Mapping the landscape of research into decarbonising the built environment at Cambridge

Tercia Jansen van Vuuren from the Laing O’Rourke Centre for Construction Engineering and Technology has created an interactive map that provides a visual representation of current research into decarbonisation of the built environment at the University of Cambridge. This map highlights the broad spectrum of topics and projects that form part of the action required to move towards a net-zero carbon sector. 

The built environment is directly responsible for a quarter of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions yet plays a fundamental role in addressing today’s challenges to ensure a thriving, healthy society. The sector is therefore critical in driving change to achieve the UK’s net-zero target by 2050.

Part of the challenge in decarbonising the built environment is understanding the different facets that comprise the sector and how these fit together to create a shared, holistic vision of what is required to reach net-zero. The activities and sub-sectors that comprise the built environment include buildings, infrastructure, new-build, retrofit, and assessment of existing assets, and span from high-level policy and governance aspects to detailed analyses of project impacts such as embodied and operational carbon.

The University of Cambridge is involved in research and projects investigating all these aspects of the built environment. Spanning across departments and disciplines, the research ranges from individual PhDs to multi-million-pound inter-university programmes with significant industry involvement. Examples include detailed technical analyses of structural optimisation to reduce embodied carbon, understanding the flow of construction materials and products in the UK and city-wide simulations of retrofit opportunities and energy use.

The landscape map was devised as a visual way to explore the current research underway and understand how people from across the University are addressing the challenge of decarbonising the built environment. In addition, this interactive map will help those at the University of Cambridge identify areas of common interest and opportunities for collaboration that promote holistic solutions to achieve net-zero.

(If you can't see the interactive map above, please click here).

The map is a work-in-progress and is by no means exhaustive or comprehensive. The main limitation is that most of the information has been derived from university web pages; consequently, some of the information may be outdated and omit current relevant research projects. To reach full potential, we need academics who are active in this field to contribute information on research and projects that they are involved in and build the map into a resource that gives insight into how Cambridge is driving change to decarbonise the built environment. 

If you have any queries, suggestions or updates, please contact Tercia Jansen van Vuuren (tadsj2@cam.ac.uk). Alternatively, download this spreadsheet to submit feedback.