Peter Berrill is an industrial ecologist who seeks to understand and assess environmental impacts and opportunities for their reduction at multiple scales. His research focuses on buildings, transport, and energy sectors, and employs a variety of methods and tools including material flow and stock analysis, life cycle assessment, environmental input-output analysis, geospatial analysis, and machine learning and other statistical models.

More information about Peter Berrill

Professional experience

Prior to joining CML, Peter was a post-doctoral researcher at TU Berlin, where he was funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship to study the integrated analysis of energy and emissions from buildings and transport, considering their mutual dependence on urban form. He was a contributing author to the Buildings chapter of the IPCCs 6th Assessment Report. He has been an active member of the International Society of Industrial Ecology since 2016.

Peter obtained his Ph.D. from Yale School of the Environment, where his dissertation focused on decarbonization pathways for the residential sector in the US. Before his doctoral studies he earned a M.Sc in the Erasmus Mundus Master of Industrial Ecology (MIND), which enabled him to study in TU Delft and Leiden University, Waseda University (Japan), and NTNU (Norway). He has a B.Eng. in Energy Systems Engineering from University of Galway in Ireland.

Research Topic

Peter's research focuses on anthropogenic resource use and contributions to climate change, primarily in the buildings, transport, and energy sectors. His broad methodological expertise enables selecting and combining approaches suitable for different research questions. Major themes in Peter’s research include:

1. Integrated analysis of energy and GHG emissions from buildings and transport sectors, based on their joint dependence on urban form
2. Analysing sources and drivers of energy demand and emissions, and prospective scenario modelling of decarbonisation pathways considering potential of sufficiency, efficiency, and renewable energy
3. Assessment of the role of long-lived capital assets in environmental footprints of consumption
4. Life cycle analysis of energy systems