Background and activities

Richard Wood is a professor at the Industrial Ecology Programme at NTNU.

He is ordinarily the teacher for TEP4222 - Input-Output Analysis, Trade and Environment, part of Indecol's masters program in industrial ecology.
 
Richard's research focus has been on modelling global systems of consumption and production with a focus on environmental and socio-economic outcomes, with particular consideration of the role of consumption and trade. 
 

Richard is the Editorital director for the Journal of Industrial Ecology, European Office.

 

Our article "EXIOBASE 3: Developing a Time Series of Detailed Environmentally Extended Multi-Regional Input-Output Tables" is now available at @JIndEcol , reporting on one of the main efforts of @FP7DESIRE https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jiec.12715

The database is available for download at:  https://ntnu.box.com/s/8p1jmogk621ceo9eyic0cg7kzz7bzepu

Please register at http://www.exiobase.eu 

 

Richard leads research in:

  • Development, trade and the environment (Globalisation).
  • Environmental footprints (sustainable consumption).
  • Global supply chain analysis.

Interested in environmental footprint data and results? Check out the Environmental Footprint Explorer

 

Richard has contributed to EXIOBASE  - which is now available for free download for non-commercial use. Reference: Wood, R., et al.. Global sustainability accounting-developing EXIOBASE for multi-regional footprint analysis (2015) Sustainability, 7 (1), pp. 138-163. Pleae note, that EXIOBASEv2.2 downloadable on www.exiobase.eu does not contain agricultural emissions. Please get in direct contact for a dataset that covers those emissions.

 

Research Areas:

1. Development, trade and the environment (Globalisation).

We study the environmenal impacts associated with trade, investigating how specialisation has occured through globalisation in order to quantify the level of outsourcing of environmental impacts between countries. We look at the influence of labor 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).

We study the environmental impacts of consumption - looking at consumer demand, consumer choice, rebound effects and possibilities for "green lifestyles". 

3. Global supply chain analysis.

We are 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 detail into intersectorial relationships and their impact on the environment.

 

Projects:

DESIRE (EU FP7) Richard leads work on developing Environmentally Extended Input-Output databases, principally for looking at the development of resource efficiency over time in a global context. and the possibilities for implementation of policy related to consumption based carbon accounting.

CarbonCap (EU FP7) Richard led a WP on Consumption Based Carbon Accounts. He was responsible for furthering insights into the robustness of accounting results, and hs further work on the options for implementation of policy related to consumption based policies in which to reduce carbon footprints.

PRINCE (EU FP7) Richard leads a WP, and looks at the environmental footprint of Swedish consumers in light of intergenerational goals.

Footprints2.0 - spatial footprinting.
 
ELIOD - creating environmental and socio-economic accounts for the ICIO (JRC-IPTS).

Recent previous projects include PROSUITE, EXIOPOL and CREEA. 

In PROSUITE (EU FP7) Richard focussed on applying hybrid life-cycle assessment techniques to look at the sustainability of the full-scale implementation of emerging technologies.

In EXIOPOL and CREEA Richard has led WPs (CREEA) developing databases and input-output techniques, this has led to the EXIOPOL/EXIOBASE suite of multi-regional input-output models. Richard has focussed on utilising techniques to handle and optimise large-scale datasets, the end result being a set of disaggregated and harmonised input-output tables across the world for use in a range of environmental and socio-economic footprint applications.

 

Interested in circular economy work? Have a look at what macro-level IO models can offer to assess priorities: 

Tisserant, Alexandre; Pauliuk, Stefan; Merciai, Stefano; Schmidt, Jannick; Fry, Jacob; Wood, Richard; Tukker, Arnold. (2017) Solid Waste and the Circular Economy: A Global Analysis of Waste Treatment and Waste Footprints. Journal of Industrial Ecology. vol. 21 (3). PDF available here

 

 

Other:

Richard completed his PhD at the Integrated Sustainability Analysis group at the University of Sydney in 2008 under Manfred Lenzen and Chris Dey. His PhD looked at investigating the environmental implications of structural change in the Australian economy. He has had experience and published papers on time-series analysis; structural decomposition analysis; structural path analysis; indexing techniques; optimisation techniques; and methods for handling large data sets. Applications have included investigating greenhouse gas emissions embodied in consumption and trade; ecological footprint analysis; material flow analysis; energy use and triple bottom line accounting.

Part of Richard's PhD entailed the construction of a time series of input-output tables for Australia in nominal and constant prices.

Launched in June 2010, Richard has co-edited a book on the use of input-output analysis for sustainability assessment. Entitled "The Sustainability Practitioner's Guide to Input-Output Analysis", the book offers a non-expert introduction to one of the more powerful tools available for calculating carbon footprints, ecological footprints, LCA, etc.

Feel free to email for a copy of any publications.

 

Links:

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

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2018