Sustainability Institute to be launched at Leeds Met

The Leeds Sustainability Institute will tackle the challenges ofcreating more sustainable places, communities and economies to enablesociety and its infrastructure to become sustainable.

Jonathon Porritt, the former Director of Friends of the Earthand founder of Forum for the Future, the UK's leading sustainabilitydevelopment charity will be speaking at the launch event, which takesplace on Thursday 29 March at the Rose Bowl, alongside George Martin,former head of sustainable development at Willmott Dixon and Jon PriceCentre Director of the Centre for Low Carbon Futures.

Academics at Leeds Metropolitan are already well-establishedsustainability specialists and their consultancy and business servicesare already making a significant contribution in social policy, lowcarbon building materials, green computing, renewable energy andsustainable infrastructure.

Speaking ahead of the launch, Leeds Sustainability InstituteDirector Professor Chris Gorse, said: "The Institute already has awealth of knowledge and experience, but the economic, environmental andsocial challenges require a connected approach, embracing leadingexperts from a broad field of industry, academia and society. Our aim isto develop research and enterprise that makes a positive difference.The Institute will provide a clear path to those that want to engage anda more responsive unit that can develop and connect expertise. Whilstour reach extends around the world, the economic and environmentalchallenge requires positive local and global impact, something that weaspire to."

"The Leeds Sustainability Institute field trials and workwith communities are having a direct impact on the policy and regulationthat will pave the way to a low carbon built environment. Practicesdeveloped are being adopted across Europe and impacting on the waybuildings are tested and monitored to ensure performance. Feedback fromthe University's recent research has resulted in new standards, taking astep closer to the zero carbon and low impact solution."

Sustainability experts at Leeds Metropolitan University arecurrently working extensively in Africa. Funding was awarded in 2011from the Water Research Fund for Southern Africa (WARFSA) to undertakeresearch and development work in Malawi. Additionally, funding has beensecured from the Department for International Development (DfID) todevelop a range of new postgraduate courses in Africa in conjunctionwith the Universities of Malawi and Botswana. The focus of these coursesis on sustainable engineering.

The core themes of the Leeds Sustainability Institute include:

People and Places - Creating better and moreresearch-informed policy on the sustainable management of spaces andplaces. Providing policy analysis and evaluation that contributes tomaking stronger and more resilient communities.

Infrastructure - Developing more resilientand sustainable products and infrastructure. Assisting the developingworld with sustainable resources at all levels.

Buildings and the Environment - Developingforensic and in-use research to understand new, existing and retrofitbuildings, at domestic and commercial scale. Understanding the physicsand operation of buildings and their designs, testing constructionmodels and evaluating their performance in the real world situations.

Business Practice - Providing efficientproject and process management to support sustainable development,whilst maintaining corporate, social and legal responsibility. Buildingenterprise without negative impact.

Energy - Understanding power supply, energy recovery,renewable energy, micro generation, networks and building managementsystems. Developing an understanding of the relationships betweenbuildings and occupant behaviour.

Information and Communication Technologies- Understanding the application of ICT in enabling sustainability byuse of these technologies for management and monitoring, while alsoensuring that the ICT systems are resource efficient. Understanding theimpact, technicalities, benefits and the business of BuildingInformation Modelling.