Tim Cooper is Professor of Sustainable Design and Consumption at Nottingham Trent University. After graduating from the University of Bath, he worked as an economist in the construction industry for over a decade before undertaking research at the New Economics Foundation, where he undertook research into the life-span of consumer durables. He was awarded a PhD from Sheffield Hallam University in 2001. He took up his present appointment in 2010.
His current research interests are multidisciplinary, embracing design, consumer behaviour, public policy and environmental ethics. He has a specialist research expertise in product longevity and manages the Research Network on Product Life Spans, which he launched with financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. He is Contributing Editor of Longer Lasting Products (Gower, 2010).
He has worked on several research projects funded by the European Commission in the field of sustainable consumption and has acted as research evaluator for the Research Council of Norway, the Irish Environmental Protection Agency and the Belgium Federal Science Policy Office. He was Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Environment Committee for its enquiry Reducing the Environmental Impact of Consumer Products.
Tim Cooper was Co-Founder of Christian Ecology Link in 1982 and remains a Trustee, having served as its Chairman for many years. His 1990 book Green Christianity (Hodder and Stoughton) was one of the first attempts to explore the ethics of sustainability in its widest sense from a Christian perspective. He has also produced a distance learning module (Sustaining the Earth) published by St John’s College, Nottingham.