Sustainable development expert appointed as enterprise chair

Gordon Hudson, a technical director at Mott MacDonald is based in the company’s Newcastle office, where he is responsible for developing sustainable building services solutions for the public and private sectors, as well as co-ordinating the Group’s sustainability work across its operations in buildings and infrastructure.

A recognised international expert in sustainable development, he will now bring his wealth of expertise and experience to a new role, which will help drive forward excellence and promote knowledge exchange in this important area of the built environment.

He will join Northumbria University’s School of the Built Environment, working one day per week in the new role of Enterprise Chair in Sustainability, which has been sponsored by Mott MacDonald.

Gordon believes the move will have direct benefits for research, teaching and practice.  He said: "Sustainable development is complex and multi-faceted and I believe we have a fantastic opportunity to take a holistic approach to identifying and offering potential solutions to some of the energy and resource problems which have emerged and evolved over the past few decades."

He will continue to devote four days per week to his role in industry and believes the opportunity for real knowledge transfer is crucial to the future of sustainable development. 

He added: "This is an exciting opportunity to bring industry and academia together, in a mutually beneficial working partnership, which has the potential to directly impact on the way sustainability issues are ingrained in our planning, construction and development both now and in the future.  

"One of the key challenges facing planners and architects, as well as construction, engineering and design experts is to ensure the buildings we design and build are the most efficient in energy use and that they meet the aesthetic and functional needs of the people who use them."

Built Environment students at Northumbria University will now have access to real challenges in construction and development across the globe, thanks to this important business and university partnership and Mott MacDonald will benefit from access to experts in the School of the Built Environment and from across the University as a whole.

Steve Hodgson, Dean of the School of the Built Environment at Northumbria University, says: "Gordon is a recognised authority on sustainable development and he will work closely with our Sustainable Cities Research Institute.

"In the role of Enterprise Chair, Gordon will be responsible for initiating and developing research and enterprise proposals for industry, ensuring top level knowledge exchange which will inform and benefit both industry and our research and teaching activity."

Gordon is Chief Examiner for the Engineering Council and has acted as a Visiting Research Fellow to Northumbria’s School of the Built Environment.  He has worked on a variety of high profile projects in the UK and around the world, including schools design for the Scottish Government and developing an environmental assessment tool for the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency.

Northumbria University’s School of the Built Environment is one of the UK’s major providers of higher education in the design, development, construction and management of all aspects of the built environment.  It offers full and part-time undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as distance learning at Masters level and a range of CPD programmes.

It also has a growing reputation for research and consultancy, applying its work to serve the needs of industry, business, the professions and communities and ensuring that its teaching, learning and research are fully integrated.