2023 Sustainability Report
Our impact
The University of Melbourne’s 2023 Sustainability Report is the second report against the ambitious targets outlined in the University’s Sustainability Plan 2030. This plan underpins the aspirations outlined in Advancing Melbourne, guiding sustainable delivery of our commitments across the five key pillars of Place, Community, Education, Discovery and Global.
The University is actively working to embed sustainability into design and development, reducing negative impacts on the environment and improving building performance while enhancing the health and wellbeing of our communities.
Dookie campus, one of the University’s six specialist campuses, is an agricultural facility between Shepparton and Benalla in Victoria. Situated on 2,440 hectares, the campus incorporates a working farm, state-of-the-art robotic dairy, orchard, winery and natural bush reserve.
As well as supporting regional students, the Dookie campus allows agriculture students from the University’s Parkville campus to spend up to one semester on site. To accommodate more students, the University committed to a $21 million Dookie Campus Student Accommodation project, co-funded by the Victorian Government. The new project includes accommodation and ensuite facilities that will allow at least 85 additional students to reduce their travel costs and benefit from the immersive experience of living on campus. Distinctively, this can used as temporary accommodation for emergency services personnel in the case of an emergency, benefiting the entire Goulburn Valley region and increasing its capacity to respond to natural disasters.
The new project includes accommodation and ensuite facilities that will allow at least 85 additional students to reduce their travel costs and benefit from the immersive experience of living on-campus.
In the project’s design and construction, sustainability is a pivotal focus:
- The building is all electric, supporting the University’s transition to all electric buildings powered by renewables.
- The building’s design is geared towards reducing energy consumption while maximising thermal comfort for occupants, with electricity required to be procured from renewable sources. These parameters aim to deliver a building which is more efficient than minimum standards in the National Construction Code.
- A modular construction methodology has been used, which is considered to be more materially efficient than traditional construction methods and produces less waste.
- The building is designed to be resilient in future climate conditions, including easy connection to a mobile back-up generator to enable continued use during regional disaster events such as fires and floods.
- 393 items of furniture and equipment are being reused from student accommodation and other buildings at the Parkville campus. In addition to the environmental benefit, this saved the project an estimated $200,000.
Established in 1886, Dookie campus remains a vital hub for leading research, teaching and technology development that is helping to shape the future of agriculture in Australia. By embedding sustainability in our design and construction processes, the University is delivering on its commitment to Place in Advancing Melbourne in a sustainable manner.
Over the past two years, significant momentum has built globally around the interlinked threats of biodiversity loss and species extinction. The University has responded to this crisis with action to protect our ecosystems and the diversity of all living things.
In 2022, the University signed on as a founding member of the Nature Positive Universities Alliance. We have since built on this commitment through world class research, engagement and partnerships, and in our campus operations.
Mobilising biodiversity knowledge for action
Launched in November 2023, the Melbourne Biodiversity Institute (MBI) is a collective of researchers, innovators and problem-solvers from across the University dedicated to addressing Earth’s biodiversity crisis.
The University is home to world-class researchers in biodiversity whose expertise spans fine arts, health, political science, anthropology, communications, engineering, mathematics, agriculture, geography, biology, ecology and more, including renowned First Nations researchers and knowledge-holders across multiple disciplines.
Bringing together this breadth of expertise through the MBI enhances our capacity to tackle complex problems, reveal and address pitfalls and challenges, and design programs that deliver transformative solutions. For example, an early project of the Institute, with support of the Boundless Foundation, involves bringing together biodiversity, engineering and First Nations expertise to address the impacts of renewable energy on biodiversity and First Nations cultural values. MBI embodies our long-standing commitment to solving real-world challenges through building cross-sector collaborations linking our expertise with external partners in government, private enterprise NGOs, and communities.
A public expert voice for Biodiversity
The Biodiversity Council is helping to spearhead the national conversation on Australia’s biodiversity crisis through expert-informed policy, advocacy and public conversations. Hosted by the University of Melbourne within MBI, the Council is a national body of 11 other universities.
This Council represents leading voices in interdisciplinary and First Peoples biodiversity knowledge and is co-led by former Queensland Chief Scientist Professor Hugh Possingham and Yuin man and University of Melbourne Senior Research Fellow Dr Jack Pascoe. Since its establishment in 2022, the Council has played a key role in engaging with decision makers on major environmental reforms and has been a leading public voice on biodiversity science.
Walking the talk by measuring biodiversity on our campuses
The University’s campuses and systems form part of the testing grounds for our biodiversity research and solutions, enabling us to link this broader work with our professional teams focused on enhancing the health of the ecosystems our University is a part of.
The University’s Sustainability Plan 2030 (SP2030) aims for no net biodiversity loss on campus by 2025 and increased biodiversity by 2030. These targets are informed by the Biodiversity Baseline Data Project (BBDP), a collaborative effort since 2019 to quantify on-campus biodiversity. The BBDP has led to operational improvements across our campuses, including tree management, campus planning and design standards for new projects.
As one of the first institutions globally to develop comprehensive biodiversity baselines, the University provides a model for others to follow. The BBDP has been showcased at various fora, including the 2024 Nature Positive Universities webinar series, and has led to the founding of the ACTS Biodiversity Working Group in 2023. The project’s significance is highlighted by the project lead, Biodiversity Officer Rachael Miller, winning the Tertiary Education Facilities Management Association Maurie Pawsey Scholarship.
Read more about how we are promoting Healthy Ecosystems on our campuses
The Wattle Fellowship is the University’s flagship co-curricular leadership development and sustainability program for students. Focusing on multidisciplinarity, the Wattle Fellowship fosters transformative leadership through practical skills development to produce tomorrow’s leaders on global sustainability. The year-long program supports students to bring ideas to life, create positive impact and develop within a community of change-makers.
The Wattle Fellowship’s core focus addresses the Sustainability Plan 2030 priority areas of a ‘Community of sustainability learners and practitioners’ and ‘Graduates for a sustainable future’ through its emphasis on embedding sustainability and creating graduates who can shape, lead and succeed in sustainable societies.
The program continues to grow in popularity, expanding reach and impact, receiving a 20 per cent increase of applications for cohort three compared to cohort one. The Fellowship welcomed its third cohort of 25 new fellows in July 2023.
Access to world-leading academic experts and external sustainability practitioners as well as continual mentoring, coaching and support allows the Wattle Fellows to thrive, with many using the program to springboard enriching careers during and after their Fellowships:
Jessica Clarke worked with the Victorian Department of Health as a Climate and Health Manager, leading projects and policy development. Jessica now works with Seed Global Health, a not-for-profit organisation providing nursing and medical training support to resource-limited countries.
Robert McIntyre organised a cross-disciplinary “thought-provoking concert” which featured the world premiere of his composition ‘Our Duty to Care’. The work is based on the ground-breaking environmental Sharma litigation, where climate change was proven to be legally real in the Australian court system. The piece has been performed multiple times since and acknowledged by Anjali Sharma and Senator David Pocock in their own advocacy efforts.
April Golder focused on biodiversity conservation during her Wattle Fellowship year, resulting in her attendance at the UN climate change negotiations in November 2023 with Global Voices. April currently works on the ‘Women in Renewables’ program at the Clean Energy Council.
Elizabeth Hu's time at Wattle was spent developing a series of resources focusing on sustainability and healthcare that were accessible in local GP offices. While continuing to complete her medical training, Elizabeth studied sustainable healthcare in the UK and has also published two research papers analysing the use and impact of anaesthetic gas as a driver of health care’s carbon footprint.
Catalysing passionate University of Melbourne students to become leaders for global climate action and sustainability, the Wattle Fellowship builds on the institution’s foundations in research and education to prepare graduates for a sustainable future.
The decarbonisation imperative is prompting commitments from governments and businesses around the world to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Australia will need to speed up and broaden its decarbonisation efforts to achieve this. The Net Zero Australia (NZAu) Project, is a ground-breaking, multi-year collaboration between the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland, Princeton University and Nous Group. The NZAu Project aims to inform what governments, businesses and households should do to accelerate towards a net zero future.
The University of Melbourne’s involvement in the collaboration is via the Melbourne Energy Insititute (MEI), where the NZAu Project is one of the institute’s signature initiatives. MEI researchers have played a vital role analysing data and developing maps and models to help individuals, communities, companies, and governments appreciate the scale, complexity and cost of the net zero task.
The NZAu Project traces pathways to net zero, giving a detailed breakdown of possible scenarios and sensitivities and offering comprehensive mapping of the transition to net zero emissions. The NZAu reports draw on extensive research and findings, and the results are unprecedented in their detail, rigour and transparency.
Professor Michael Brear, Director of the Melbourne Energy Institute is also the Project Director for Net Zero Australia. Professor Brear is also on the project’s Steering Committee chaired by Emeritus Professor Robin Batterham, a former Chief Scientist of Australia, along with colleagues from the University of Queensland, Princeton University, Nous Group, and an independent member. The Steering Committee engages regularly with government and the project’s Advisory Group to discuss what needs to change, educating key stakeholders on the actual issue and the steps that will need to be implemented to bring about this change.
As one of the largest and fastest economic transformations in history, reaching net zero requires cooperation and support, coordinating investment to mitigate impacts. The University’s involvement in the NZAu project ensures governments and organisations are aware of the need for more options, stronger investment drivers and a larger pipeline of projects to plan well for this transition.
The University of Melbourne is committed to leading and convening efforts to enable climate action, particularly as it affects our neighbours in the Indo-Pacific region, who are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis.
In 2023, the University ran initiatives aimed at sharing knowledge, building communities of practice and expertise, and increasing capacity in the region.
In November, the University welcomed 15 researchers and policymakers from the Indo-Pacific region for a six-week Australia Awards Fellowship on climate, health and equity training, with the goal of improving regional health and climate outcomes.
The program was designed and presented by Melbourne Climate Futures (MCF) and the Climate CATCH Lab, based in the Melbourne School of Global and Population Health, in partnership with the Pacific Climate Change Centre (PCCC).
The training program, involving over 70 internal and external expert presenters, mentors and facilitators, enabled knowledge exchange and enhanced capabilities through mentoring. It assisted the fellows in developing country-specific policy and practical climate solutions to implement post-program.
Fellows met and engaged with other networks, learned about Australian First Nations history and practices for caring of Country, and contributed to major national and global knowledge forums.
The Fellowship helped to elevate regional voices on climate and health and laid the foundations for a regional network of climate change and health experts who can collaborate meaningfully to inform climate solutions at local, national and regional levels.
This training program is an example of activities that will be pursued under the umbrella of the Indo-Pacific Climate (INPACC) Hub, the University’s interdisciplinary climate research initiative, launched by MCF.
The INPACC Hub will collaborate with domestic and regional partners to drive co-designed activities across four priority areas:
- Health
- Governance and regulation
- Agriculture and water
- Just energy transitions
With funding provided by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, MCF hosted 40 experts and practitioners from across the Indo-Pacific at a three-day inception workshop in Bangkok in November 2023.
At the inception workshop, participants:
- Shared effective examples of place-based climate action across the four focal areas
- Discussed the regional needs and gaps, and identified key interventions by which to address them
- Co-designed, refined and prioritised key activities that address local needs and priorities.
By leveraging interdisciplinary expertise, the INPACC Hub will accelerate transformative climate-resilient development and ignite change for a sustainable future in the Indo-Pacific. This aligns to the University’s ambition to support positive outcomes in the region.
Read more about MCF's activities and impacts in its 2023 Annual Report
Our sustainability strategy
At the University of Melbourne, our efforts in sustainability are guided by Sustainability Plan 2030 - a roadmap for sustainable delivery of our institutional strategy Advancing Melbourne.
Read more about how we are advancing sustainability at the University:
