About us

Digital Decarbonisation at Loughborough Business School is led by Professor Tom Jackson and Professor Ian Hodgkinson, pioneers of the digital decarbonisation movement as identified by the World Economic Forum in 2022.

Numerous existing studies focus on digital transformations needed for decarbonisation, but not the net zero implications of the digital transformation itself.

Our purpose is to create a positive impact on the planet by reducing carbon emissions from Dark Data. To do it we’re taking a transdisciplinary approach and focusing our research on digital decarbonisation. This was funded by the UKRI National Circular Economy Research Hub CE-Hub until May 2023.

Meet the team

Professor Tom Jackson

Professor Tom Jackson

Professor of Information and Knowledge Management

Tom has over 20 years experience of in research and industrial consultancy and secured over £40 million of research funding. Known for the creation of EMOTIVE which holds the world’s best f-measure for fine-grained emotion detection. A system that has been able to predict in real-time the outcome of events like US and UK elections through to mental health conditions.

His research also includes the pioneering work on the dark side of digital decarbonisation and the impact on the environment; the first model of information overload, and in his earlier career he was nicknamed ‘Dr Email’ by the BBC for his work on the impact of interrupts in the workplace.

Professor Ian Hodgkinson

Professor Ian Hodgkinson

Professor of Strategy

Ian has published extensively on digital transformation and the role of digital innovations for service value co-creation across private and public sector contexts, with this work featuring in a range of leading academic journals (eg Public Management Review, Technovation, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Australian Journal of Public Administration, Public Money and Management).

Alongside this work, Ian is advancing new knowledge on the net zero implications of digital transformations, both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’, and helping to direct the critical next steps for the digital decarbonisation movement.

Vitor Castro

Dr Vitor Castro

Reader in Economics

Loughborough Business School

Rebecca Higginson

Dr Rebecca Higginson

Reader in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering

Department of Materials

Kate Broadhurst

Dr Kate Broadhurst

Senior Lecturer in International Business, Strategy and Innovation

Loughborough Business School

Michael Wilson

Professor Michael Wilson

Professor of Drama

School of Design and Creative Arts

Graham Hitchen

Professor Graham Hitchen

Professor of Practice

Institute for Media and Creative Industries, Loughborough University London

Andrea Soltoggio

Dr Andrea Soltoggio

Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor)

Department of Computer Science

Lisa Jackson

Professor Lisa Jackson

Professor of Risk and Reliability

Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering

Nicola Paine

Dr Nicola Paine

Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology

School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Thomas Jun

Professor Gyuchan Thomas Jun

Professor of Sociotechnical System Design

School of Design and Creative Arts

Associate members

Steve Lockwood

Visiting Professor of AI and Information Management