The Research Team

Michael Martin, PhD is a Senior Researcher at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute in the Division for Life Cycle Management. Michael is also an Affiliated Researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Sciences and Engineering (SEED). Michael’s research focuses on the use, interpretation, and management of sustainability information across stakeholders. In addition, Michael has researched extensively on industrial symbiosis and circular systems applied to food and bio-based systems and their supply chains. Michael has worked with a number of urban farming systems in the past to understand how and where more sustainable choices can be made to improve their environmental performance and is a hobby hydroponic farmer in his spare-time.

Rebecka Milestad is an agronomist and researcher at the Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, KTH. She has a PhD in rural development from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) and a docentship in environmental strategies research from KTH. Her research is interdisciplinary and systems oriented, focusing on farm resilience, consumer-producer links, multifunctional agriculture, urban agriculture, and local organic food networks.

Annelise de Jong has expertise in Design and Sustainability issues and has worked for more than 20 years with research and development projects in sustainable lifestyles. She has run international and national interdisciplinary projects in the sustainable consumption of resources in households, such as energy, water and food, through design research at RISE Interactive, and later on RISE in projects within circular solutions and environmental effects of food waste. At IVL she works broadly with sustainable consumption and resources, both with households, for example how to support increased reuse and sharing of gadgets in various research projects with municipalities and housing companies, and businesses, such as circular solutions for the use of plastic waste in the plastic industry.

Elvira Molin is an industrial PhD student at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute and KTH. She finished her masters at KTH 2017 in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure and has since worked for IVL in various projects concerning food, sustainability and public procurement. The food interest goes deep in both handling and working with food and she has a previous career working as a chef in restaurant kitchens.

Natalie de Brun is Co-Founder and CFO at Grönska. Together with Robin Lee and Petter Olsson, Natalie founded the Stockholm based vertical farming company Grönska
Stadsodling 365.

Johan Nilsson is a researcher and project manager at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute in the Division for Life Cycle Management. Johan has an MSc in water and environmental engineering from Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). He also has a licentiate degree from SLU, where his research focused on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of agricultural systems. At IVL, Johan is involved in various projects regarding sustainability assessments. However, LCAs on biomass producing systems for food, feed, fuel and fibre, are still his primary research interest.

Till is a PhD candidate in Systems Engineering at the University of Oxford. His research investigates the potential benefits of biowaste recovery, smart climate control and renewable energy on the sustainability of urban agriculture, making use of spatial analysis, mathematical modelling and optimization, LCA and scenario comparison.

Unni conducted her Master’s thesis for the degree program in Environmental and Water Engineering at Uppsala University and SLU. Her thesis is conducted in collaboration with an urban farming company, SweGreen, where she analyzed the environmental sustainability of the farm using life cycle assessment.

Alice is a student graduating the master’s programme in environmental and water engineering at Uppsala University and SLU, with a major in soil remediation, environmental management and environmental law. Alice is currently writing her master thesis at IVL with the aim to identify factors that influence the development of urban farming and its contribution to sustainable food systems. The study will examine the current state of commercial urban farming in Stockholm and its possibilities of scaling up.

Emile is an engineering student graduating the master’s program in Sustainable Technology at KTH. With IVL and in collaboration with Urban Oasis, Emile is conducting an LCA to understand the environmental implications of urban mushroom farming implementing symbiotic exchanges with indoor hydroponic vertical farms and other urban systems. These symbiotic exchanges include reusing different urban residual flows such as mushroom growing medium and recirculating CO2 from mushroom respiration to the hydroponic farm.

Narmin is a master student in Environmental engineering and sustainable infrastructure at KTH, she is currently working on her thesis project in an urban farming company in Stockholm, Swegreen, the aim of her project is to analyze the sustainability and the urban symbiosis of the vertical farming of the company by conducting a Life Cycle Assessment.

Emelie is a bachelor student in the mechanical engineering programme at KTH. Together with Caroline, she is currently writing her bachelor thesis about integration of cultivation in a supermarket. With the aim to investigate the ability for supermarkets to use urban farming methods to produce their own herbs and salads to contribute to a sustainable food production.

Barbro is a master student in Sustainable Technology at KTH, with a big interest in urban ecology, circularity and resilience. She is currently working on her master thesis with the aim to investigate and analyse ecosystem services in urban agriculture. Further, Barbro aims to discuss the results of her study from a resilience perspective to assess opportunities and challenges associated with the development of urban agriculture in Stockholm. In order to do this, she will identify and analyse ecosystem services through a case study on two different urban farms in the Stockholm region.

Caroline is a bachelor student at KTH, studying the mechanical engineering programme. She is also currently writing her bachelor thesis together with Emelie about integration of cultivation in a supermarket. The study will examine which is the most profitable cultivation method based on several farming methods of in-store cultivation of herbs and lettuce to contribute to a sustainable food production for a specific store in Stockholm.

Nagma is a master’s student in Strategic Urban and Regional Planning at Linköping university with a background in architecture. She is currently working as an intern, during which she will be working on measuring the role of Building Integrated Agriculture(BIA) in urban resilience. The project will focus on circular vertical farming system in Liljeholmen, Stockholm to investigate and visualize the capacity of the neighbourhood to produce food.

Lou Magnat Théron is a master student in chemical engineering and sustainable development engineering at the National Polytecnic Institute in Toulouse, France. She did her master project in partnership with the vertical farm Urban Oasis in Stockholm. Lou participated in developing a prototype to grow mushrooms with substrate based on the organic waste of the farm. In parallel she wrote her master thesis, where she investigated ways of integrating vertical farming in the evolving sustainable food strategy in Sweden.