People
Peter Guthrie
Peter Guthrie is Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development. He is a Fellow of St Edmund's College. Tel: 01223 765627 Email: pmg31@cam.ac.uk Peter Guthrie is the first Professor in Engineering for Sustainable Development in the UK, having held this post since 2000.
He also pursues research in the sustainable development of infrastructure in developing countries, including the challenging the appropriateness of technical standards, waste management, the potential for waste materials to be used as materials in construction, and the engineering of earth roads. He is currently working with FIDIC (Federation of International Consulting Engineers) to produce a report on sustainability assessment for infrastructure.
A civil engineer with geotechnical specialisation by background, Peter has worked on roads in countries such as Nigeria, Lesotho, Sudan, Philippines Ethiopia, and Botswana, and on major infrastructure projects such as London 2012, Orange County Great Park (California), Channel Tunnel Rail Link, CrossRail, West Coast Mainline Route Modernisation and Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester Airports, and major building projects such as Eden Project Phase 4, and large scale schemes for the Prison Service and the Ministry of Defence. He has advised on policy matters related to waste and environment in Russia, Mauritius, Seychelles, Romania and Portugal.
He is Director of Research on a research programme on Energy Policy and Efficiency in the Built Environment, supported by Grosvenor, SIG plc and EPSRC, Principal Investigator for the Cambridge elements of the EPSRC funded Retrofit 2050 Project, and the TSB funded project on embodied energy in construction (Project Butterfly). He supervises PhD research on sustainable development in international development, looking at stakeholder engagement, assessment post hoc, and the role of international consultants. He was the Principal Investigator on the Land Securities plc funded programme of research into sustainability of the Ebbsfleet Valley scheme, and on the Cambridge element of the EPSRC funded ISSUES project which was completed in 2010. He has acted as expert witness on the proposals for Dunsfold Park Eco-Village in Surrey.
Peter was a member and latterly Vice-Chair of DEFRA’s Scientific Advisory Council (2003-2011) and led the Waste Sub Group. He was on the DECC Project Board for the Severn Tidal Power scheme study.
In 1980, following an assignment working with the Vietnamese Boat People in Malaysia, he was involved in the founding of RedR, a charity that provides engineers and other personnel to relief agencies in disasters. In recognition of this initiative he was awarded the Beacon Prize for charitable giving in 2005. He was a Trustee/Director of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) which is a student inspired organisation which seeks to help students make a contribution to the relief of poverty.
Peter is currently chairing the Global Agenda Council on Disaster Management for the World Economic Forum.
He was awarded the OBE in 1994. He was Vice-President of the Institution of Civil Engineers in the late 1990s.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and is a Non Executive Director of Buro Happold Consulting Engineers.
