Product preview
Sustainability Consultant · ESG · Built Environment
Daniel Coakley
Sustainability Consultant | MBA · PhD · CEng
Bridging deep technical expertise with strategic sustainability leadership.
01 — About
Sustainability strategy, engineering depth, and applied AI delivery
Daniel Coakley is a sustainability strategist, chartered engineer, and applied technologist whose work sits at the intersection of ESG, built-environment decarbonisation, energy analytics, and bespoke application development. At Lloyds Banking Group, he focuses on energy and carbon reduction across the Group's real estate portfolio, with emphasis on operational energy performance, HVAC systems, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), building performance data, and evaluation of emerging sustainability technologies.
Combining foundational civil engineering with PhD-level mechanical engineering in building simulation and risk/uncertainty analysis, Daniel's career has spanned corporate real-estate decarbonisation, product-focused R&D at Mitsubishi Electric, software development at IES Ltd, academic research and lecturing at NUI Galway, and client-side consulting. An Executive MBA adds strategic and commercial rigour to deep technical expertise.
With over 2,200 academic citations, his work consistently translates complex environmental evidence into practical routes for energy efficiency, carbon reduction, and better built-environment decisions.
Professional Credentials
CEngCEM-IESOS Lead AssessorMCIBSEMASHRAE
Voluntary Leadership
Past President 2021-2022, ASHRAE Ireland
Career Trajectory
Career Trajectory
2022 — Present
Sustainability Manager
Lloyds Banking Group, London
Focused on energy and carbon reduction across the Group's real estate portfolio. Work includes operational energy performance, HVAC and resource efficiency, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), building performance data, sustainable technology evaluation, and support for pilots across corporate offices and branches.
2017 — 2022
Senior Research Engineer
Mitsubishi Electric R&D Centre Europe, Livingston
Led R&D within the Division of Energy and Environment, driving product development in building energy simulation, HVAC optimisation, digital twin design, and smart building control systems. Awarded the Mitsubishi Hatsuhon-H Award for outstanding innovation.
2015 — 2017
Marie Curie Research Fellow
Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) Ltd, Glasgow
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellow at IES — a leading building simulation software company — researching software development for building energy modelling, uncertainty quantification, and calibration methodologies.
2014 — 2017
Lecturer & Senior Researcher
IRUSE, Department of Civil Engineering, NUI Galway
Lectured and conducted research at the Informatics Research Unit for Sustainable Engineering, pioneering methods in building energy simulation calibration and risk/uncertainty analysis. Supervised postgraduate researchers and led multiple EU-funded projects.
2014 — Present
Independent Consultant
Building Energy Consultants Ltd
Providing client-side consulting across ESG strategy, building performance, energy management systems, bespoke analytics applications, and AI-enabled sustainability workflows for corporate and real estate clients.
Education
Education
2020 — 2023
Executive MBA
University of Edinburgh Business School
Graduated with distinction. Capstone work developed a multi-level ESG reporting framework for UK REITs, connecting real-estate performance, investor disclosure, governance, and practical decision-making.
2009 — 2013
PhD, Mechanical Engineering
National University of Ireland, Galway
Research focused on building energy simulation calibration, risk and uncertainty analysis, and methods for reconciling model predictions with measured building performance.
2005 — 2009
BE, Civil Engineering
National University of Ireland, Galway
Foundation in civil and environmental engineering, structural design, hydraulics, project delivery, and the built-environment systems that shaped later work in building performance and energy efficiency.
02 - Services
Three pillars of practical consulting support
A focused offer spanning sustainability consulting, research-led innovation and AI, and MBA-backed business strategy.
Sustainability Consulting
Strategy and technical delivery for organisations reducing energy use, carbon emissions, and sustainability risk across real-estate portfolios.
- ESG strategy, maturity assessment, and sustainability roadmaps
- Estate decarbonisation, retrofit strategy, and investment cases
- ISO 50001, ESOS, energy audits, and energy maturity assessments
- Energy and carbon baselining, M&V, dashboards, and reporting evidence
- MEES, EPC, stranded-asset, and transition-risk analysis
- HVAC optimisation, building simulation, and low-carbon technology feasibility
Research, Innovation & AI
Applied research, innovation delivery, AI workflows, and bespoke tools for sustainability, energy, and built-environment challenges.
- National, EU, and US research grant application support
- Proposal review informed by Horizon 2020 evaluation experience
- Innovation scouting, technology assessment, and pilot design
- Bespoke calculators, dashboards, and workflow applications
- LLM and agentic AI use-case discovery for sustainability teams
- Knowledge bases, enquiry assistants, and decision support tools
Business Strategy
MBA-backed commercial and strategic support for organisations building, funding, or scaling sustainability-led products and services.
- Business strategy consulting and growth planning
- Strategic consultancy assignments for growth-stage and scaling organisations
- Business cases for innovation, sustainability, and investment
- Commercialisation strategy for research-led products and services
- Market positioning, value proposition, and partnership development
- Executive-ready narratives, pitch materials, and decision papers
02 — Selected Work
Evidence in practice
Key projects spanning ESG research, energy management frameworks, and building simulation methodology — each grounded in data and built to drive real-world outcomes.
October 2026 · AI Agents · Future of Work · Product Development · Product Development · Strategy
Twelve Agents and a Founder: Running an AI-Driven Company
A first-hand account of running HeatLens with a Paperclip-orchestrated team of twelve AI agents: why it is agentic engineering rather than vibe coding, the fifteen years of research and industry experience behind its design, and what AI-native organisations mean for the software industry, regulated sectors and the workforce.
October 2026
Read article
2026-09-16 · AI · Future of Work · Research · Strategy
When the Code Writes Itself: Two Shifts Rewriting Software and the Future of Work
An essay on the two simultaneous shifts reshaping software — domain experts building tools directly, and AI becoming the integration layer — and what it means for the future of human work.
2026-09-16
Read article
2026 · ISO 50001 · Energy Analytics · Product Development · Data Analytics
From CSVs to ISO 50001 Energy Insight
A practical showcase of an ISO 50001 energy analytics dashboard, using anonymized Acme Corp data to turn meter exports, weather files and SEU mapping into modelled performance evidence.
2026
Read article
07/2026 · ESG Strategy · Real Estate Decarbonisation · Research · Data Analytics
Why a Good ESG Score Can Still Hide a Bad Building
An MBA capstone analysing 1.2 million UK energy records against listed REIT portfolios — revealing that EPCs, green certifications and corporate ESG ratings are only weakly connected to actual building performance.
07/2026
Read article
14 September 2026 · ISO 50001 · Energy Management · ISO 50005 · Consulting · Strategy · Data Analytics
ISO 50001 Readiness: Turning an Energy Maturity Assessment into an Action Plan
An anonymised assessment case study showing how clause-by-clause evidence review, maturity scoring and prioritised actions can support ISO 50001 readiness and more effective energy management.
14 September 2026
Read article
2014 · Building Energy Simulation · Digital Twins · Research · Data Analytics
A Building Energy Model Can Match the Bills and Still Be Wrong
A PhD thesis pioneering evidence-based analytical optimisation methods to calibrate detailed building energy simulation models against measured data, with rigorous treatment of uncertainty and risk.
2014
Read article03 — Applications
Tools I have built
Applied software products that turn engineering methods, operational data, and decision workflows into practical web applications.
Product preview
Dashboard preview
Anonymized dashboard screenshotAnalytics application
ISO 50001 Compliance Dashboard
An energy performance dashboard that turns meter exports, weather files, and SEU mappings into ISO 50001-ready baseline models and management-review evidence.
ISO 50001 · Energy Analytics · M&V04 — Research
Scientific rigour, cited globally
Peer-reviewed research in building energy simulation, calibration methodology, thermal comfort, energy management, and ESG in real estate — forming the evidence base for practical sustainability consulting.
2,258+
Total Citations
15
h-index
20
i10-index
38
Publications
Showing 5 of 38 publications
Citation metrics from Google Scholar · Publication data from OpenAlex
View Google Scholar Profile04 — Contact
Ready to transition your business towards sustainable leadership?
Get in touch to discuss how deep technical expertise and strategic vision can accelerate your sustainability journey.
consultancy@danielcoakley.com
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
CEngMBAPhDCEM-IMCIBSEMASHRAE