Richard Wood
Background and activities
Richard Wood is a professor at the Industrial Ecology Programme at NTNU.
Richard's research looks at social and human drivers of environmental change, with a focus on globalisation, development and sustainable consumption and production. Richard contributes to the advancement of input-output (IO) and associated life-cycle/supply-chain techniques that give insights into the demand-side drivers of environmental change and the circular economy. He contributes to methodological, empirical and applied efforts in the field, and is a developer of EXIOBASE, one of the most detailed global environmental input-output databases available. EXIOBASE is one of the few global databases used in the quantification of environmental footprints and other consumption and trade based analysis.
For most of my papers, have a look here or email me.
Research Areas:
1. Development, trade and the environment (Globalisation).
My research group has studied the environmental impacts associated with trade, investigating how specialisation has occurred through globalisation in order to quantify the level and impact of outsourcing. We look at the influence of labour productivity, energy productivity, capital and materials; we particularly look at structural changes in the economy; and interpret outcomes in terms of environmental impacts and quality of life.
2. Environmental footprints (sustainable consumption).
My research looks at the environmental impacts of consumption - studying consumer demand, consumer choice, inequality and environmental justice, rebound effects and possibilities for "green lifestyles". Where possible, we seek to understand the relationship to well-being and outcome indicators for sustainable lifestyles.
3. Global supply chain analysis.
My research group is highly active in the development and use of input-output modelling frameworks in which to capture impacts across the globe - giving a spatial resolution along supply chains from source to point of consumption. Such work has given unprecedented insight into intersectoral relationships and their impact on the environment.
Courses
- EP8119 - Industrial Ecology and Input Output Analysis
- EP8114 - Industrial Ecology and Sustainability
- EP8108 - Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Systems Analysis
Scientific, academic and artistic work
A selection of recent journal publications, artistic productions, books, including book and report excerpts. See all publications in the database
2022
- (2022) Ageing society in developed countries challenges carbon mitigation. Nature Climate Change. vol. 12.
2021
- (2021) Trends in national biodiversity footprints of land use. Ecological Economics. vol. 185.
- (2021) Future changes in consumption: The income effect on greenhouse gas emissions. Energy Economics. vol. 95.
- (2021) Understanding the trends in Denmark's global food trade-related greenhouse gas and resource footprint. Journal of Cleaner Production. vol. 313.
- (2021) Durable Goods Drive Two-Thirds of Global Households’ Final Energy Footprints. Environmental Science and Technology. vol. 55 (5).
2020
- (2020) Hybridization of complete PLCA and MRIO databases for a comprehensive product system coverage. Journal of Industrial Ecology. vol. 24 (4).
- (2020) Adding country resolution to EXIOBASE: impacts on land use embodied in trade. Journal of Economic Structures. vol. 9.
- (2020) The unequal distribution of household carbon footprints in Europe and its link to sustainability. Global Sustainability. vol. 3.
- (2020) Quantifying Europe's biodiversity footprints and the role of urbanization and income. Global Sustainability. vol. 3.
- (2020) Explaining decoupling in high income countries: A structural decomposition analysis of the change in energy footprint from 1970 to 2009. Energy. vol. 194.
- (2020) Quantifying the potential for consumer-oriented policy to reduce European and foreign carbon emissions. Climate Policy. vol. 20.
- (2020) Improving climate change mitigation analysis: A framework for examining feasibility. One Earth. vol. 3 (3).
- (2020) The capital load of global material footprints. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. vol. 158.
- (2020) Towards accepted procedures for calculating international consumption-based carbon accounts. Climate Policy. vol. 20 (1).
- (2020) Happier with less? Members of European environmental grassroots initiatives reconcile lower carbon footprints with higher life satisfaction and income increases. Energy Research & Social Science. vol. 60.
- (2020) The structure, drivers and policy implications of the European carbon footprint. Climate Policy. vol. 20.
2019
- (2019) FABIO – The Construction of the Food and Agriculture Biomass Input-Output Model. Environmental Science and Technology. vol. 53.
- (2019) Beyond the borders – burdens of Swedish food consumption due to agrochemicals, greenhouse gases and land-use change. Journal of Cleaner Production. vol. 214.
- (2019) The socio-economic impacts of introducing circular economy into Mediterranean rice production. Journal of Cleaner Production. vol. 218.
- (2019) The Swedish Footprint: A Multi-model Comparison. Journal of Cleaner Production. vol. 209.