Environmentally Just AI: Examining AI’s environmental impacts through environmental social science

---

How we understand the environmental impacts of AI, and how we choose to respond (or not) to those impacts, are fundamentally social issues. That is why social science perspectives/methods are crucial to addressing AI’s environmental impacts.   

An ACCESS project on Environmentally Just AI: Examining AI’s environmental impacts through environmental social science starts in October 2025.  

 

The project aims to: 

Examine the environmental impacts of AI through a social-science lens, providing a holistic understanding of the problem and making policy recommendations to address these impacts in a way that is environmentally and socially just.  

 

Project outputs will include:    

1. A rapid evidence review of social science research on AI environmental impacts, and how Just Transition literature can provide frameworks to inform AI development and governance. 
    
2. A short report that defines the problem and provides a set of recommendations and recognition of the conditions needed to develop effective policy in this area. 
    
3. A knowledge co-production workshop to interrogate the findings and shape the project outputs including the report, guidance and graphic. 
    
4. A short guidance document for policymakers, firms and other organisations on how to think about and address the problem. 
    
5. A visual design or graphic to help with communicating the findings.  

   

Core research team 

This project is led by Prof. Sarah Hartley (ACCESS Leadership Team, University of Exeter), with a team comprising: 

• Prof. Patrick Devine Wright (ACCESS Director, University of Exeter)  

• Dr Emily Robinson (University of Exeter)  

• Dr Ernesto Schwartz Marin (University of Exeter) 

• Prof. Stewart Barr (ACCESS Leadership Team, University of Exeter)  

• Prof. Karen Anderson (University of Exeter) 

• Rory Murphy (University of Exeter)

 

Knowledge Co-Production Committee 

A broader knowledge co-production (KCP) committee will advise the project team quarterly and attend a KCP workshop. This committee will comprise colleagues from: 

• The British Academy 

• Economic and Social Research Council 

• Royal Society for the Protection of Birds 

• The Environment Agency 

• Government Office for Science 

 

The Environmental Social Science in Interdisciplinary Working project will run from October 2025 to September 2026.
 

For more information about the project, please contact: ACCESS_admin@exeter.ac.uk