Horrace Herring Visiting Research Fellow, Environment & Energy Research Unit, The Design Group, The Open University

Horace Herring has had a varied 30-year career in energy efficiency studies, working in the UK, USA and Fiji for government, academic, NGO and private organizations. He likes interdisciplinary studies and is keen on environmental history. For the last 20 years he has been a freelance writer, editor and researcher, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Open University, UK.

After a BSc degree in ‘Engineering and Social Studies’ from Sussex University, he went to the USA to do an (unfinished) masters in ‘Technology and Human Affairs’. He then worked at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, University of California on US appliance and building standards. He then had a very enjoyable job as Energy Manager for the Government of Fiji. On returning to the UK he worked in the Chief Scientist’s office at UKAEA, Harwell on energy efficiency in the domestic and commercial sectors. He then joined the privatized electricity company, PowerGen, as a business analyst and electricity forecaster.

Since joining the Open University, he has contributed to their energy courses and to their research projects on energy use in non-domestic buildings, and consumer attitudes to energy efficiency and renewable energy. He has published numerous papers, and co-edited a leading textbook ‘Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Consumption’, on the ‘rebound effect’ in energy efficiency policies. His current interests are on the feasibility of sustainable consumption and low-carbon communities, and his latest book is entitled ‘Living in a Low Carbon Society’.