Dr Saul Jones is the Lead Researcher in Industrial Energy and Material Sustainability at the Centre for Industrial Sustainability in the Institute for Manufacturing.

His background is as an experimental physicist working on developing new high efficiency energy materials, but he has moved into a more impact-facing research role to work on using experimental and analytic approaches in industrial settings to accelerate the scope, pace, and scale of the global Industrial Sustainability transition.

His research focuses on identifying opportunities for large scale changes in energy and material use in the manufacturing sector within what is currently possible, and his research includes the development of toolkits which use existing data sets to identify opportunities.

There is currently a common assumption that “improvement requires novelty”, with content like new materials, software, technology, legislation, or business models being seen as the primary enablers of positive change.

Given the rapid pace of change and innovation and change in the last 50 years, we are actually nowhere near delivering on what is already possible, and we find that the category of opportunities are systematically underestimated in complex systems.

This blind spot is hiding opportunities to accelerate the global industrial transition towards cleaner, more efficient, more productive, more profitable, and more sustainable production practices, and he studies how to help companies identify and prioritise these.

His research aims to support change across different parts of the manufacturing sector both industrially and geographically, and he has worked with industries including agriculture, the garment sector, automotive, construction, plastics, and foundation industries, working with and visiting sites in Kenya, Malawi, Sweden, Portugal, France, Austria, Italy, Canada, and across the UK.

The impact from these projects applying the principles of “identifying change within the possible” has already removed over 100,000 tons of CO2 emissions per annum, and delivered reductions in impact categories spanning fuel use, electricity, water, material use, and waste.

Beyond individual companies, Saul is working to incorporate these opportunities for improvement hidden within existing data into the next generation of material certification and building codes by working with certifiers to review and support reform in the global use of reinforcing steel.

Alongside his industrial research, he works with the UK Government both with the Department for Transport and UKRI to advise on integration of these insights into UK strategy, policy, and practice.

He has lectured on Industrial Sustainability for the ISMM Masters course at the IfM, and CISL’s Postgraduate Programmes.

Saul has also worked with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, IfM Engage, Cambridge Enterprise, and is the director of Cavendish Sustainability ltd.

Beyond his work at the IfM, Saul holds a second Research Associate position in the Civil Engineering Division of the Engineering Department where he studies how to translate best practices for sustainable production in the manufacturing sector into construction and infrastructure projects.