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About Mohamed
Sustainability, studied from inside the firm
I am a PhD researcher at Birmingham City University working on net-zero strategy, energy efficiency, firm-level economic performance, SMEs, ESG and the Sustainable Development Goals. My interest is in how sustainability moves from policy language into measurable business practice.
My research journey
My route into research was not linear. I trained as an industrial and management engineer, spent over four years managing construction projects across the MENA region, then moved to the UK to study logistics and supply chain management — graduating with Distinction from the University of Bolton. Each step sharpened the same question: how do organisations actually make decisions about resources, energy and long-term value?
That question became a doctorate. At Birmingham City University, my PhD investigates the impact of net-zero strategy on firms' energy efficiency performance and economic growth within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals. My interest in sustainability is shaped by seeing how environmental change affects places, communities and long-term economic resilience — and by a conviction that the answers must work for real businesses, not only in theory.
Academic background
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Current PhD focus
My doctoral research asks how firms — particularly UK firms and SMEs — engage with the net-zero transition, and how that engagement affects energy efficiency and firm-level economic performance. The work began by systematically mapping the literature (published in Business Strategy and the Environment) and is developing into firm-level quantitative analysis of the net-zero adoption gap between UK businesses and national goals, presented at EURAM 2026.
Teaching and research experience
As a Teaching Assistant at Birmingham City Business School, I support teaching and tutorial activity across business, sustainability, operations and research-led subjects, contributing to student engagement across large and diverse cohorts — including teaching support associated with lectures and tutorials reaching more than 1,600 learners. I also work with supervisors and colleagues on journal submissions, conference papers and reviewer responses, and served as a reviewer for BAM 2025 and EURAM 2026. More on my teaching →
From industry to research
I have seen how firms decide — from the inside
Before my PhD, I spent over four years managing construction projects across the MENA region, including work with Steel for Engineering Projects and schemes delivered for DP World, with responsibility for budgets exceeding US$20 million. That experience — planning, budgeting, quality, safety, teams — grounds my research in the operational reality of how firms decide, and keeps my focus on the practical challenges of the net-zero transition rather than policy language alone.
My broader mission
I am building a research profile around three commitments: rigorous evidence, practical relevance, and accessible knowledge sharing. The Thoughts section of this site — which opens my papers up as structured questions and answers — is one expression of that: research is more useful when the people it concerns can actually find and read it.
A personal note
Outside the thesis, I try to practise what I study — as a Green Impact team member at BCU, where I received the Student Leadership Award (2024–25), as a Carbon Literacy and Home Energy Auditor trainee with SOS-UK, and as a mentor for science and engineering students. Research on sustainability is more honest when it is lived a little, too.