A BUILDER who was left disabled and unable to work following a motorcycle accident has turned the tables on fate.

Clive Richardson, 50, was a building expert before he lost his right arm, incurred a closed brain injury, punctured his lung and broke many of his bones, in the accident in 1994.

But now he has turned his life around and completed a PhD at Huddersfield University, that could play a significant role in reducing climate change.

Clive, now Dr Richardson, has devised a building products labelling scheme, which allows people to know how environmentally safe the products they buy are.

It is something likened to the carbon footprint for building products and Clive, of Elland, says it is something that should have been done long ago.

“I’d worked for 11 or 12 years as a builder and was self-employed, but I couldn’t continue to do that,’’ he said.

“So I started studying what I was interested in and now here I am with a PhD.

“I never thought I’d become a doctor – it’s been a lot of hard work.”

Clive, who uses a single arm drive wheelchair to get about, embarked upon his 12-year-long academic journey, after recovering from his accident.

For his PhD he identified and audited carbon dioxide emissions during the production of building products.

He took the figures already available from factories and converted them into a format, which made clear the level of carbon emissions.

Along the way he was supported by wife Gillian and children Lee, now 17, and Danielle, 15.

The implications for his research are far-reaching, enabling architects, builders and the general public, to select low embodied carbon products for construction projects.

He now teaches at the university and will continue to lecture, starting in November.

“Teaching is a very rewarding profession,” he said.

“But it’s not one I ever seriously considered before I had my accident.

“But now I can see how my previous experience in the industry, along with what I have learned since, can help develop research in this area. I’d very much like to continue helping others in this way.”

Senior Lecturer Richard Nicholls praised Clive’s study and said the benefits are significant.

He said: “Clive’s research is extremely important.

“Currently, the only research that has been done in this area has just looked at the energy used by the factory in which the building product is made, but Clive has looked extensively at the entire supply chain, even visiting quarries and manufacturing plants to audit the energy used by them and convert this to a carbon output.

“The focus at the moment is on reducing the amount of carbon buildings emit through things like lighting and heating, the Government has set a target that by 2016, all new homes will produce zero carbon emissions in this way. Now, when that happens, the spotlight will shift on to how to reduce the amount of carbon released in the production of these buildings, which is where Clive’s research comes in.”