Policy

Policy change is vital for sustainable future and is a core area of our work.

Our special research projects – like Zaatari and Many Happy Returns – engage with national and international policy. Team members from our plastics reuse project Many Happy Returns regularly work with policy makers. For example they recently contributed to an Efra Committee report on global plastic waste pollution.

Professor Rachael Rothman, our Co-Director, is now the Director of the South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre. SYSC will be working across sectors and disciplines on many areas, including regional policy influence.

Many of the Grantham Scholars (our PhD researchers) work on policy and related topics. Every year we send a group of them to COP, where they get to see how global policy around sustainability is made. Plus we help them – and our staff – contribute to policy inquiries and consultations.

COP24 - some of the Grantham Scholars posing in front of the massive COP logo: what's it like at COP?
Grantham Scholars at COP24, where international climate change policy is decided.

Inquiries and consultations

Our Centre Manager Deborah Beck connects our people to relevant government inquiries and consultations. Plus she provides advice on how to write for a policy audience.

You can find out more about inquiries and consultations in the news section below.

Interviews about policy with our researchers

A number of Grantham Scholars research sustainability and policy. You can find out more in our interviews with them.

COP and the Grantham Centre

Every year the Grantham Centre sends a group of Grantham Scholars to COP as official observers for TUoS. As such our Scholars have a front row seat on international sustainability policy. From the Paris Agreement to youth activism, our people have been there to witness it.

Healthy diets and sustainability

A sustainable food future at Chatham House by Carolyn Auma

Grantham Scholar Carolyn Auma reports from 2017’s A Sustainable Food Future conference Chatham House. Our co director Tony Ryan, was among the speakers. However, as the conference was held under Chatham House Rules, his comments cannot be directly reported here. This year’s Chatham House conference ‘A Sustainable Food Future’ looked […]

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