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School for Cross-faculty Studies Global Sustainable Development

Sophie Kempston

Sophie Kempston

Contact details

Email: S dot Kempston at warwick dot ac dot uk

Current PhD student

Research

I am a first-year PhD student in Global Sustainable Development, and my research project is about measuring the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the UK's demand for critical raw materials as a result of increased electric vehicle battery demand. I am supervised by Dr Stuart Coles and Professor Kerry Kirwan from Warwick Manufacturing Group, and Dr Frederik Dahlmann from Warwick Business School. I am kindly funded by the Leverhulme Trust through the TRANSFORM Doctoral Programme.

My project will look at measuring impacts across the supply chain for electric vehicle batteries both now and in the future, focusing on materials that have been deemed 'critical'. I will be forecasting different scenarios for electric vehicle uptake and diffusion, and developing a framework to assess the impacts of these scenarios in terms of the three pillars of sustainability (social, economic, and environmental).

My wider research interests include: sustainable supply chains, circular economy, holistic sustainability frameworks, and how to measure sustainability.

Teaching

2021-2022:

Academic background

Funding and awards

2021-2025: TRANSFORM Doctoral Scholarship, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

2022: Circular Economy Network+ in Transportation Systems (CENTSLink opens in a new window) travel grant

Committee memberships and non-academic roles

I am currently on the GSD Postgraduate Student-Staff Liaison Committee. I am also the postgraduate SSLC representative on the SCFS Equity Committee.