Chris West

Senior Research Fellow 
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
University of York

chris.west@york.ac.uk 

Biography

I am a Senior Research Fellow and lead SEI York’s Sustainable Consumption and Production group. I have a multidisciplinary background encompassing environmental science, ecology, mathematics and economics. My current research focuses on the role of commodity trade and supply chains in driving environmental change, where I have a particular interest in effects on biodiversity and tropical deforestation. I sit on the LCAB Research Strategy Group. The Centre provides a unique platform to combine my knowledge of the socio-economic drivers of impact occurring via these complex trade pathways with interdisciplinary expertise on how to conceptualise and measure biodiversity losses and gains and their resultant consequences for sustainable development.

Research

At SEI, I have led and contributed to a number of projects developing an understanding of the links between international supply chain and environmental impact and risk, which includes the development of SEI’s hybrid multi-regional input output model (IOTA) and material flow platform (Trase). Aside from working on the Leverhulme Centre, my other projects include the IKnowFood project which focuses on UK food resilience, the H2020 Cascades project which is investigating the links between overseas climate risk and their connection to Europe, and the UKRI GCRF Trade, Development and the Environment Hub which is aiming to address the intractable challenge of trade as a driver of negative biodiversity and social impacts. I engage actively (including via workshops and other face-to-face activities) with policy, business and third-sector practitioners in the development of this work.

Publication Highlights 

Green, JMH, Croft, S, Durán, AP, Balmford, A, Burgess, N, Fick, S, Gardner, T, Godar, J, Suavet, C, Virah-Sawmy, M, Young, L & West, CD 2019, Linking global drivers of agricultural trade to on-the-ground impacts on biodiversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 

Gardner, TA, Benzie, M, Börner, J, Dawkins, E, Fick, S, Garrett, CR, Godar, J, Grimard, A, Lake, S, Larsen, RK, Mardas, N, McDermott, CL, Meyfroidt, P, Osbeck, M, Persson, CM, Sembres, T, Suavet, C, Strassburg, BBN, Trevisan, A, West, C & Wolvekamp, P 2019, Transparency and sustainability in global commodity supply chains. World Development , vol. 121, 121, pp. 163-177. 

Virah-Sawmy, M, P. Durán, A, Green, JMH, M. Guerrero, A, Biggs, D & West, CD 2019, Sustainability gridlock in a global agricultural commodity chain: Reframing the soy–meat food system. Sustainable Production and Consumption, vol. 18, pp. 210-223. 

Croft, S, West, CD & Green, JMH 2018, Capturing the heterogeneity of sub-national production in global trade flows. Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 203, pp. 1106-1118. 

Trase 2018, Trase Yearbook 2018: Sustainability in forest-risk supply chains: Spotlight on Brazilian soy. Stockholm Environment Institute.

Funders

• CASCADES - Climate chAnge and SytemiC risks: ADaptive and resilient Europe
  West, C. D., Croft, S. & Heron, T. 
  European Commission
• GCRF TRADE Hub 
  West, C. D., Croft, S. & Green, J. M. H.  
  Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• IKnowFood
  Doherty, B., Ensor, J., Heron, T., Howley, P., Petrie, H., Pickett, K. & West, C. D. 
  Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)

Find out more about Chris' work