About the Centre for Sustainable Development

About Us


The Centre for Sustainable Development is a collective of academics and researchers, seeking to improve the role engineering plays in tackling global challenges. We adopt systems thinking in our work to explore complex interactions within society, and between society and the environment, that stem from engineering interventions. We engage with a range of stakeholders including industry, business, civil society and policy-makers to ensure that our work is informed by practice and can be readily adopted.

Our work


Our research currently focusses on three main themes

  • Water resources management for development and climate adaptation
  • Stepping up climate change mitigation by innovating in material and energy systems
  • Enhancing policy and engineering responses to improve resilience in complex and dynamic environments

This research and wider scholarship feeds into a programme of education which aims to help engineers become change agents for sustainable development. 

What does Engineering for Sustainable Development mean?


We aim to contribute to sustainable development by contributing to practices which can help:

  • everyone achieve an acceptable quality of life
  • operate within planetary limits
  • foster stewardship for future generations
  • address the complexity of delivering these agendas concurrently

CSD Centre Directors

CSD core team

Left to right: Dr Dai Morgan, Dr Kristen MacAskill, Dr Edoardo Borgomeo, Dr André Cabrera Serrenho