STORIES ON ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY RESEARCHERS WHO WANT AT MELBOURNE 15 TO CHANGE THE WORLD Welcome Sustainability is a daunting topic. and careful prediction about future stresses. We may no longer be able Yet the people profiled in this short to prevent a warmer world, but good survey of sustainability work at Melbourne research can encourage resilience believe in the power of ideas and the and anticipate challenges. possibility of action. Each combines a commitment to critical inquiry with a Though just a small sample of work practical program to make a difference. on a vital subject, Sustainability at Melbourne is informed by a quiet So colleagues are charting temperatures optimism: we can make a difference. and mapping past climates, drawing Research provides a basis for action on Indigenous history to illuminate to address the scientific and political land management, saving wildlife, challenge of creating a sustainable future. building green roofs and solar panels, promoting geothermal power. There is a Regards, determination to work with environmental realities from fire to urban settlements. Scholars work on supply chains for food, clean water for thirsty cities, and better health amid a very different climate. Research provides a common theme – understand what is happening to our Glyn Davis climate so we can respond in thoughtful Vice-Chancellor ways. This means discussion of evidence University of Melbourne, 2015 Publication produced by Picture shows the Melbourne School of Design building, which opened in 2014 and has been awarded a 6 star Greenstar Education Design Rating. It’s home to the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute From water, food and climate change to protecting wildlife and improving the way our cities work, the University of Melbourne is committed to excellent research on sustainability. We have an estimated 1300 researchers working in fields relevant to sustainability and resilience, with annual research expenditure of about $218 million. Read some of our researchers’ stories here – and who knows, you might uncover something that will become part of your daily life in the future. Contents KERRY ARABENA • Indigenous Knowledge 04 KEVIN TOLHURST • Bushfires 18 PETER SCALES • Water 06 KIRSTEN LARSEN • Food 20 CLAIRE FARRELL • Green Roofs 08 ROSS GARNAUT • Climate Change 22 DAVID KAROLY • Climate Change 10 BILLIE GILES-CORTI • Cities 24 PETER DOHERTY • Climate Change 12 GUILLERMO NARSILIO • Energy 26 ROBYN ECKERSLEY • Climate Change 13 ELISABETH VOGEL • Agriculture 28 DAVID JONES • Energy 14 KAKAU FOLIAKI • Climate Change 30 KYLIE SOANES • Wildlife 16 SUSTAINABILITY VOICES 31 CLIMATE CHANGE AND CITIES Listening to Indigenous knowledge “We know we have had custodial responsibilities to care for country, in doing + that then it cares for us” Kerry Arabena It’s a deeply traditional idea Far from exploiting country, water and that there is now the largest number that has somehow become the atmosphere for profit in a market of adolescents alive on the planet than revolutionary: humans should economy, Arabena would like to see ever before. Indigenous ideas of stewardship revived. “Young people who are highly live within the bounds of their “We know we have had custodial globalised, they know that they want ecosystems. Kerry Arabena is responsibilities to care for country, to take care of and manage land. working to revitalise the concept, in doing that then it cares for us,” They’re doing incredible things,” she says Arabena. which has a 60,000-year history says. “I think with that kind of population in Australia. And she has one Moving away from the unsustainable we can really change the world.” particular reason for optimism. exploitation of natural resources and Arabena’s research work includes away from technological “progress” investigating the health and wellbeing Arabena is Chair for Indigenous Health is incredibly difficult, she says. But impacts of Indigenous people getting at the University of Melbourne. She’s it’s needed. started a research program around out onto country. Ecohealth – elevating Indigenous “It’s like a jarring of people to call them “The vision is to take [Indigenous] people knowledge on the environment and back to their real authentic self. I don’t back out to country and improve their on country, for the good of people know if our real authentic self means health and wellbeing by engaging in and of the land. sitting in front of a computer for 16 hours custodial responsibilities and cultural a day, walking across roads looking custom,” says Arabena, a former social “We’ve had 60,000 years or so of being at our mobile phones.” able to live within the confines of an worker who did a PhD in human ecology. ecosystem, and people’s entire lives Arabena displays a qualified optimism She cites research that found taking were framed by that … now it’s a deeply about changing Australians’ relationship Aboriginal people with chronic illnesses challenging mind-shift,” says Arabena, with country. Based in the University’s out to traditional lands had profound a descendant of the Meriam people Melbourne School of Population and health benefits. She’d like to research of the Torres Strait. Global Health, she’s quick to point out 05 this – the cultural determinants of to challenge established norms health – further. Tied to that is the and institutions, on issues including environmental impact of integrating Indigenous reconciliation and Indigenous knowledge, for example constitutional recognition (she on burning-off, diversification of was founding co-chair of the grasslands, and soil regeneration. National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples). She has described Arabena is also working on climate herself as a provocateur. change, writing a book chapter for 2015 on how to manage the impacts “I would hope that what I do is give of climate change on Aboriginal people. people a different perspective,” “People who live in rural and remote-area Arabena says. “I want to stretch communities are going to feel the full the limits of people’s thinking.” impacts of climate change before we get to feel them in the cities,” she says. Then there’s the 2016 Onehealth Ecohealth conference, which will look at what it means to live within an ecosystem. The Melbourne conference will host about 2000 people. Arabena is on the board and chairs the program committee. Arabena’s research agenda is ambitious and her record shows she’s prepared WATER Clean drinking water for the world + Peter Scales Seven billion people, not enough the water theme at the University Nationally, Scales has mapped out clean water, groundwater of Melbourne’s Carlton Connect how Australia can better manage its running out, rivers contaminated sustainability and innovation precinct. notoriously variable water resources “Recycling gives you a lot more in a blueprint for Carlton Connect. by chemicals. resilience in your water supply.” The blueprint calls for smarter use of technology and markets, and This is what keeps water engineer Scales has been working on a new, more focus on sustainability. Peter Scales awake at night. optimal system to recycle wastewater. He Scales says the world is heading hopes it can be used in Asia, particularly It’s a natural fit for this self-described for a water crisis. Some rivers are so China, India and South-East Asia, where “farm boy” from country Victoria. “I grew polluted they can’t even be used for some aquifers are dangerously low. up on a farm near Bendigo, I’m interested in water, I’m interested in country.” irrigation. Cities are pumping dry their The technology is also suited to underground water reserves. Climate Australia’s inland cities and towns. Major Scales’ new water recycling system is change is altering rainfall. There are coastal cities have been drought-proofed being tested in a pilot plant. The plant more and more chemicals in water by desalination plants but that’s not an takes existing technology and rearranges supplies – and the effects on human option for towns like Orange, Bathurst it into a sequence of seven stages, health are sometimes unclear. and Bendigo. “How would they go in the including ozonation, microfiltration, The solution, he says, is cheap, safe next big drought? The answer is they’re UV and chlorination. While other plants technology which can recycle dirty water not as resilient,” Scales says. strip out pathogens (bugs) first, then chemicals, this plant removes the – including sewage – into drinking water. Drinking recycled sewage has been chemicals early. “We’re doing it the controversial in Australia. “I’m not saying “The fact that people haven’t got the other way round,” Scales says. He’s that’s an easy social thing to manage,” ability to take dirty water and turn it also prioritised keeping costs down. into clean water is a real problem in Scales says, but notes the next drought the world,” says Scales, who leads will come eventually. 07 Scales’ new water recycling system is being tested in a pilot plant. Scales, an academic in chemical his laptop in Beijing. He says cities and So why is Scales in Beijing? Melbourne and biomolecular engineering, says towns will start needing this technology University has a joint research centre while wastewater systems are good in 10 to 20 years, as climate change with China on river basins, and joint at removing pathogens, chemicals affects water supply. “We’ll be ready.” classes and e-subjects are run with should be a priority. Water can contain students at Beijing’s Tsinghua University. “I get a real buzz out of doing practical pharmaceuticals, antibiotics, hormones, Scales has partnerships with 10 groups problems and getting into them, industrial chemicals, chemicals like in China, including the Chinese Academy and finding out there’s some really Bisphenol A from plastics – and some of Science. About 50 people are fundamental research in them that pass straight through treatment plants.