Francesco Pomponi

Francesco is Professor of Sustainability Science at Edinburgh Napier University, where he heads the Resource Efficient Built Environment Lab (REBEL), and Senior Associate at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. His academic expertise lies in life cycle assessment, embodied and whole life carbon, and the circular economy. Within the built environment his work revolves around low-carbon buildings, measurement, management and mitigation of environmental impacts, and passive design. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and secured in excess of £1.5M in funding from the EPSRC, the Royal Academy of Engineering, UKRI, Innovate UK and the EU. He is an Editor of Elsevier’s Sustainable Production and Consumption and editorial board member of several leading international journals.

Outside academic work, Francesco has acted as advisor and peer-reviewer for the International Energy Agency (IEA), for which he also represents the UK within the Annex 72. He has reviewed for the IPCC, LETI, CIBSE, and a number of other national and international bodies. In 2017 he contributed to the landmark RICS professional statement on whole life carbon in the built environment and in 2020 he led and co-authored the embodied carbon roadmap for Scotland. Francesco is an elected Steering Committee Member of the UK’s Whole Life Carbon Network, a Fellow of the RSA and of the Higher Education Academy. His latest work on optimal density and height for urban sustainability has received global media coverage from Bloomberg, the Pulitzer-winning Inside Climate News, and the World Economy Forum – among many others.