Steve has 40 years of experience in improving industrial performance first at Cranfield University, where he gained his first chair as Professor of Life Cycle Engineering in 1998 and at the University of Cambridge where he leads the internationally recognised Centre for Industrial Sustainability. 

Steve worked in industry for 12 years starting at Marconi Radar Systems and ending as Engineering Systems Manager at the world leading ejection seat company Martin-Baker Engineering, responsible for design and manufacturing improvement. Steve remains industrially active as co-founder of multiple cleantech start-ups. 

At Cambridge Steve has secured over $20M in funding, always in direct collaboration with industry, where he has extensive experience in designing, building and delivering industry-academia research partnerships with organisations including Toyota Europe, Nissan Europe, Airbus, Marks & Spencer, Unilever, General Motors, Morgan Cars, plus many smaller manufacturers. Under his leadership the Centre has worked with over 300 companies. 

Throughout his academic career Steve has demonstrated the capacity to build research collaborations to deliver high quality use–inspired research underpinned by innovative fundamental research. (e.g. the COGENT project with Nissan and 120 suppliers; COGENT Construction with BRE and 20 suppliers; LIFEcar with Morgan Motor Co, Oxford, Qinetiq etc; THERM with Airbus, Toyota and IES ltd., and leading the UK National Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Industrial Sustainability with Toyota, M&S, Unilever, Adnams, Riversimple and others). This approach has been combined with thought leadership, holding the first UK grants in Eco-Design, WEEE take back, industrial sustainability and product service systems.

Steve is also active with government organisations (UK and international), informing policy at all levels. He has been Co-Chair of the parliamentary Manufacturing Commission with Lord Bilimoria, Special Adviser to the UK House of Lords, and a lead author of the Government Foresight Report into the Future of Manufacturing. Steve has advised the UN on setting up industrial policy for 6 countries.

Steve’s thought leadership has been recognized by election as a Member of Academia Europaea, the leading academy of Europe, where he was recently elected as Treasurer and Board Member.

Selected publications

• Yang, M., Vladimirova, D., Rana, P., and Evans, S. 2014. Sustainable Value Analysis Tool for Value Creation. Asian Journal of Management Science and Applications.
• Bocken, N.M.P., Short, S.W., Rana, P., Evans, S., 2014.  A literature and practice review to identify Sustainable Business Model Element Archetypes. Journal of Cleaner Production, 65, pp.42-56.
• Bocken, N., Morgan, D., Evans, S., 2013. Understanding environmental performance variation in manufacturing companies. Journal of Productivity and Performance Management. Special issue on performance measurement of sustainable supply chains.
• Bocken, N.M.P., Short, S.W., Rana, P., Evans, S., 2013. A value mapping tool for sustainable business modelling. Corporate Governance, Volume 13, No. 5.
• Gokula Vijaykumar A.V., Komoto H., Hussain R., Roy R., Tomiyama T., Evans S., Tiwari A. and Williams S. A., 2013. Manufacturing framework for capability-based product-service systems design. Journal of Remanufacturing 2013, Volume 3, No. 8, 23 August 2013.
• Vasantha, G., Komoto, H., Hussain R., Roy, R., Tomiyama, T., Evans, S., Tiwari, A., Williams, S. 2013. A Manufacturer Framework for Capability-based Product-Service Systems Design.  Journal of Remanufacturing, (accepted).
• Bocken, N., Roberts, S., Litos, L., Evans, S., 2013. Understanding environmental performance variation between factories which make the same products under similar circumstances. 7th International Conference on Industrial Ecology (ISIE), 25-18 June, 2013, Ulsan, South-Korea.
• Bocken, N., Short, S., Rana, P., Evans, S., 2013. The use of business model archetypes to stimulate corporate innovation towards innovation. 7th International Conference on Industrial Ecology (ISIE), 25-18 June, 2013, Ulsan, South-Korea.
• Bocken, N., Short, S., Rana, P., Evans, S., 2013. The development of alternative institutional and organisational forms to encourage industrial sustainability. The Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI), 12-14 June 2013, Worcester (MA), USA.
• Despeisse, M., Ball, P.D. and Evans, S., 2013.  Strategies and Ecosystem View for Industrial Sustainability.  The 20th CIRP Conf. on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE 2013), 17-19 April 2013, Singapore.
• Rana, P., Short, S.W., Bocken, N.M.P. and Evans, S., 2013. Towards a Sustainable Business Form: A Business Modelling Process and Tools.  Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI) Conference: The Future of Consumerism and Well-Being in a World of Ecological Constraints, 12th -14th June, Clark University, Worcester, USA.
• Tau, Y., Morgan, D., Evans, S., 2013. Policy challenges to implement Industrial Symbiosis - Comparing UK and China. Conference of Management Science and Applications (ACMSA2013), 21-23 December 2013, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
• Yang, M., Rana, P. and Evans S., 2013. Using Value Analysis to Drive Sustainable Product-Service System (PSS). Proceedings of The Spring Servitization Conference 2013: Servitization in the multi-organisation enterprise (ISBN: 978 19058 66656), 20th - 21st May, Aston Business School, Birmingham, UK.
• Yang, M., Rana, P. and Evans S., 2013. Product Service System (PSS) Life Cycle Value Analysis for Sustainability. The 6th conference on Design and Manufacture for Sustainable Development, 15th -17th April, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
• Yang, M., Vladimirova, D., Rana, P. and Evans, S., 2013. Developing the Sustainable Value Analysis Tool (SVAT). Asian Conference of Management Science and Applications (ACMSA2013), 21-23 December 2013, Kunming, Yunnan, China.
• Despeisse, M., Ball, P.D. and Evans, S., 2013. Strategies and Ecosystem View for Industrial Sustainability.  IN:  A.Y.C. Nee, B. Song, S.-K. Ong (Eds.), Re-engineering Manufacturing for Sustainability, Springer, Berlin, pp. 567-572, April 2013.
• Evans S., 2013. Finding New Value.  The Innovation Handbook 3rd Edition, Editor Jolly, A.
• Holgado, M., Corti, D., Macchi, M., Rana, P., Short, S., Evans, S., 2013. Business modelling for sustainable manufacturing. Competitive Manufacturing for Innovative Products and Services: Proceedings of the APMS 2012 Conference, Advances in Production Management Systems. Editors: Emmanouilidis, C., Taisch, M., and Kiritsis, D. (IFIP AICT, Springer Series ISSN: 1868-4238).
• Short, S.W., Rana, P., Bocken, N.M.P., Evans, S., 2013.  Embedding Sustainability in Business Modelling Through Multi-stakeholder Value Innovation. In: Emmanouilidis, C, Taisch, M and Kiritsis, D (eds), Advances in Production Management Systems (APMS 2012) - Competitive Manufacturing for Innovative Products and Services  IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol. 397, pp 175-183 (ISBN 978-3-642-40351-4, Springer).
• Lavery, G., Evans, S., 2013. Next manufacturing Revolution - report on the opportunity for profit, jobs and environmental benefits from non-human resource productivity improvements.
• Despeisse, M., Ball, P. D., Evans, S. and Levers, A.,  2012.  Industrial ecology at factory level - a conceptual model, Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 31, no. 3-4, pp. 30-39.
• Despeisse, M., Ball, P. D., Evans, S. and Levers, A., 2012.  Industrial ecology at factory level - a prototype methodology, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, vol. 226, no. 10, pp. 1648-1664.
• Ball, P. D., Despeisse, M., Evans, S., Greenough, R., Hope, S., Kerrigan, R., Levers, A., Lunt, P., Oates, M., Quincey, R., Shao, L., Waltniel, T., Wheatley, C. and Wright, A. J.  2012.  Factory modelling: combining energy modelling for buildings and production systems, Emmanouilidis, C., Taisch, M. and Kiritsis, D. (eds.), in: Competitive Manufacturing for Innovative Products and Services: Proc. of the Advances in Production Management Systems Conf. (APMS 2012), 24-26 Sept. 2012, Rhodes (Greece).
• Bocken, N., Morgan, D., Evans, S. 2012. Gaining understanding of the use of sustainability KPIs in practice.  Proceedings of the ECEEE 11-14 September 2012 Summer Study on energy efficiency in industry.
• Holgado, M., Corti, D., Macchi, M., Rana, P., Short, S.W. and Evans, S., 2012. In: Emmanouilidis, C, Taisch, M and Kiritsis, D (eds), Business modelling for sustainable manufacturing, IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology (IFIP AICT, Series ISSN: 1868-4238), Competitive Manufacturing for Innovative Products and Services: Proceedings of the APMS 2012 Conference, Advances in Production Management Systems.
• Mastoris, I., Morgan, D., and Evans, S.,  2012. Towards a framework of life cycle sustainability assessment LCSA. Proceedings of the 18th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference, University of Hull, Hull, UK, 24 - 26 June 2012; Track 4c.
• Oates, M. R., Despeisse, M., Ball, P. D., Evans, S., Greenough, R. M., Hope, S. B., Levers, A., Lunt, P., Quincey, R., Shao, L., Waltniel, T., Wheatley, C. and Wright, A. J., 2012.  Design of Sustainable Industrial Systems by Integrated Modelling of Factory Building and Manufacturing Processes, Proc. of the 10th CIRP Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing - Towards Implementing Sustainable Manufacturing (GCSM 2012), 31 Oct.-2 Nov. 2012, Istanbul (Turkey).
• Short, S.W., Bocken, N.M.P., Rana, P., Evans, S., 2012. Business Model Innovation for Embedding Sustainability: A Practice-Based Approach Introducing Business Model Archetypes, Proceedings of the 10th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing (GCSM): Towards Implementing Sustainable Manufacturing, 31st October - 2nd November, Istanbul, Turkey.
• Short, S.W., Rana, P., Bocken, N.M.P., Evans, S., 2012. Embedding Sustainability in Business Modelling Through Multi-stakeholder Value Innovation. In: Emmanouilidis, C, Taisch, M and Kiritsis, D (eds), IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology (IFIP AICT, Series ISSN: 1868-4238), Competitive Manufacturing for Innovative Products and Services: Proceedings of the APMS 2012 Conference, Advances in Production Management Systems.
• Despeisse, M., Ball, P.D. and Evans, S., 2011. Design of Tactics for Sustainable Manufacturing, Proceedings of Sustainable Intelligent Manufacturing conference (SIM2011). ed. H.e.a. Bártolo, IST Press, Lisboa, 29 June-1 July 2011, pp. 53.
• Ball, P.D., Despeisse, M., Evans, S., Greenough, R.M., Hope, S.B., Kerrigan, R., Levers, A., Lunt, P., Oates, M.R., Quincey, R., Shao, L., Waltniel, T., Wheatley, C. and Wright, A.J., 2011. Modelling energy flows across buildings, facilities and manufacturing operations. Proceedings of the International Manufacturing Conference (IMC28), Dublin, 30 August-1 September 2011.
• Despeisse, M., Ball, P.D. and Evans, S., 2011. Identifying improvement opportunities towards sustainable manufacturing. Proceedings of the International Manufacturing Conference (IMC28), Dublin, 30 August-1 September 2011.
• Despeisse, M., Ball, P.D., and Evans, S., 2011. Modelling and Tactics for Sustainable Manufacturing: an Improvement Methodology. Proceedings of the 9th CIRP Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing (GCSM 2011), Sustainable Manufacturing - Shaping Global Value Creation, ed. S. Günther, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 28-30 September 2011, pp. 20.
• Rashid, S. and Evans, S., (2011) Sustainable Manufacturing Strategies in UK Manufacturing: literature versus real practices, Journal of Institute of Operations management, V36, n1, 25-31
• Charnley, F., Lemon, M. and Evans, S. (2011) Exploring the process of whole system design, Journal of Design Studies 32 156-179
• Lettice, F., Wyatt C. and Evans S. (2010), Buyer–supplier partnerships during product design and development in the global automotive sector: who invests, in what and when?, International Journal Production Economics 127, 309–319
• Tan A., Matzen D., McAloone T. and Evans S. (2010), Strategies for Designing and Developing Services for Manufacturing Firms, CIRP Journal of Manufacturing Science and Technology, 3 (2010) 90–97
• Ball, P., Evans, S., Levers, A. and Ellison, D. (2009), Zero carbon manufacturing facility – towards integrating material, energy, and waste process flows, Proceedings Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part B, J Engineering Manufacture, v223 (B9), 1085-1096.
• Abdul Rashid, S.H. Evans, S. & Longhurst, P. (2008). A comparison of four sustainable manufacturing strategies. International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 3, September 2008, 214–229
• Evans S , Partidario,P and Lambert,J. (2007).Industrialization as a key element of sustainable product-service solutions. International Journal of Production Research, v45, n18, September 2007, pp4225-4246.
• Partidario,P, Lambert,J. and Evans S. (2007). Building more sustainable solutions in production-consumption systems: the case of food for people with reduced access. Journal of Cleaner Production, v15 (2007), pp513-524.
• Evans, S. (2002). Cogent – implementing a successful vehicle manufacturer/supplier co-development initiative, Journal of Materials and Manufacturing (SAE Transactions), v111, p 204.
• Burns, A. and Evans, S. (2002), Empathic Design - a new approach for understanding and delighting customers. International Journal of New Product Development and Innovation Management, v3 n4, Dec/Jan 2002, pp. 313-327.

Recent activities

• Principal investigator on TSB THERM energy & manufacturing waste re-use modeling project
• Lead Author on the SIS sustainable industrial system paper
• Principal Investigator on EPSRC sustainable engineering projects
• Principal Investigator on leading Product-Service Systems project
• Specialist Adviser to the House of Lords inquiry into Waste Reduction
• Member of the Board of the Centre for Sustainable Engineering
• Advisor to the Carbon Connect inquiry into environmental technology
• Partner in RiverSimple: open-source Hydrogen fuel cell powered future transport
• Member of Conservative Party Waste Commission
• ‘Sustainability Champion’ for Minister for Skills

Collaborators include

• Airbus UK
• Jaguar/Land Rover
• Brompton Cycles
• Morgan Motor Company
• The city of Porto
• Nissan Technology Centre – Europe
• Electrolux
• Vitsoe
• Toyota UK.