Sustainable Systems Department

The manufacturing and utility sectors’ approach to the sustainability agenda is increasingly multidisciplinary, integrated and long term. 

Our Department has core strengths in water science, energy and offshore technology, automotive technologies and resource management and efficiency.  These academic groups deliver practical, internationally-leading research, specialist postgraduate education, training and consultancy for the business sectors they face.  Increasingly, our staff work across these sectors in areas such as reliability engineering, vehicle safety and sustainable solutions, renewables energy, risk management, decision science, infrastructure management, governance and regulatory science and policy.

A trans-disciplinary department, we are focused on four academic centres:

The Sustainable Systems Department is concerned with managing connected processes, treatment processes, service systems, utility infrastructures, policy and regulatory processes and the product cycle - more effectively for the future. Our Head of Department is Professor Simon Pollard.

Please browse our pages to understand more about our expertise. We also work closely with our partner department, Natural Resources, which develops and exploits knowledge about natural systems to meet current and future social and economic needs for ecosystem services such as the production of food, fibre and bio-fuels, protection and enhancement of the environment, attenuation of floods and re-charge of aquifers, conservation of biodiversity and carbon storage and management.