Sustainable Design Research Group
People
A brief summary of each member of staff's research interests are listed here. More detail, for example their publications list, can be found by following the link to their staff page. The contact details for each member of staff can also be found on their staff page.
General enquiries should be directed to Professor Tracy Bhamra.
Academic and Research Staff
Professor Tracy Bhamra
Tracy is a founding member of the SDRG. Her research interests lie in sustainable design generally but specifically developing methods and tools for designers, understanding user behaviour and moving from products to services and systems. Her interest in the subject began in 1992 when she began her PhD in Design for Disassembly and Recycling.
Dr Vicky Lofthouse
Vicky is a founding member of the SDRG. Her research interests include: using design to change user behaviour; sustainable design and ecodesign implementation; communicating to designers; Creativity and innovation. Further details of the projects Vicky has been involved in are presented through the website.
Dr Rhoda Trimingham
Rhoda's research interests lie in sustainable design generally but specifically developing methods and tools for designers, design education and moving from products to services and systems. Her interest in the subject began in 2002 with a PhD in Sustainable Design Decision Making. Her research has included working collaboratively with organisations such as, Practical Action and Boots on ecodesign focused research projects, as well as delivering training courses and awareness raising seminars.
Dr Debra Lilley
Dr Debra Lilley is a Research Associate, she has been actively involved in the field of Sustainable Design since 2002. She holds a Masters of Research in Manufacturing, Sustainability and Design, a PhD in Design for Sustainable Behaviour and is the author of Design-Behaviour.
Debra is co-convenor of the Product Lifespans Behaviour Change group and the Sustainable Design Network administrator. Her core research interests lie in identifying behavioural and psychological drivers for consumption; design for sustainable behaviour, ethics, e-learning and sustainable design education.
PhD Students
Carolina Escobar Tello
Carolina is an Industrial Designer who after working in one of the most polluting industries did an MSc in Sustainable Product Design which changed her perspective of companies and design practices around the world forever. Above all it added a sustainable awareness and mindset to her role as designer and citizen of the world! This has encouraged her to undertake academic Lecturing in Sustainable Design, and a PhD looking at sustainable products/services/systems and their effects on Society, Consumption Behaviour, Lifestyles and Happiness.
Daniel Horne
Daniel is studying for a PhD. He graduated from this department with degree in Industrial Design. After graduating he was employed as a Design and Technology teacher at Kimbolton School, teaching children aged 12-18, and has now returned for another 3 years at Loughborough! He is also heavily involved with other activities within the university, including being Captain and Social Sec of the Student's Ten Pin Bowling Club, playing for the staff football team Loughborough Academicals FC, and organising various events for fellow Post-grad students.
Garrath Wilson
Garrath is a doctoral researcher focusing on the role design plays in influencing sustainable behaviour. Combining a user-centred approach with the emerging field of Design for Sustainable Behaviour, the aim of his research is to influence a sustainable change in energy using comfort behaviours within the context of social housing. Garrath also holds a BSc in Product Design and an MSc in Industrial design, and has previously worked on projects ranging from single-use medical disposables through to domestic consumer goods for a design consultancy in Suffolk.
Gloria Elizondo
Gloria is doing research for her PhD on design for sustainable behaviour and sustainable domestic water consumption. She is interested in the role of cultural background on how (un)sustainable one's routines and practices are; also in how product designers can tackle that. Gloria has also an interest in new and creative user research and empathic design methods. She is also collaborating with Universidad de Monterrey (Mexico) as lecturer on sustainable design.
Ksenija Kuzmina
Ksenija is a full time PhD student in sustainable design. Her main interests are the relationship between the role of designers, design processes and approaches and sustainable transformation in public services. Ksenija received an MA in Design for Development where her project involved use of co-design process and development of an online platform concept to connect secondary schools in the Kingston borough to the Kingston community in an attempt to transform their 'sustainable' status. Her current research is a continuation of her interest in education and sustainable development.
Luis Oliveira
His research focus on cooking behaviours and is developing methods to motivate people to adopt energy saving techniques. Instead of developing new energy efficient appliances, this study is trying to promote savings using existing cookers. User observation and electricity measurements are being implemented in order to evaluate how participants behave normally and to assess the efficacy of the interventions.
Margarida Monteiro de Barros
Margarida is a part time PhD student in design for sustainability, she also works on the Design Dialogues research project. Her research interest include also symbolisms in relation to anthropology and communication, organisational and people's culture, complex systems, among others.
Mariale Moreno
Mariale is a full time PhD student looking at the strategic vision of businesses and their potential to achieve technological, social and cultural innovations by focusing on user-design orientation and communication strategies to enable more sustainable patterns of consumption. Mariale is an Industrial Designer and she did a MSc. in Innovation and Design for Sustainability. Before her MSc she worked for an NGO which guides SMEs mostly in rural communities to commercialize their products in real markets.
Matthew Watkins
Matthew is undertaking a PhD; investigating effective methods for Sustainable Product Design Education in British Universities. The research aims to discover best practise within teaching and learning and disseminated this amongst universities in the UK that teach industrial or product design. The particular interest in education builds upon Matthew's background as a secondary school teacher.
Muireann McMahon
Muireann is a part-time PhD student and also a Lecturer at the University of Limerick, Ireland.
Natalie Moore
Natalie is a full-time PhD student who works as part of the CCC project.
Norman Stevenson
Norman is a full time PhD student within the SDRG. Having worked for 10 years as an industrial design consultant with a number of global clients, he is now pursuing research investigating the factors affecting responsible design practice in commercial design consultancies.
His research areas include the remit of the designer; design thinking and process; and the interrelationship of business and design stakeholders. Outside of his research Norman is an accomplished photographer and is active in sports and other cultural pursuits.
Ricardo Hernandez-Pardo
Ricardo has a BSc and MSc in Industrial Engineering and a Masters of Research in Product/Process Design and Development. Currently he is a PhD student with an interest in sustainable operations towards the integration of Product Service Systems (PSS) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
Richard Mawle
Richard has been interested in design and the environment since he studied Mechanical Engineering as an undergraduate. Emphasis was shifted towards the social impact of product design at the Royal College of Art, and during a two year research position in inclusive design at the Helen Hamlyn Centre.
Richard returned to the RCA as an MPhil student investigating the design of environmentally sustainable products, transferring to Loughborough University in 2008 to pursue his PhD.
Rose Deakin
Full time PhD student investigating the selection of Sustainable Materials by designers.
Sarah Higginson
Is a PhD student who work across CREST (Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology) and the Design School.
Tang Tang
Tang has a BSc and an MSc in Industrial Design and currently works as a researcher to develop masters program in Sustainable Design Innovation. Her PhD project is about investigating the feasibility of applying design-led approaches to enable consumers to adopt more sustainable patterns of use. Tang's research interests include products, systems and services design for sustainable behaviour, psychological principles to behaviour change, human factors, ethnographic methods and user-centred design.
Visiting Fellow
Dr Emma DewberrySenior Lecturer, The Open University