Biography

Tim Jackson is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and Director of the ESRC Research Group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment (RESOLVE). Funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, the aim of RESOLVE is to develop a robust understanding of the links between lifestyle, societal values and the environment, and to provide evidence-based advice to policy-makers seeking to influence people’s lifestyles and practices. Tim also directs the newly-awarded Defra/ESRC Sustainable Lifestyles Research Group (SLRG).

Tim joined the University of Surrey in January 1995 under an EPSRC Fellowship on energy and environment, after five years as Senior Researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute. In February 2000, he was appointed Professor of Sustainable Development, the first such chair to be created in the UK. 

From Jan 2003 to April 2005 he held an ESRC Fellowship on the social psychology of sustainable consumption. He founded RESOLVE in May 2006 with core funding from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). RESOLVE is a novel inter-disciplinary collaboration involving around 30 researchers across four departments (CES, Psychology, Sociology, Economics) in Surrey. 

For over twenty years, Tim has been at the forefront of research and teaching in sustainability. In 1988 he pioneered a least-cost approach to carbon abatement for Friends of the Earth. In 1996 he co-authored (with Nic Marks) the first Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare for the UK and has continued to work closely with the New Economics Foundation and others on measures of sustainable wellbeing at national and regional level. During the last decade, he has led numerous research and policy initiatives on sustainable consumption and production in the UK and abroad. From June 2004 to March 2006, he was the sole academic representative on the UK Sustainable Consumption Round Table and in 2006 published the Earthscan Reader on Sustainable Consumption. Tim led the team which developed the Surrey Environmental Lifestyle Mapping (SELMA) model used to estimate the UK's 'carbon footprint' for the Carbon Trust. He is a co-author of the WorldWatch Institute's influential State of the World 2008 on sustainable economies.

In March 2004, Tim was appointed Economics Commissioner on the SDC.  During 2004 he worked closely with Defra on the UK Sustainable Development Strategy.  Between November 2004 and to March 2006, he was the sole academic representative on the UK Sustainable Consumption Round Table and co-authored their influential report I will if you will.  From 2006 to 2009, he led the SDC’s Redefining Prosperity programme and authored the controversial report, later published by Earthscan as Prosperity without Growth – economics for a finite planet.  He continues to lead the economics work at SDC.

Tim has served in an advisory capacity for numerous Government departments and delivery agencies, including: the Cabinet Office (on Low Carbon Technologies and on ‘Renewable Energy and Resource Productivity’), HM Treasury (on well-being), BERR (on sustainable consumption and consumer policy), Defra (on sustainable consumption and production, well-being, behaviour change, market transformation, energy efficiency, and the politics of posterity), DfT (on travel behaviours), the Home Office (on consumer behaviour and behavioural change), the Carbon Trust (on carbon footprints and carbon labelling), the Environment Agency (on resource productivity, waste management, and behaviour change), and the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (on renewable energy).  

He has provided research, consultancy and advice to a variety of international organisations and agencies including: UNEP (on sustainable consumption and production and sustainable lifestyles), UNIDO and the ILO (on cleaner production), the European Environment Agency (on sustainable consumption and green GDP), the European Parliament (on sustainable consumption and on nuclear fusion), the US EPA (on waste prevention, sustainable consumption and behaviour change), the New Zealand Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (on sustainable consumption and lifestyles)

In addition to his academic work, he is an award-winning dramatist with numerous radio–writing credits for the BBC. His most recent play Variations won the Grand Prix Marulič and was long-listed for the 2008 Sony awards.

Research Interests

Tim's recent research interests at Surrey have focused on the relationship between consumption, lifestyle, wellbeing and the environment. He has a particular interest in the energy and carbon impacts of lifestyle and has explored both quantitative and qualitative dimensions of this relationship.

Tim is particularly interested in economic aspects of the relationship between human lifestyles and the environment. In particular he has continued to work on the development of 'adjusted' national accounts ('green GDP') at both national and regional level and has written extensively on the conceptual and empirical dimensions of the relationship between economic growth, wellbeing and sustainability.  In particular, this interest has led to his ground-breaking work for the UK Sustainable Development Commission (SDC).

Publications

2011

Druckman, A., M. Chitnis, S. Sorrell and T. Jackson, (2011). "Missing carbon reductions? Exploring rebound and backfire effects in UK households " Energy Policy.  Accepted for publication.

Fudge, S, Mulugetta, Y Peters, M and Jackson, T (2011) 'The Political Economy of the UNFCCC: Negotiating Consensus within the Capitalist World System' RESOLVE Working Paper Series, 02-11, Research Group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment, University of Surrey, Guildford.

Hayward B, Tim Jackson, David Evans (2011 forthcoming) ‘UK Youth: The conflicts of contemporary
lifestyles’ in Sustainable lives? The Global Survey on Youth Lifestyles (Paris: United Nations Environment Programme)

2010
Druckman, A and T Jackson 2010. The bare necessities: how much household carbon do we really need? Ecological Economics. 69(9): 1794–1804

Jackson, T 2010 Prospérité sans Croissance – la transition vers une économie durable. Brussels: De Boeck.  

Jackson, T and M Pepper 2010. Consumerism as Theodicy – an exploration of religions and secular meaning functions.  In Thomas, L (ed) Consuming Paradise. Oxford: Palgrave-Macmillan.

Peters, M, S Fudge and T Jackson (eds) 2010. Low carbon communities: imaginative approaches to combating climate change locally. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

2009
Abdallah, S, A Knuutila, T Jackson and Nic Marks 2009. The 2009 R-ISEW (Regional Index of Sustainable Economic Well-being) for all the English Regions. Report prepared for EMDA. London: New Economics Foundation.

Alexander, C, A Druckman, T Jackson and C Osinski 2009. Estimations of household material flows in deprived areas. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Waste and Resource Management 162 (WR3) 129-139.

Atkinson, J, T Jackson and E Mullings-Smith 2009. Market influence on the low carbon energy refurbishment of existing multi-residential buildings. Energy Policy 37: 2582–2593.

Bradley, P, C Thomas, A Druckman and T Jackson 2009. Accounting for food waste: comparative analysis within the UK. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. Waste and Resource Management 162(WR1): 5-13.

Dickinson, J, T Jackson, M Matthews and A Cripps 2009. The economic and environmental optimisation of integrating ground source energy systems into buildings. Energy 34: 2215-2222.

Druckman, A and T Jackson 2009. The bare necessities: how much household carbon do we really need? RESOLVE Working Paper 05-09. Guildford: University of Surrey.

Druckman, A and T Jackson 2009. Mapping our carbon responsibilities: more key results from the Surrey Environmental Lifestyle MApping (SELMA) framework. RESOLVE Working Paper 02-09. Guildford: University of Surrey.

Druckman, A and T Jackson 2009. The carbon footprint of UK households 1990-2004: a socio-economically disaggregated, quasi-multiregional input-output model. Ecological Economics 68 (7): 2066–2077.

Druckman A and T Jackson 2009. The delights of data: deficiencies in the quagmire? Carbon Accounting Conference, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, 11 March 2009. www.carboncounting.org.uk

Hayward, B, T Jackson and D Evans 2009. Global Survey on Sustainable Lifestyles - Analysis of UK respondents. Report to the UNEP GSSL. Guildford: RESOLVE.

Hogg, N and T Jackson 2009. Digital Media and Dematerialization An Exploration of the Potential for Reduced Material Intensity in Music Delivery. Journal of Industrial Ecology 13(1): 127-146.

Jackson, T 2009. Prosperity without Growth – Economics for a Finite Planet. London: Earthscan.

Jackson, T 2009. Prosperity without Growth?  Steps to a sustainable economy. London: Sustainable Development Commission.  

Jackson, T 2009. Beyond the Growth Economy. Journal of Industrial Economy 13(4): 487-490

Jackson, T 2009. Prosperity without Growth? An alternative perspective on economic recovery. Outreach Issues May 2009, 1-2.

Jackson, T J Porritt, A Lees, V Anderson 2009. A Sustainable New Deal – a fiscal package for economic social and environmental recovery.  London: Sustainable Development Commission.

Jackson T, McBride N, Abdallah S, Marks N 2008. Measuring regional progress: regional index of sustainable economic well-being (R-ISEW) for all the English regions. London: New Economics Foundation.

Jackson, T 2009. Beyond the Growth Economy. Journal of Industrial Ecology 13(4): 487-490.

Jackson, T 2009. Recovery without Growth? Renewal 17(3): 43-56.

Shaw, R, M Attree, T Jackson and M Kay 2009. The value of reducing distribution losses by domestic load-shifting: a network perspective. Energy Policy 37: 3159-3167.

2008

Bradley, P, C Thomas, A Druckman and T Jackson 2008. Waste Accounting – comparative analysis of household and business waste arisings. Submitted to Waste and Resource Management.

Druckman, A and T Jackson 2008. The Surrey Environmental Lifestyle MApping (SELMA) framework: development and key results to date. RESOLVE Working Paper 08-08, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.

Druckman, A and T Jackson 2008. Measuring resource inequalities: the concepts and methodology for an area-based Gini coefficient. Ecological Economics 65, 242-252.

Druckman, A, P Sinclair, and T Jackson. 2008. A geographically and socio-economically disaggregated local household consumption model for the UK. Journal of Cleaner Production 16: 870-880.

Fudge, S., Hunt, L., Jackson, T., Mulugetta, Y. and Peters, M. (2008)  The political economy of energy regulation in the UK 1945 – 2007: Paradigms and policy. RESOLVE Working Paper Series, 02-08, University of Surrey.

Jackson, T 2008. Motivating Sustainable Consumption. Chapter 6 in Reddy, S (ed) Green Consumerism – approaches and country experiences. Hyderabad, India: Icfai University Press.

Jackson, T 2008. Sustainable Consumption and Lifestyle Change. Chapter 14 in Lewis A (ed) Handbook of Economic Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 335-362.

Jackson, T 2008. Where is the wellbeing dividend? Nature, Structure and Consumption Inequalities. Local Environment 13(8), 703-724.

Jackson, T 2008. A blatant failure of moral vision. Guardian S2 Environment, Wed 16th January.

Jackson, T, N McBride and S Abdallah 2008. (Regional) Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare. Contribution to Beyond GDP: virtual indicator expo.  Online at: http://www.beyond-gdp.eu/download/bgdp-ve-isew.pdf.  

Jackson, T. 2008. An Immoral Climate. London: Sustainable Development Commission. Online at: http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications.php?id=671.

Peters, M. and Jackson, T. 2008. Community action a force for social change? Some conceptual observations. RESOLVE Working Paper Series, 01-08, University of Surrey.

Affiliations

Tim has offered advice, consultancy and inputs to a wide range of national and international agencies and governmental bodies. Current Advisory Positions and Affiliations include the following:

• Fellow, Royal Society for the encouragment of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA)
• Academician, Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS)
• Chair, Advisory Board, BankInvest’s New Energy Solutions Fund
• Advisor, Aviva Sustainable and Responsible Investment Advisory Board
• Associate, New Economics Foundation
• Member, UNEP Sustainable Lifestyles Taskforce
• Member, Whitehall Wellbeing Working Group
• Member, Defra Sustainable Consumption and Production Advisory Panel
• Trustee, Global Action Plan