, and the natural environment.) Circularity in social systems and the political economy.

Applied research

• Natural Resources Institute’s (NRI) Produce Quality Centre Developing strategies to reduce plastic pollution while also minimising food loss, by evaluating the impact on storage life of switching from existing virgin oil plastic films to a range of recycled or compostable alternatives. The NRI has undertaken collaborative research on biomaterial packaging alternatives for food in temperature-controlled supply chains (e.g. e-commerce for chilled fish & seafood)

• Sustainability and Procurement in International, European, and National Systems (SAPIENS). This research is regarding the evolving use of public procurement to address the social and environmental challenges, including by making it the centre of government promoted circular economy thinking

• FACET Facilitate the Adoption of Circular Entrepreneurship in the Tourism and Leisure Sector. This is a EUR 3.89 million project co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund to accelerate the transition from linear to circular business practices in the coastal tourism and leisure sector

• Algae Biotechnology Research Based on cultivation of microalgae for sustainable production aims supporting the circular economy. A CO2 Microalgae Biorefinery: The D-Factory the combustion of imported natural gas provides heat for a salt mining facility and CO2 in flue gas for supporting the growth of microalgae

• Searching for a Sustainable Solution to the Seaweed Inundations on Caribbean Beaches

The University of Greenwich’s Sustainable Trade and Responsible Business development programme aims to generate knowledge and lessons on the sustainability of trade and responsibility in business, in a context of globalisation and changing world trade patterns, rising authoritarian governments, growing corporate and elite power, and crises in global social and ecological systems. It comprises a number of projects with relation to circularity including:

• Value Chain Analysis for Development (VCA4D) performs value chain analyses (VCAs) in developing countries, across a range of agricultural commodities and countries in order to appraise their contribution to growth and job creation, taking into account the sustainability and inclusiveness of these value chains.

• Partnerships for Forests a programme catalysing investments in which the private sector, public sector, and communities can achieve shared value from sustainable forests and sustainable land use through the provision of grant finance and technical assistance. This provides empirical insights into regenerative value chains and the bio-economy.

• Reducing Ocean Plasticsfocused upon advancing current understanding of land based and other sources of plastics entering Indian oceans; government and private sector responses, including existing policies and programmes to address plastic waste in India; and identifying potential solutions that can address the problem on the scale required, plus ideas for interventions in specific hotspots. (link to Research Report)

• Waste Management in Europe. Good Jobs in the Circular Economy This research and publication explored the challenges and opportunities of workers within the waste management sector

• Safe Jobs in the Circular Economy An EPSU commissioned report highlights the crucial role and often high-risk labour of the workers involved, who have largely been ignored in both research and policies relating to the circular economy

Teaching

Circular economy thinking is included in a number of programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level and focuses on responsibility within economic systems. These include: Business, Human Rights and the Environment (LLM) and Managing in a Critical Context, and Masters course in Agriculture for Sustainable Development and Global Environmental Change, as an Environmental Foot-printing module. Marketing, Innovation and Management, Innovations in Food Packaging, Food Systems and Climate Change and Risk Analysis for Agriculture and the Environment, modules within the MSc Food Innovation.

Connect with:

Simon Goldsmith, Head of Sustainability

Find out more:

The Natural Resources Institute (NRI) is a specialist research, development and education organisation of the University of Greenwich, UK, with a focus on food, agriculture, environment, and sustainable livelihoods. Find out more.