Mike Berners-Lee

When he first started looking at business responses to climate change he thought he would be concentrating on change management but soon realised that this wasn’t possible without companies having access to fit-for purpose carbon assessments. So he started building his own models to fill the market gap, initially as a research collaboration with Lancaster University.

 

Mike is now known as a world-leading expert in carbon accounting. He and his team bring together deep experience of working with clients across nearly all industries, from telecoms, manufacturing, retail, construction and finance, to food, farming and protected landscapes.

He has been a pioneer of ‘hybrid’ carbon accounting methodologies to combine the top-down approach of input-output models with the bottom-up approach of product life cycle analysis, to yield results that are both specific and system-complete.

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In his first book, How Bad are Bananas? Mike measured the carbon emissions from all kinds of things, from a banana, a computer and a dishwasher, to an email and a flight across the Atlantic.

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The Burning Question, his second book, was co-written with Duncan Clark and explores the global system dynamics of climate change, including, emissions growth, rebound effects and the interventions that can and cannot lead to fossil fuel staying in the ground.

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His third book, There is No Planet B, sees climate breakdown as a symptom of an even bigger phenomena; humankind’s arrival in the Anthropocene and the multi-dimensional challenge arising from our inability so far to adapt to this new context. It outlines technical solutions to that challenge but goes further, exploring the underlying changes that are required for humans to thrive in a low-carbon and sustainable future. This is the approach that he and the Small World team take with the organisations they work with.

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As a passionate communicator, Mike has also been featured in TV documentaries, including ‘Horizon: Feast to Save the Planet’ on BBC 2 and ‘Climate Change – The Facts’ on BBC1 and numerous podcast episodes. He regularly writes for print and online media and does speaking events.

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As a professor at Lancaster University, his research has included carbon accounting methodologies, sustainable food systems and the climate impacts of ICT. Mike has a degree in physics from Oxford University, a PGCE in Physics and Outdoor Education from Bangor University and a masters in Organisation Development and Consulting from Sheffield Hallam University. 

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