Andrew is a social scientist and educator with an academic focus on learning-based approaches to address the climate emergency and sustainable development within community and organisational settings.
Andrew is DMU’s Project Director for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and leads on the Environmental Sustainability theme for DMU’s ‘Universities for Leicester’ partnership with the University of Leicester.
His current research and knowledge exchange projects include the ‘Race to Zero Carbon Accelerator’ for Leicester, which is providing training and sustainability audits for SMEs to develop action plans to address climate change. Andrew is also co-ordinating a one-year Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) collaborative project to develop guidance on addressing sustainability issues within academic quality and student-voice processes for taught courses.
Prior recent research includes the Horizon2020 ‘eTEACHER’ project, which promoted energy-saving behaviour change in buildings across Europe via a gamified web-based app. Previous projects have focussed on capacity building for place-based climate change and sustainability initiatives in the Leicester area including “Communities Cutting Carbon” and Sustainable Harborough”. Andrew's PhD thesis explored the viability of achieving deep carbon emission cuts in existing social housing stock from an economic, social and technical perspective.
Andrew is module leader for "Leading Change for Sustainability”, which focuses on behaviour change and the practice of designing for pro-environmental change within social and organisational systems.
Andrew currently co-supervises five PhD students, each examining real-world sustainability initiatives in a range of contexts. These include the low-carbon retrofit of UK housing, sustainable housing and schooling in Nigeria and addressing sustainability in UK schools and universities. Previous supervised PhD research has addressed climate change adaptation in small island developing states, community-based sustainability, wellbeing through nature-connection and carbon footprint reduction through peer-to-peer support. All projects have drawn on cross-disciplinary approaches, focussing either on the UK or the Global South.
Previously at DMU, Andrew worked as a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Learning and Study Support (CLaSS), specialising in support for doctoral students and innovating in online and participatory approaches to teaching and learning.
Outside of his role at DMU, Andrew has co-founded several Leicester-based grassroots sustainability initiatives including Leicestershire’s first community energy co-operative, Greenlight festival and Leicester Carbon Rationing Action Group.