A presentation given at the 18th International Sustainable Development Research Conference in Hull, UK. This was part of a stream on the role of academia in sustainability advocacy.

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Advocating for a sustainable future in Australia
15 years of the Institute for Sustainable Futures
Dr Chris Riedy, Institute for Sustainable Futures
25 June 2012

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 Established in 1997 by the University of
Technology, Sydney
 Our mission
 Create change towards sustainable
futures through independent, project-
based research
 Our people
 62 full and part time staff in 2011
Institute for  21 postgraduate research students
Sustainable Futures
 Our projects
 $5.27 million worth of contract
research and research grants in 2011
25 June 2012

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Our objectives
 A world leading sustainability research institute
 Support communities, government and business to create their own
change towards sustainable futures
 Deliver a cutting edge transdisciplinary postgraduate research
program in sustainable futures
 Progress public dialogue as well as motivate and facilitate action
 Be an exemplar of participation within the UTS community
 Value and enrich our supportive and sustainable workplace
25 June 2012

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A non-traditional academic model
 Funding
 Self-funding / consultancy model
 Focus on change creation
 Action research
 Practice informing theory
 Research impact as a high priority
 Challenges
 Balancing the books / justifying our existence to the university
 Maintaining and demonstrating independence alongside advocacy role
 Straddling research and consulting
 Arguing for research impact as a measure of academic performance
 Managing strong recent growth
25 June 2012

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Evaluating our impact
Three outcome spaces for trans-disciplinary research
 Discernible change in the situation or problem space
 Contribute to stocks and flows of knowledge, including peer-
reviewed knowledge
 Mutual learning for researchers and stakeholders
(Carew and Wickson 2010; Mitchell and Willetts 2009)
25 June 2012

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Changing wicked problems
1. Sustainable urban precincts
 ISF has
provided
sustainability
advice for the
Barangaroo
development
 Introduced
concept of
‘restorative
development’
 Led to a
commitment
to be ‘climate
positive’
25 June 2012

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Changing wicked problems
2. Contesting water supply infrastructure
 ISF’s review of Sydney’s Metropolitan
Water Plan
 Serious drought
 Plans for desalination
 Encouraged a focus on demand
management and desalination
preparedness
 Delayed construction of Sydney’s
desalination plant
 In the end, it was built anyway for
political reasons and now Sydney’s water
supply is full
25 June 2012

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Changing wicked problems
3. Sustainability in the Australian curriculum
 In 2008, ISF gave three ‘sustainability expert
presentations’ to NSW Department of Education
and Training
 These informed a paper on Earth Citizenship
 Which informed a Sustainability Curriculum
Framework
 Which informed the new Australian Curriculum
 Sustainability is one of three cross-curriculum
priorities
 Futures focus in Technologies curriculum
 How much impact can we claim?
 Not seen as traditional research
25 June 2012

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Adding to stocks and flows of knowledge
1. Peer-reviewed publications
UNWEIGHTED RESEARCH PUBLICATION VALUES PER DEETYA STAFF NUMBER BY
FACULTY/INSTITUTE 2005-2010
3.00
2.50
2.00
2005
1.50 2006
2007
1.00 2008
2009
0.50 2010
0.00
25 June 2012

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Adding to stocks and flows of knowledge
2. Other forms of knowledge generation
 In 2011 our researchers wrote  Preference for publicly
 2 books available outputs
 7 book chapters
 50 journal articles  Sharing knowledge freely
 48 conference papers  Creative Commons
 32 publicly available project  The Conversation
reports
 Media in 2011  Building the knowledge of our
 69 print media stories collaborators
 32 radio interviews
 6 television interviews
 18 online news stories
25 June 2012

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A learning organisation
 Internal learning  Collaborator learning
 Building capacity to give  Specific training projects
and receive feedback  Challenging the brief
 Reflective processes  Capacity building and skills
 Reality checks transfer
 Client surveys  Contributions to public
 Wrap up meetings debate
 Review Days
 Knowledge sharing
 Weekly roundtables
 Postgraduate retreats

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Conclusion
Academia and sustainability advocacy
 Universities are in a position to deliver intellectual leadership on sustainability
 This must go beyond theory to practice
 Trans-disciplinary collaboration and constant experimentation is essential to tackle
wicked problems
 Responsibility to contribute to public debate
 Academia faces challenges to its relevance in the information age
 New measures of academic quality and impact are emerging
 It is possible, but constantly challenging, to balance academic independence
with sustainability advocacy
 Even more difficult is balancing a passion for change with commercial demands
 If universities can’t lead in this area, who will?
25 June 2012

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Thanks!
 Questions?  Dr Chris Riedy  Thanks to the following
Associate Professor for contributing to this
Institute for Sustainable Futures paper
University of Technology, Sydney  Stuart White
Phone: 02 9514 4964 or 0402 043 386  Damien Giurco
Email: criedy@uts.edu.au
 Cynthia Mitchell
Blog: http://chrisriedy.me
Twitter: @chrisjriedy  Caitlin McGee
25 June 2012

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References
 Carew, A.L. & Wickson, F., 2010. The TD Wheel: A heuristic to
shape, support and evaluate transdisciplinary research.
Futures, 42(10), pp.1146-1155.
 Mitchell, C. & Willetts, J., 2009. Quality criteria for inter‐ and
trans‐disciplinary doctoral research outcomes, University of
Technology, Sydney, http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/scholarly-
works/handle/2100/904.
25 June 2012