More sustainability research
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Research and education
Enriching lives through research education
By placing sustainability at the heart of our research and education activities and integrating sustainable practices into campus life, we aim to be a place that drives social and environmental change.
Targets
- Put research excellence into practice through living labs on our campuses.
- Prioritise the development of high-quality sustainability research at the University
- Increase our capacity for sustainability education across the University
See the Sustainability Strategy 2020 (pdf, 3.1MB) Pillar 1: Strategies 1-6 for the complete list of targets.
Recent highlights
- Launched the Sydney Horizon Fellowship scheme, with $100 million to support leading researchers in the fields of climate change, health, and sustainability.
- Twelve multidisciplinary, international projects funded through the International Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Collaboration Program, an initiative for collaborative research projects run by the Office of Global Research Engagement.
See Sustainability Annual Report 2023 (pdf)*
Case studies
In 2023, the Sustainability team partnered with the University of Queensland Business School to deliver a pilot of Carbon Literacy Training for staff and students during Global Climate Change Week.
Highlights:
- 21 staff and 39 students certified as Carbon Literate.
- Support gained for the development of a University of Sydney-specific course and further roll-out in 2024.
Funding: Sustainability team
Project partners: The University of Queensland Business School, the University of Sydney Business School and Educational Innovation
The Sydney Environment Institute is undertaking a multidisciplinary project, led by Professor Danielle Celermajer (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) and Professor David Celermajer (Faculty of Medicine and Health), investigating the intersection of healthcare emissions and climate change.
The healthcare sector is responsible for 7% of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. This ongoing project seeks to measure emissions from medical procedures to enable the carbon cost of different procedures to be included in decision making, while also exploring barriers to environmental change in healthcare, and identifying pathways for policy development.
Funding: $1.56m from external foundation
Project partners: Sydney Environment Institute, Charles Perkins Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Health
Living Labs
We are engaging our staff and students in using our campuses as ‘living labs’ to create, test, evaluate, and implement new examples of sustainability research to solve infrastructure-related issues across our campuses.
Projects
Gelion Technologies, an Australian battery innovator, has installed six solar-powered benches at the Camperdown/Darlington Campus, taking its revolutionary battery technology to pre-market stage.
The Endure batteries that power the off-grid smart benches will be the first commercial installation for the company, which was spun-out from the University of Sydney by founder and chemist, Professor Thomas Maschmeyer.
Since the installation of these benches, Gelion has joined forces with Battery Energy Power Solutions to make and distribute the Gelion Endure zinc-bromide battery for the Australian market.
The Curriculum Garden was created to mark National Tree Day in 2021, with staff and students partnering with IndigiGrow, a local Aboriginal-owned social enterprise, to plant and create the garden. The garden has since won the prestigious Green Gown Award Australasia 2022 ‘Creating Impact’ and is currently a finalist in the Green Gown International Awards.
The Waste Transformation Research Hub (WTRH) specialises in research on the circular economy and how we can reuse and recycle material. They have developed a new formula eco-concrete pavement incorporating fly ash, ground recycled glass and importantly, carbon dioxide into the mix.
To test the composition of the concrete’s base components to find the optimum pouring ease and durability to make it ready for commercial use, the WTRH are testing it on campus.
The first concrete pavement can be found between the Engineering glasshouses and the Community Garden on the Darlington Campus with more pavements planned for this year, which will contribute to the University’s zero-waste-to-landfill target.