Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
Francesco is Professor of Sustainability Science at Edinburgh Napier University, where he heads the Resource Efficient Built Environment Lab (REBEL). 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 various 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. In 2021, to further maximise the impact of his work he has also taken on the role of Head of Carbon Maths at Extantia Capital, a leading VC climate tech fund based in Berlin that aims to fund companies able to achieve deep decarbonisation and contribute to solving the current climate crises.
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, and is available for consultancies and to hear from motivated and talented prospective PhD students.
© 2023 University of Cambridge
