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We take a holistic approach to design in order to see the ‘bigger picture’ and we recognise the need for urgent change in business and other sectors.
We believe in learning through doing.
We believe in learning through doing.
Frank was brought up in rural Ireland where his passion for environmental issues and their relationship with design began in 1988 with his first project on end-of-life recovery issues. Since then, he has worked in, or as a specialist advisor to, multinationals, SMEs, government organisations, higher education, the third sector and NGOs in ecodesign and related issues. Frank set up EDC in 2006.
Frank holds a Bachelors Degree in Technology with Education, Masters in Advanced Manufacturing, Postgraduate in Management and a PhD in Ecodesign. His roles have included Chair of the Welsh Government EEE focus group, Expert Witness to House of Lords Select Committee, Technical Auditor for the European Commission, Specialist Advisor to the UN, Technical Advisor to Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), Chair of Sustainable Wales, MSc Programme Advisor to Cranfield University, Research Masters Programme Advisor to Carlow Institute of Technology, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Referee, IDI Design Awards Judge and Advisor to DME Awards. He was recently publicly appointed to the Welsh Government Advanced Materials & Manufacturing (AMM) sector advisory panel, which involves advising the minister(s) and their policy teams. Frank is also actively involved with xskool.
Frank has published extensively and has been delivering lectures, workshops and talks in the UK and overseas since the mid-90s. He passionately believes that ecodesign is good design and good organisational practice.
Simon leads the research at the Ecodesign Centre. He originally trained as an industrial designer in Ireland. He has an MSc in Sustainable Development and is currently undertaking a part-time PhD. He has designed, developed and delivered knowledge exchange networks, workshops and seminars on design and sustainability issues for private and public sector audiences. He has a number of research publications on design and sustainability and has presented at numerous international conferences and delivered guest lectures and workshops in design universities.
He is a member of the UK Evaluation Society and the Design Research Society and is listed as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Cleaner Production and the journal Foresight. Simon is currently a STEM ambassador, British Council Climate Champion and co-founder of social network thinkARK. Simon has experience of working in a variety of NGOs and environmental campaign organisations including ECO-UNESCO, Irish Fair Trade Network and Sustainable Wales.
Lynne joined the EDC team in September 2009. Her previous administrative experience has been gained with various government bodies, private companies and a university. Her skills include project administration, office management and development of procedures. Lynne’s role at EDC covers all of the above with the addition of event planning. Several European projects, which have recently been gained by EDC, will continue to extend her knowledge and expertise.
Sharon is a research assistant and PhD candidate at EDC as well as an associate tutor on the product design Masters programme at Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University. Growing up in the countryside in Ireland fostered Sharon’s love of the environment from a young age. Her background is in Product Design and Technology, which she studied at the University of Limerick in Ireland and she also has a Postgraduate Certificate in research methods. During her time to date at EDC, she has presented papers at a symposium in Harbin, China, as well as an IEEE conference on Sustainable Systems and Technology in Chicago.
Her core research activity is to deliver a Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarship (KESS) funded PhD research project at EDC, which is being run in conjunction with an industry partner, Orangebox. The research is multidisciplinary, drawing on the fields of product design, materials science and communications. Her specific research interests include: exploration of knowledge transfer of ecodesign for small businesses through utilisation of tools such as Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Cradle to Cradle (C2C) as well as the contribution such tools can make to open-sourcing of environmental attributes of materials we use in our everyday lives.
Other research interests include new paradigms in communicating traditional and non-traditional material attributes, such as metaphysical material characteristics.
Jude developed a passion for sustainable design while completing her Honours Degree in Industrial Design. Through a varied professional background in design, supply chain management and sustainable research, Jude is experienced in project management, commercial research and stakeholder engagement. She advanced her knowledge of the tools and skills required to integrate sustainability into the design process through her MSc in Integrated Environmental Management. She is currently undertaking this part-time MSc at the University of Bath.
Jude joined the EDC team as a Project Officer for the ‘LCA to Go’ project, funded by the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme. This ambitious four-year project aims to recruit 100 Small to Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) to integrate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) into their product development process. This will be achieved though the development of online open LCA software. As part of this project Jude’s primary responsibility will be to provide dissemination and training to the 100 SMEs.
I gave this presentation last week at Orangebox to update them on my PhD research progress, which they support. It proposes a framework for formalising material selection strategies.
