dr. MF (Mary) Greene

Mary Greene is an Assistant Professor at the Environmental Policy Group at Wageningen University & Research. Her research focuses on the social and everyday dynamics of sustainability transitions, with particular attention to the social and institutional dimensions of circular economy and sustainable consumption.

She investigates how circular practices such as repair, reuse, sharing and low-impact living become embedded in everyday life, and how they move from small-scale initiatives to broader systemic change. Her work examines the governance, infrastructures and intermediary actors (e.g. municipalities, civic organisations, social enterprises) that enable circular consumption transformations at everyday urban and regional levels.

Mary is particularly interested in the social conditions that support mainstreaming circular solutions, including citizen engagement, social justice, and the development of new skills, enterprises and public infrastructures. Her research contributes to debates on scaling sustainability transitions, living labs and real-world experimentation, and the role of consumption in systems change.

She currently leads the 1.5million budget NWO KIC project ShaRepair Practices, in collaboration with the Amsterdam Metropolitan Institute, TU Delft and Groningen University and societal partners, which explores the scaling and institutionalisation of circular consumption practices in urban contexts.

Methodologically, Mary works with interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary co-creative, participatory and comparative approaches, often collaborating with municipalities, buisnesses and civil society actors in real-world experimental and Living Lab settings.

Mary holds a Master’s degree in Environment, Politics and Society from University College London and a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Galway. Originally from Galway in the west of Ireland, she moved to Wageningen in 2019.

Mary serves on the editorial advisory board of the Journal Consumption & Society and the board of the European Sociological Association's Sociology of Consumption Research Group. She also sits on the executive board of the Sustainable Consumption Research and Action Initiative's European branch (SCORAI EUROPE) and is an active member of the Future Earth Knowledge-Action Network on Systems of Sustainable Production and Consumption. 

If you’re interested in finding out more or would like to start a conversation or explore opportunities to collaborate together please feel free to contact Mary at mary.greene@wur.nl.