University of Oxford

sarah.darby@ouce.ox.ac.uk

 

Sarah is deputy programme leader of the Lower Carbon Futures research team at the Environmental Change Institute. Her first degree was in Ecological Science from Edinburgh University. She joined the ECI in 1995 and gained her doctorate there, looking at social, behavioural and educational aspects of energy use and the effectiveness of energy advice programmes.

 

Her research interests centre on how people learn about energy and the environment and apply what they have learned, and on how technologies are adopted and adapted in everyday life. Sarah was a co-author of the ‘40% House’ report (2005), which set out to explore the feasibility of meeting UK carbon reduction targets in the housing sector. From 2007-10 she carried out research into domestic energy feedback in relation to the development of ‘smart metering’, and now she works mostly on proposed developments in electricity systems, and what these could mean for householders.