Posts Tagged ‘Research’
Carbon Neutral Communities: Making the Transition
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on January 14th, 2010
A free RMIT Forum
This forum will bring together academics and practitioners from the public, private and NGO sectors to explore critical aspects of the journey towards carbon neutral communities. The forum will present the findings of the three-year ARC project “Carbon Neutral Communities”, which examined approaches to advancing carbon neutrality at the community and local government levels. This included working with local governments to map municipal renewable energy potential, and conducting action research with household sustainability program providers and participants to explore opportunities for achieving broad change in social practices.
Presentations of experts from the research, program delivery and government arenas will be short and incisive. Panel discussions will encourage your input into the debates. The following topics will be addressed:
• What role can local government play in community resource consumption and emissions reduction? • To what extent can renewable energy generation be implemented and used in local government areas? • How can sustainability practitioners move beyond the ‘behaviour change’ paradigm to achieve broader changes in social practices? • What are good and innovative examples of initiatives supporting carbon neutrality? • How can ‘co-management’ support the transition to carbon neutral communities?
The Carbon Neutral Communities forum is your opportunity to engage with experts in the field, get up-to-date with the latest research and programs, and challenge your own ideas about how change can be achieved.
For more information and to register please contact Nicole McGrath at nicole.mcgrath@rmit.edu.au.
9am – 1:30pm, 22 February 2010, Research Lounge, Building 28, Level 5, RMIT University
Thinking In Systems: A Primer
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on November 19th, 2009
From “Straight Talk for the Planetary Era: A Trio of Book Reviews” by Edward Wolf
Thinking in Systems reflects Prof. Donella Meadows’ lifelong effort to understand systems at all scales – their resilience, their pathologies, their response to perturbations, their capacity to defy prediction. “A system,” Meadows writes, “is a set of things – people, cells, molecules, or whatever – interconnected in such a way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time.” Systems thinking can reveal interconnections, explain behavior, and anticipate outcomes. Changing outcomes – slowing climate disruption, spreading new crop varieties, containing an epidemic – requires action to change a system’s elements, the interconnections among them, or (more likely) both. A reader seeking to understand the anomalies of our time and to prepare mentally for the likelihood of disruptive change needs this book.
The book’s final section, “Creating Change – in Systems and in our Philosophy,” sheds welcome light on topics covered in The End of the Long Summer and Whole Earth Discipline. Chapter 6, “Leverage Points – Places to Intervene in a System” (first published in essay form in Brand’s Whole Earth Review) outlines twelve points of influence over the behavior of complex systems. Chapter 7, “Living in a World of Systems,” takes a step toward an ethics for a new human story, offering a humble acknowledgment that the systems view entails new responsibilities exercised in unfamiliar ways.
“Systems thinking by itself cannot bridge that gap (between understanding and action), but it can lead us to the edge of what analysis can do and then point beyond – to what can and must be done by the human spirit.” Just past that edge is where the activism, politics, diplomacy – and innovation – of this century really begins.
Read the full article by Edward Wolf.
Climate Change Adaptation Futures
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on September 1st, 2009
Source: Rural Climate Network
Image: SMH
Conference: Climate Change Adaptation Futures: preparing for the unavoidable impacts of climate change
29 June – 1 July 2010, Gold Coast, Queensland
Co-hosted by Australia’s National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility and the CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship, this conference will be one of the first international forums to focus solely on climate impacts and adaptation.
It will bring together scientists and decision makers from developed and developing countries to share research approaches, methods and results. It will explore the way forward in a world where impacts are increasingly observable and adaptation actions are increasingly required.
The Climate Adaptation Futures Conference will showcase leading impacts and adaptation research from around the world.
It will explore the contribution of adaptation science to planning and policy making, and how robust adaptation decision making can proceed in the face of uncertainty about climate change and its impacts.
Registrations open online Monday 31 August, 2009.
Sustainable Cities for the Future
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on July 9th, 2009
Image: amirjina via Flickr
Graduate Research Conference: Sustainable Cities for the Future
Globally, economies are facing challenges to future sustainability and are investing in strategies to mitigate, and adapt to, the potential of new climatic realities. People are increasingly moving into urban areas, placing stress on transport and other basic infrastructure. Australia provides an excellent ‘laboratory’ to review the future sustainability of cities, with climate scientists suggesting it will be one of the first countries to be impacted by climate change. Read the rest of this entry »
Priority 2 for Energy Change, The Sustainable Cities Round Table, 20 May 2009
Posted in Sustainable Cities Round Tables by Ferne Edwards on June 10th, 2009
‘Priority 2 for Energy Change‘ is an outcome from the recent Sustainable Cities Round Table – The Energy to Change, 20 May 2009. Audience members were asked: “In your perspective, what are the three things that need to happen for energy?” Ie. if were going to address climate change what are the most important things that we and others around us can do? This is their response for Priority 2. The data is shown as it was collected – there has been no analysis at this stage at all.
Priority 2
Open markets for decentralized electricity generation from renewable sources. Including incentives for implementation.
Government support eg policies, incentives, drivers etc
Regulations
Need users o reject the business as usual approach
Large scale solar projects
Initiating community food gardens
High price for carbon pollution emitters for each unit of pollution
De-emphasize CCS
Energy efficiency existing homes-retrofit 10% per year (and educate home owners)
Read the rest of this entry »
Priority 1 for Energy Change, The Sustainable Cities Round Table, 20 May 2009
Posted in Sustainable Cities Round Tables by Ferne Edwards on June 10th, 2009
‘Priority 1 for Energy Change‘ is an outcome from the recent Sustainable Cities Round Table – The Energy to Change, 20 May 2009. Audience members were asked: “In your perspective, what are the three things that need to happen for energy?” Ie. if were going to address climate change what are the most important things that we and others around us can do? This is their response for Priority 1. The data is shown as it was collected – there has been no analysis at this stage at all.
Priority 1
Build a systems of clean, renewable energy straight away so we have zero carbon environment
Mass reforestation campaigns and programs ie 1 million ha planted per yr now in Victoria
Cut government ties to the coal industry
A clear vision of a 100% renewable energy future
Proper pricing of carbon
Stop using coal
Stop exporting coal
Tackle influence of fossil fuel and coal industry
Eliminate electric storage of hot water
Political will and leadership from government to make decisions that are long term focused
Work with communities to empower them to change-transforming this difficult and often disempowering situation into one that reunites people in a local and positive way
Generating clean technology alongside behavioural change to wanting to be energy efficient
A CPRS with a serious, challenging target
Read the rest of this entry »
Priority 3 for Energy Change, The Sustainable Cities Round Table, 20 May 2009
Posted in Sustainable Cities Round Tables by Ferne Edwards on June 10th, 2009
‘Priority 3 for Energy Change‘ is an outcome from the recent Sustainable Cities Round Table – The Energy to Change, 20 May 2009. Audience members were asked: “In your perspective, what are the three things that need to happen for energy?” Ie. if were going to address climate change what are the most important things that we and others around us can do? This is their response for Priority 3. The data is shown as it was collected – there has been no analysis at this stage at all.
Priority 3
Plug in hybrid electric vehicles
Relocate old houses rather than be demolished into strips then to become landfill. Use of recycled materials for buildings-achieve energy ratings points
New innovations
Public transport
Industry efficiencies
Consume less
Policy change, away from CCS towards renewables and at the same time preparing people for decrease in energy availability (renewables wont cope with current energy consumption)
Investment
Reduce packaging (waste)
Signal the end of coal as primary energy source in Australia-Turn it into a sunset industry
Less consumption. Less energy/recycling/waste
Invest in renewables
Strong target of 100% renewable energy by 2020
Needs strong and public champion
Read the rest of this entry »
State of the Cities – Unlocking the Data Conference
Posted in Events by Virginia on May 10th, 2009
This conference is aimed at achieving better City information on liveability, prosperity and environmental sustainability at the Federal, State and Local levels and within academia and the private sector. It is supported by the Major Cities Unit and colleagues in the other capital cities.
Event: State of the Cities-Unlocking the Data Conference
When: 27th May – 29th May. Program available here.
Where: Yarra Room, Melbourne Town Hall, Cnr Swanston and Collins Streets, Melbourne
Register for the event here. For more information, please visit the website.
The 2009 edition of The Ethical Guide to Supermarket Shopping is out now.
Posted in Research by Ferne Edwards on February 17th, 2009
It is fully revised and updated with a new layout, new categories, more brands, updated company ratings, ownership changes and other cool improvements. Order your copy here. If you have a copy of the first edition (2008), check out our Update Your Print Guide page.
VEIL seeks EOI for food research – food freight / distribution systems
Posted in Seeking by Ferne Edwards on January 20th, 2009
The Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab is seeking expressions of interest to undertake two research projects on food freight / distribution systems:
Part I: Understanding Victorian Food Freight Movements
Part II: Best Practice (Sustainable) Food Distribution Systems
The position description for each position can be downloaded below.
Understanding Victorian Food Freight Movements – Part 1
Best practice food distribution systems – Part II