Rate My Professor Zoe Robinson

Professor Zoe Robinson is a Professor of Sustainability in Higher Education at Keele University’s School of Life Sciences. A Keele alumna, she holds a BSc in Geography and Geology and a PhD in the Geochemistry and Behaviour in Glacial Groundwater Systems from the university. After a brief period in environmental consultancy, she joined Keele in 2004 as a Lecturer, advancing to Senior Lecturer, Reader in Physical Geography, Environmental Science, and Sustainability, before her current professorial role. She served as University Director of Education for Sustainability for ten years, spearheading the integration of sustainability into the curriculum and student experience, and as Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures for three years, fostering transdisciplinary research addressing real-world sustainability challenges.

With over 20 years as a sustainability scientist spanning natural and social sciences, Professor Robinson’s research adopts a transdisciplinary lens on sustainability transformations. Her current foci include place-based decarbonisation via socio-technical approaches and community-centric design for equitable energy transitions, alongside sustainability skills such as net zero supply chains, climate action plans via Climate Ambassadors, and a ‘pedagogy of listening’ for transdisciplinarity. Earlier scholarship explored educational strategies for sustainability, including student attitudes to environmental citizenship, climate change pedagogies, and the evolution of sustainability as a discipline; community energy use and fuel poverty interventions; and glacial groundwater and proglacial ecosystems. She has garnered prestigious accolades, including the National Teaching Fellowship in 2012 for her expertise in education for sustainability and employability, Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2015 for institutional leadership, shortlisting as Times Higher Education Most Innovative Teacher of the Year in 2019, and Ofsted Outstanding ratings for her Net Zero and Place-based Decarbonisation skills bootcamps in 2023. Professor Robinson co-chairs the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Climate and Nature Commission and the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges, leads the West Midlands Hub for the Department for Education’s Climate Ambassadors programme, and has secured funding from NERC, ESRC, EPSRC, Defra, and others for her impactful work.