Jayne Cox

Jayne is one of the founding directors of Brook Lyndhurst and has been a commercial consultant for over 20 years. She leads our work on waste and resources and is heavily involved in Brook Lyndhurst’s environmental behaviour change work – both our thinking on how to apply the theory and the evaluation of behaviour change programmes.

Much of Jayne’s early career was spent analysing consumer and economic trends in the UK and undertaking feasiblity studies for commercial property investors. She continues to apply these quantitative skills in Brook Lyndhurst’s work but is equally comfortable with qualitative social research and desk review.

Jayne has an honours degree in Geography and a post-graduate Diploma in Economics, both from Cambridge University. She is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Resource Recovery Forum and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA).

Jayne is involved in Brook Lyndhurst projects across the whole range of our business, from climate change to lifestyles, from food to waste and resources. Particular areas of expertise and interest are:

Waste, recycling and resources
Jayne led a groundbreaking study on waste behaviour back in 2001 which helped change the way we think about the public’s relationship with recycling, cited in the Cabinet Office review on waste and feeding into the early development of WRAP’s Recycle Now campaign. More recently she has been involved in the development of WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign, including extensive qualitative consumer research on food waste attitudes and habits. Other recent projects (both for Defra) include consumer research on food waste collections, involving over 4,000 interviews and 12 focus groups; and a large-scale desk review which consolidates the evidence base on household waste prevention.

Evaluation of behaviour change and sustainable consumption
Jayne led our three year evaluation of Defra’s Environmental Action Fund which sought to assess how far the 35 funded projects had managed to deliver sustainable consumption in their communities, and to draw out lessons for other behaviour change initiatives, including Defra’s Greener Living Fund. She is currently leading our evaluation of Nesta’s Big Green Challenge, in which Nesta is supporting ten community groups while they compete for a £1 million prize by reducing CO₂ emissions in their communities.

Communities and sustainable living
Jayne helped Hampshire County Council to devise, deliver, then evaluate its Small Changes Big Difference project which worked with local groups (retired people, new parents, schools and office workers) to support individuals to live more sustainably over a period of six to twelve months. She also led our evidence review for Defra on community-based waste and recycling projects, which combined desk review and survey research.

Social change and lifestyles
Jayne continues to have a strong interest in social change and how this fits with a move towards sustainable living. She was involved in Brook Lyndhurst’s work on lifestyle scenarios for the Defra Waste and Resources Evidence Programme, leading the analysis of historic trends; and she led a large study in 2004 into the implications of an ageing society for the social and physical fabric of towns and cities.

Data and modelling
Many Brook Lyndhurst projects involve the analysis of large data sets and Jayne brings her previous quantitative experience to bear here, ranging from analysis of large consumer surveys to development of performance metrics (for campaign and programme evaluation), to waste forecasting (for Project Integra/Hampshire County Council).