Sarah Toy Consulting
Sustainability I Urban Futures I Resilience
Projects - Research
Urban Integrated Diagnostics Partnership (2015-7)
Collaborated with the University of Bristol, University of the West of England and other city partners to develop a successful £0.5m partnership bid – Urban Integrated Diagnostics - to the seven UK Research Councils and Innovate UK. Responsible for working with the Urban ID team to critique equality and inclusion aspects of the research and to co-create one of the five case studies.
Social marketing of 20mph signs-only speed limits (2011-12)
Working for the Centre for Social Marketing at the University of West of England I led on the research and development of an evidence-based practical guide to encouraging compliance with 20mph limits. The guide made recommendations on the soft measures that can effectively support signs-only 20mph speed limits to encourage driver behaviour change. The work, which involved extensive stakeholder engagement across the city to collect social insights, was used to support the successful roll-out of 20mph (signs only) limits across Bristol and has since been referenced by other cities.
Publication link: Toy, S., Tapp, A., Musselwhite, C. & Davis, A. (2014). Can social marketing make 20mph the new norm?. Journal of Transport & Health doi:10.1016/j.jth.2014.05.00
Feeling Good About Where You Live (2007-08), Greenwich Teaching Primary Care Trust, UK
On secondment from Arup and working with the Deputy of Director of Public Health at the Royal Borough of Greenwich Primary Care Trust and Housing team I co-created and project managed this innovative action-research partnership project to understand – and help to tackle – poor mental wellbeing in deprived council housing estates. The project researched and developed a range of innovative low cost social and physical interventions that were subsequently delivered and compared with a control area to evaluate the impact on residents’ mental health and wellbeing.
Publication link: Toy, S A and Guite,G (2008). Social and Physical Factors for Building Happiness in Building happiness – Architecture to make you smile. Black Dog publishing, October 2008.
Evaluation of UNICEF Water and Sanitation Programme, Nigeria (2001)
Working for the University of Loughborough was responsible for designing and managing a three month project to provide an independent evaluation of the Federal Government of Nigeria and UNICEF five year, $7m water and environmental sanitation programme (1997 – 2001) in Nigeria. The work involved three months of in-depth fieldwork with local communities across Nigeria, interviews with key stakeholders and subsequent report preparation and feedback workshops for the clients. The evaluation was used to inform future UK Department for International Development support to Nigeria in the water and sanitation sector.
Demand and Affordability Study, Jinja town water supply , Uganda (1996)
Working for consultancy Mott MacDonald, with funding from the World Bank, was I responsible for developing and managing a major demand and affordability survey of 1,265 urban households in the small town of Jinja in Uganda. The research was used by the local water company to re-design the water tariff structure to enure that the poorest family were able to afford a piped water supply.
Publication link: Morris N & Parry-Jones SA (1999). Affordability of Water in an African Town. Water and Environmental Management, Journal of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, 13(1): 1-6 1999