Dr Caroline Verfuerth

(she/her)

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

Net Zero Transitioning: Redefining Assumptions Behind Access to Low-carbon Food in Resource-Constrained Communities (2024 - 2025) Co-PI (AFN network+ funded; £50,000) 

CAST: Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (2019 - 2028)  Co-I (since 2024; ESRC funded Research Centre; £1.5 million)

• What could low-carbon transformed futures look like? (2024-2028): Project 1.2: Developing a public engagement and visioning toolkit for deliberating sticky topics. Project 1.3: Embedding public perspectives and social science into policy-making. 
• Lead of Project 1.2 (2019-2024): Comparing visions of change across countries.
• Project  2.1 (2019-2021): Learning from government-led transformations. 

Welsh Government Behaviour Change Fellowship (2021-2023) PI (Welsh Government funded; £80,000). I provided advise and co-developed projects across multiple policy teams from a psychological perspective drawing on methods (e.g. visioning, survey design, use of qualitative methods) and research insights (e.g. public perceptions on climate change, diet change, material consumption). Close collaboration with the Food Policy team, Decarb Team, and Strategic Evidence Unit – linked reports & paper: Verfuerth et al., (2023); De Vito et al., (2023); Miller Research (2023). Completed.

Accessible Veg Project (2021-2022) PI (ESRC/ IAA & WWF/Food Sense Wales funded £19,000). Exploring the barriers and benefits to CSA memberships for low-income households.

Teaching

BST350 Marketing Fundamentals

BST352 Marketing Research

Biography

Since 2024 I am a lecturer in Marketing & Strategy at Cardiff University Business School. 

Prior, I worked as a Post-Doc, Research Fellow, and Knowledge Exchange Fellow in the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST; since 2019 ongoing) and with the Welsh Government (2021-2023).

In CAST I co-led work on cross-cultural visions of low-carbon futures in the UK, China, and Sweden. In visioning workshops we examined what low-carbon futures people find feasible and desirable. 

2015-2019 I completed my PhD at the University of Sheffield in which I investigated the effects of a meat reduction intervention in a workplace on employees’ pro-environmental behaviours at home. Using mixed methods approaches, my previous research centred around promoting sustainable lifestyles and behaviour change, with a particular focus on sustainable diets and identity.

Prior to my PhD, I completed a MSc in environmental psychology at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Germany, in 2015. During my postgraduate studies I worked as a research assistant with a focus on environmental psychology and behaviour change at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, the Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, and a research consultancy in Berlin.

I completed my undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Hamburg, Germany, in 2011. While completing my studies I worked as a student assistant in media psychology, media management, and market research at the University of Hamburg, the Hamburg Media School and in the private sector.

I was also a board member of the Psychology Initiative in Environmental Protection (IPU) in Germany, a Co-founder of the British Environmental Psychology Society, and an initiator of the Sustainability office at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg.

Speaking engagements

2023: “We need to put people at the heart of effective climate policies”, hosted by Environment Platform Wales.

2023: “A people-centred approach is needed to tackle climate change”, hosted by Prof Taciano Milfont at the Waikato University, New Zealand.

2023: “SYSTEMS MAPPING: a case study on Community Food”, talk to policy makers, Welsh Government.

2022: “Diet change in the workplace & at home: Key findings from a behaviour change intervention”, talk to policy makers, Welsh Government.

2022: “Diet & behaviour change: What are key drivers and lessons learned from ‘real-world’ behaviour change interventions?” Innovation Festival Newcastle, Northumbrian Water.

2021: “Transforming lifestyles: Food choices, changing behaviours, and spillover effects”, hosted by Dr Elena Sautkina, Higher School of Economics, Russia.

2021: Invited expert panellist on public engagement debate “Die Klimadebatte”, hosted by ‘Mehr Demokratie’ (YouTube life stream with 700+ live viewers; link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SlDz74hJRQ ).

2021: “What diet changes do people in the UK find desirable and feasible; and how can we facilitate these?”,  hosted by the UK Government Department of Agriculture & Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

2021: “How can we as a society live differently and better to achieve systemic, deep and rapid emission reductions?”, Hungary-CAST-Tyndall workshop hosted by MPs in Hungary.

2019: Youth Debate on the impact of lifestyles on Climate Change, with local schools at the National Museum Wales (Amgueddfa Cymru).