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RESOLVE
Resolve is based at the University of Surrey, Guildford and is an academic research group. What is your broad area of expertise? Sustainable consumption and production; socio-cultural aspects of lifestyles; psychological factors that shape consumer choices in relation to energy consumption; energy-economic accounting and energy lifestyle mapping; energy policy and governance; community based carbon reduction.
Our inter-disciplinary research programme is arranged around six thematic research strands: Carbon Footprinting: developing the tools to find out which bits of people's lifestyles and practices generate how much energy consumption (and carbon emissions). Psychology of Energy Behaviours: concentrating on the social psychological influences on energy-related behaviours, including the role of identity, and testing interventions aimed at change. Sociology of Lifestyles: focusing on the sociological aspects of lifestyles and the possibilities of lifestyle change, exploring the role of values and the creation and maintenance of meaning. Household change over time: working with individual households to understand how they respond to the demands of climate change and negotiate new, low-carbon lifestyles and practices. Lifestyle Scenarios: exploring the potential for reducing the energy consumption (and carbon emissions) associated with a variety of lifestyle scenarios over the next two to three decades. Energy/Carbon Governance: reviewing the implications of a low carbon society for governance, and investigating, in particular, the role of community in stimulating long-term lifestyle change.
What aspect of your work with relevance to the food-climate change issue would you like to feature? Our carbon footprinting team is focusing on the development and application of a robust and pragmatic carbon and energy accounting framework capable of mapping both socio-economic and energy/carbon dimensions of people's lifestyles. The aim of this framework is to understand the empirical links between people's consumption patterns and their energy use and carbon emissions. Such an understanding is seen as important both to identify where the heaviest energy/carbon impacts lie and as the basis for setting policies to manage the transition to sustainable energy lifestyles. For this transition to be managed in a fashion which is equitable and efficient with the minimal disruption to people's lives, policy makers need to know:
The Research Group on Lifestyles, Values and the Environment (RESOLVE) was established in May 2006 and is funded by the ESRC for five years under the research council's energy programme. The m ain aim of RESOLVE is to unravel the complex links between lifestyles, values and the environment, providing robust, evidence-based advice to policy-makers in the UK and elsewhere who are seeking to understand and to influence the behaviours and practices of 'energy consumers'. The interdisciplinary nature of RESOLVE is one of our core strengths: involving four internationally acclaimed departments in the University: the Centre for Environmental Strategy, the Surrey Energy Economics Centre, the Environmental Psychology Research Group and the Department of Sociology. Our work programme fully reflects this interdisciplinarity. What do you see as the big questions for the food climate research community at the moment? To explore and provide recommendations with regard to responsibility on the issue of energy and carbon associated with the production, distribution, purchasing and consumption of food.
What are the big questions you feel you are seeking to answer at the moment? The questions we are trying to address are embodied in our objectives. Specific objectives of RESOLVE are:
Is there any expertise you feel you lack and would you welcome help/collaboration with others? We are always looking to develop links with others, building on our strong policy connections and existing links with a range of national and international scientific bodies and research programmes.
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Give a range of the projects you are you currently working on:
Please describe the work in more detail - how it started, what stage it is at, who has/have been involved and their different roles. 
What are the milestones we might look out for?