Current Chairs and Board Members

The board of the ERSCP Society is elected for three years. Since May 2024, a new Board has been elected (see list of past board members here).

Current board members are:

Dr Frieder Rubik (Chair)

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Frieder Rubik is a senior researcher at the German Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) in the “Business, Value Chains and Consumption” division. He studied national economics at the University of Heidelberg in the late 1970s and hold a doctorate degree from the University of Kassel, Germany. Before he worked at the Öko‐Institut in Freiburg/Breisgau and at the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) in Bonn (under Ernst von Weizsäcker). His key areas of research are circular economy, Integrated Product Policy, sustainable consumption and production patterns, as well as innovation. His professional activities focus on international and German projects, funded for instance by the European Commission, UNEP and the German government. As chair of the ERSCP Society, he is committed to strengthen networks among different communities aiming at a transformative shift of our societies and economies towards sustainability. He is member of the ERSCP board since 2017 and chairs the board since 2024.

Dr Sylvia Lorek (Vice Chair)

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Sylvia Lorek is a researcher and policy consultant on sustainable consumption governance at the Sustainable Europe Research Institute (SERI) in Germany. Her work focuses on the intersection of microeconomics and macroeconomics in charting a path toward a good life for all. Previously, she was at the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. She is an organizing member of the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative (SCORAI) in Europe and is on the steering committee of the Sustainable Consumption and Production Knowledge-Action Network within Future Earth. She holds a PhD in consumer economics from the University of Helsinki.

Dr Annelise de Jong (Treasurer)

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Annelise de Jong is a senior researcher at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Sweden since 2019, where she has been working on sustainable consumption and circular processes, and the role of design. She is affiliated at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Built Environment since 2023, and works closely with the KTH Food center. Previously she was teaching at Delft University of Technology, department of Industrial Design Engineering where she obtained her PhD in 2002 and in Sweden at RISE working with interaction design, prevention of waste, and resource usage. Current projects range from participatory processes for sustainable transition in society, to implementation and scale-up of circular household practices at EU level. She participated as member of the scientific committee of international conferences and has been involved in the planning of four ERSCP conferences. Her work has been published in international journals and conferences. She is member of the ERSCP board since 2016, as General Secretary from 2020-2022, and from 2024 she holds the position of Treasurer.

Dr Thomas Budde Christensen

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Thomas Budde Christensen is an associate professor at Roskilde University, Denmark working in the field of circular economy with special emphasis on research in sustainable consumption and production systems. His research is focusing on policy, strategies and planning in the intersection between energy, resources and waste. He is head of the research group TRANSITIONS – Sustainability Transitions and Environmental Planning. His background is in social sciences but he has also been working with more technical aspects of closed-loop production and consumption systems targeting plastic waste, construction and demolition waste and biowaste. He gained experience from working in +20 research and development projects and have participated in several in large multi-stakeholder EU funded project. He participated in the planning of five international research conferences as member of scientific committees. As part of the ERSPC board, he brings in research-based knowledge and a capacity to organize and build international research networks across industry and academia.

Dr Mária Csutora

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Mária Csutora is a full professor of sustainability management at Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary. She has been holding the positions of the Director of the Ecological Indicators Research Centre and the Director of the Sustainability Management PhD program. Her academic focus encompasses subjects such as Sustainable Business Models, Sustainability Management, and Sustainable Consumption. Her current research projects focus on business models that address planned obsolescence and affordable durable products, as well as inclusive carbon transition policies targeted at low-medium income families. Her academic contributions include coediting two special issues in the Journal of Cleaner Production and publishing papers in esteemed journals like Ecological Economics, Sustainable Development, Journal of Consumer Policy, and Climate Policy. Her engagement with ERSCP activities dates back to 1998, being on the organizing committee for the 6th ERSCP, which took place in Budapest in 1999. She is also a longstanding active member of the SCORAI network where she has organized two international Sustainable Consumption Conferences in Budapest (2009 and 2011), attracting prominent members from the ERSCP-SCORAI network.

Dr Edurne Iñigo

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Edurne Iñigo is an associate professor of marketing at Deusto Business School in San Sebastian, Spain. Her research interest lies in just transitions to sustainability, with a focus on how businesses can contribute to those transitions through innovation. She has participated in several national and international projects concerning sustainability-oriented and responsible innovation. Her work has been published in leading journals. She served as early career member of the ERSCP. Her aims at the ERSCP is to help the Society gain visibility and to further promote sustainable consumption and production practices among businesses and other stakeholders.

Dr Heidi Simone Kristensen (Early Career Member)

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Heidi Simone Kristensen is an assistant professor at the Department of Sustainability and Planning at Aalborg University, Denmark. Her Ph.D. focused on developing a systemic perspective on sustainable business development and circular economy in the furniture industry. She has worked with different aspects of sustainable consumption and production, including circular business models, management systems, green and circular public procurement, and integrating sustainability into educations to ensure sustainability competences of future generations. Within the ERSCP Society, she is committed to advance collaboration with stakeholders to develop new solutions and practices. She has been an early career member since 2021 and a regular member since 2024.

Dr Michael Martin

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Michael Martin is a Senior Researcher at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Production and Consumption Systems at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Systems Analysis and Environmental Management, which focused on approaches to quantify the environmental and economic benefits of industrial symbiosis and circular based production in the bio-based sector using LCA from Linköping University in 2013. His expertise and current work include quantitative and qualitative research methods applied to understanding the implications of sustainable consumption through the use of sustainability assessments. His research also specializes in how sustainability assessment information can be improved by and perceived through stakeholder dialogue and the politics of life cycle assessment. He also extensively focuses on sustainable food systems where he leads the Sustainable Urban Food Lab (SUF-Lab) at IVL and KTH researching to optimize the resource efficiency and sustainability of urban and controlled environmental agricultural systems.

Dr Cristina Rocha (Secretary)

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Cristina is a senior researcher at LNEG – National Laboratory of Energy and Geology, where she serves as the Deputy Head of the Resource Economics Research Unit and coordinator of the Circular Economy and Life Cycle Management for Sustainability research area. She holds a PhD in Environment and Sustainability, an MSc in Sanitary Engineering and a BSc in Environmental Engineering. Cristina has more than 30 years of experience in preventive environmental management, life cycle management, social responsibility, design for sustainability and circular economy. She has been coordinating numerous national and international projects and authored several publications in these fields. From 1998 to 1999 she was an invited researcher at the Design for Sustainability Program at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. She was a guest lecturer at the Instituto Superior Técnico (Environmental Management discipline, 2004-2011) and the Estoril Higher School of Hospitality and Tourism (Ethics and Social Responsibility of Organizations, 2006-2007). Her training and experience combine the areas of environmental sustainability and social sustainability, geared towards the sustainable design of products, services and business models with a lifecycle and systemic perspective. She is particularly interested in researching these topics with a strong sustainability view.

Dr Elisabeth Süßbauer

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Elisabeth Süßbauer is an environmental sociologist and currently works at the Center for Technology and Society at Technische Universität Berlin, Germany. She is co-head of the cross-sectional research area ‘Sustainability’ and head of the interdisciplinary junior research group ‘PuR – Systemic solutions for avoiding packaging’. Besides, she is a lecturer in environmental sociology at Munich University of Applied Sciences and Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Her research focuses on sustainable practices of production and consumption, transformation of organizations and cities, participatory innovation processes, and inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches. As part of the ERSCP board, she is committed to foster the dialogue between different disciplines and practitioners in order to solve socio-ecological problems. She brings in experiences as a coordinator of inter- and transdisciplinary processes, for example in the context of integrated workshops, conferences and publications.

Dr Aida Szilagyi

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Aida Szilagyi is the Chair and Founder of the National Centre for Sustainable Production and Consumption (NCSPC) in Romania, where she leads numerous initiatives and projects promoting sustainable industrial development since 2010. With over 25 years of professional experience, Aida Szilagyi is a recognized as an expert in environmental management, resource efficiency, and sustainable industrial practices. She has a PhD in industrial eco-efficiency from the Polytechnic University of Timisoara, where she is acts as Associate Teacher for the Green and Circular Economy Master Program. Under her leadership, NCSPC has held the role of the Executive Member of the international networks RECP Net and Secretariat of PREPARE, further enhancing Romania’s position in the global dialogue on sustainability.