Charlotte Lee-Woolf

Charlotte joined Brook Lyndhurst as a senior researcher in August 2010, from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), where she was a research manager in the Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) & Waste Unit. She is comfortable using a wide range of research techniques and has experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams and managing research to inform policy or sector strategies. Charlotte’s specialisms include:

Farming, food and climate change
Charlotte has a professional background in the farming and food industry, having worked previously for English Farming and Food Partnerships (EFFP) as a project manager, where she was involved in numerous projects relating to the sustainability of the UK agri-food sector. Whilst at EFFP, Charlotte also managed ‘Share to Farm’ – a national communications programme aimed at encouraging farmers to adopt more collaborative business models.

Previously, Charlotte has also undertaken research concerned improving the sustainability of food consumption. For example, she was involved in a project for WWF to devise strategies for reducing red meat and dairy consumption in the UK. She has also undertaken independent research, as part of her masters degree, to explore the role of community-based initiatives in delivering more sustainable patterns of food production and consumption.

Since joining Brook Lyndhurst Charlotte has been managing a three-year project, funded by the European Commission, to identify and characterise risk and benefit issues in the food system and consider the consequent implications for risk communicators.

Sustainable production and consumption
At Defra, Charlotte was responsible for managing a wide range of projects under the ‘sustainable products and services’ research theme, to inform policy within the SCP & Waste Unit. These projects spanned a variety of product categories and encompassed multi-disciplinary working across related policy areas, stakeholder engagement and dissemination of research.

Since joining Brook Lyndhurst, Charlotte has worked as part of the team undertaking a study on behalf of Defra, to understand the potential amongst consumers for reducing the environmental impact of products by extending their lifetimes.

Education
Charlotte has a masters degree in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London, for which she was awarded distinction. She also holds a bachelors degree in Geography from the University of Oxford.

Charlotte has also previously undertaken a volunteer research placement at the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), where she gained an international perspective to sustainability issues affecting agriculture and international supply chains.