Sara Giorgi

Sara joined Brook Lyndhurst in June 2006 after working on environmental campaigns and research in the public and charity sectors. Since joining Brook Lyndhurst she has expanded her research skills and interests to include the following:

Behaviour change
Sara is particularly interested in behaviour change theory and how it translates into practice. She has worked on a number of projects that have explored pro-environmental behaviour change at the level of individuals and community groups (e.g. Delivering regeneration through environmental improvements for the Environment Agency and Evaluation of Big Green Challenge for National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts - NESTA).

Waste and resources
Sara has been involved in a number of multi-partner studies exploring different aspects of waste. These have included a project investigating participation in kitchen waste collections, a major synthesis review on household waste prevention and a study which established the behaviour change evidence base to inform community-based waste prevention and recycling, all for Defra.

Climate change and energy
Sara led the scenarios work for the Royal Instituted for Chartered Surveyors (RICS), exploring different ways in which UK cities need to adapt and change in order to deliver carbon reduction targets. She has also managed a large qualitative study investigating public understanding of the links between food, energy and climate change and ran a formative evaluation of NESTA's Big Green Challenge - a £1m prize fund to inspire innovative approaches to carbon reduction among community groups. She also has an interest in the links between energy and the built environment and has done some work on this for RICS ('UK energy and the built environment: A fact sheet) and for Quintain ('Strategic sustainability support).

Research skills
Sara enjoys both qualitative and quantitative research. For example, she has done SPSS number crunching (e.g. Enhancing participation in kitchen waste collections) and has extensive experience in qualitative research. Her skills include discussion group facilitation and design, case-study/site visits and in-depth interviews with community groups, participants and policy stakeholders (e.g. WRAP's Local authority use of the Recycle Now brand) . Sara has also led the research on several desk reviews of academic and grey literature (e.g. our scenario work for RICS and synthesis review on waste prevention for Defra).

Outside of her project work, Sara is responsible for Brook Lyndhurst’s own carbon monitoring and sustainability reporting and sits on the Environmental Justice Pan-London Policy and Practice Group.

Prior to joining Brook Lyndhurst Sara undertook research and campaign work for the Italian Ministry of Agricultural and Forestry Policies and Friends of the Earth. She has a Masters degree in Environmental Policy, Planning and Regulation from London School of Economics and an undergraduate degree in European Social and Political Studies from University College of London for which she was awarded a distinction.

In addition to her passion for sustainability issues, Sara has a strong interest in languages and speaks Italian, French and Spanish. She also thoroughly enjoys Latin and jazz dancing as well as swimming.