Sustainable universities
Research opportunities
Carbon emissions, waste, procurement, and sustainability in education and research.
Scope 3 emissions of universities
Project size (& length): 25 or 50
Many businesses are aiming to have net-zero operations in the near future. Most organisations are only considering their direct gas emissions (scope 1) and emissions from electricity (scope 2) in this calculation. However, the indirect emissions associated with business operations (scope 3) are often much larger and make up 80% of the total emissions of an organisation. The calculation of scope 3 emissions can be difficult. This project aims to review the magnitude of scope 3 emissions of higher education institutions in Australia and world-wide. For a larger research project, the study will compare different methodology to estimate the magnitude of these emissions in universities.
Professor Stefan Arndt, School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences
sarndt@unimelb.edu.au
Sustainability and behaviour change at the University.
Project sizes (& lengths): 12.5, 25 or 50
The following topics are posted by the Sustainability Team on campus. If students are interested in designing a research topic based on these ideas, or anything covered in the Sustainability Plan 2030, they can get in touch with Rose Hawkins. People from the team aren’t able to act as a research supervisor, but can help with connecting students to relevant colleagues around the University and access to information.
Rose Hawkins, Sustainability Strategy Team
r.hawkins@unimelb.edu.au
Reducing emissions from flights
Exploring how other universities have reduced emissions from flights, including through internal carbon pricing and other mechanisms.
Tracking the rollout of our emissions reduction and offsetting program – narrating successes and challenges, theorizing social change process, etc.
Embedding sustainability in the curriculum
Based on student's disciplinary background, how is sustainability taught in relation to their discipline, and what influence does this have on disciplinary practices/graduate career choices?
How do academic staff understand sustainability in relation to their discipline?
What factors lead academic staff in this discipline/Faculty to embed sustainability content in their courses?
How can sustainability be embedded in curriculum in their discipline/Faculty?
Sustainable research practices
How could the research practices in particular research areas be made more sustainable?
Sustainable procurement
Examining current procurement processes and how to make them more sustainable.
How can the University engage with its suppliers to make procurement more sustainable?
This topic could be explored by procurement category or across the Commercial services team.
Waste
Trying to understand how to address issues like contamination across waste streams, and the reduction of single use plastics
What factors contribute to ongoing use of single-use plastics on the Parkville campus?
Communications/Sustainability Plan Implementation
Trying to understand the role and influence of sustainability-oriented communications in various parts of the University - whether these influence behaviour/practices; where behaviour is 'unsustainable', what other factors influence behaviour/practices.
How is 'sustainability' communicated and understood in particular Faculties?
How is 'sustainability' communicated and understood across the University?
What is the University's sustainability narrative? How does this align/differ with its desired sustainability narrative?