UON researcher creates impact in new Government briefing

The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) last week (10 June) published a briefing note about Regulating Product Sustainability, drawing on research and expert insights from the University of Northampton’s Professor Haithan Askar.

POST is the UK Parliament’s in-house knowledge exchange office, which works with academics, researchers, policymakers, and third sector organisations to ensure that parliamentarians have the latest and best available evidence on a range of topics.

These briefing notes are designed to give a non-expert reader an overview of a topic and relevant policy issues and their implications. In this POSTnote, Professor Haithan Askar shared his research around the challenges associated with products design, production, regulation, and supporting business models, as part of the circular economy.

Speaking about his involvement with the POSTnote, Professor Haithan Askar, from the Faculty of Arts Science and Technology, said “It was a fantastic experience to be a part of this POSTnote exploring product sustainability. Products can, and should, be designed to maximise life cycle energy- and resource efficiency.

“There is a big education piece that business and government must embrace to support consumers to shift their opinions and drive demand for sustainable products. Already we’re seeing an increasing number of looking to reduce waste and turn their supply chain operations into a circular economy. This is a fantastic step towards reaching climate, resource, and social responsibility goals, but more businesses must take up this task too.

“Policymakers need to be able to be clear on the concepts, challenges, and opportunities, which this POSTnote will support them to do. Then they can use their influence to enable legislation to support companies to adopt this business model, to move beyond sustainability and corporate social responsibility as policy and embrace the financial benefits of circular business models.”

Within the POSTnote key aspects of, and consumer attitudes towards, sustainable products, and the ‘End-of-life’ treatment and value recovery, through reuse, recycling, and other methods.

Read the full POSTnote here.