Dr Martin Burgess

Martin is in his second spell at the ECI. He works at the Climate Leadership Research Centre, investigating leadership for climate action. This looks firstly to find common traits between existing leaders of climate action and secondly to run interventions with groups of other influential climate-concerned figures, exploring how concern can be turned into more widespread discussion and action by both influencers and the influenced. The ultimate aim of the project is to understand how to create more 'everyday climate leaders' and facilitate climate discussions as routine rather than socially taboo.

Between ECI roles Martin set up CarClimatePledge.org, a non-profit promoting the driving of smaller cars. Cars, including EV’s, are steadily getting larger and CarClimatePledge.org makes professionally designed, attractive car window stickers highlighting to friends, colleagues and passers-by that the driver has deliberately chosen to drive a smaller car for climate (or other) reasons. CarClimatePledge.org is a real-world experiment in encouraging behaviour change.

Previously Martin worked at ECI on CircEUlar, a European project across 10 Universities in six different countries, led by Dr Volker Krey at IIASA in Vienna. In 2026 this will forecast total GHG emissions across Europe to 2050 based on flows of materials across buildings, industry and mobility. He worked on digitalisation in the building industry to understand how digital technologies are likely to reduce the embodied or operational carbon of buildings through to 2050.  

Martin has also completed a study about whether digital technologies can significantly influence the quality of recycling of plastics, steel and aluminium to reduce downcycling of these materials, consequently reducing the need to mine virgin metal and its sizeable associated emissions. 
Prior to this he worked for the University of Manchester on plastics recycling in the UK: specifically, on the changes required to systems to improve the rate of packaging recycling. The project worked from a premise that the rate would only improve if the public throws all plastics into one bin, implying that systems must sort the resulting mix. The project is best known by its moniker "One Bin to Rule Them All".

After switching careers, Martin completed his PhD (The Implementation of Personal Carbon Accounts in the UK) in Aberystwyth in 2019. He was an accountant and Finance Director in businesses for decades before deciding to do something more stimulating!