From the periphery to a focal point: 20 years of innovation at the Sustainability Research Institute
As the Sustainability Research Institute turns 20, members reflect on its identity, achievements and how it will evolve.
Read the reflective Spotlight article.
The University of Leeds’s Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) is the largest of its kind in the UK.
It conducts and collaborates on studies about sustainability challenges and solutions, sharing its world-leading knowledge with hundreds of students each year.
In 2004, it began with 14 members of staff and three PhD researchers.
“The entire Institute would meet for coffee at 11 each morning,” remembers Damian Howells, one of the original staff members.
At the time, the Institute focused on teaching. Damian was the lead for at least six taught programmes—a task which would not be feasible with the current size of SRI’s cohorts.
Now, the SRI employs 112 people and teaches around 700 students each year. It currently hosts over 50 PhDs, including 21 international researchers.
Over these two decades, the institute and global attitudes towards sustainability have transformed: there's more and more urgency to reach net zero, respond to climate change and support biodiversity.
As awareness of our survival challenges has increased, so has the need to understand the intertwined aspects of the environment and society that contribute to the big picture of sustainability.
