News and Events
December 2011
14 December: This year ARIES co-hosted a Christmas party at Macquarie University with Louise Metcalf and her team from Pax Leader labs. Presentations covered the pressing need for change in business, and inspired us with what some business leaders are doing right now. Louise also talked about her experience over the past three years creating better leaders for high performing organisations. And we launched our new corporate offering - Sustainability in a Box!
November 2011
14 November: ARIES Guest Speaker Dr Jason Leadbitter
PVC - Story of a Controversial Substance
"God created 90 elements, but the devil created one: chlorine." (Greenpeace)
- The problems with PVC
- Greenpeace's attack on PVC
- How the Body Shop, Tesco, Forum for the Future and The Natural Step became involved
- The strengths and benefits of PVC
- The role of life cycle analysis
- The challenges of making a more sustainable PVC
- The new 10-year sustainability plan for the European PVC industry
Bio: Jason has had 23 years experience working within the PVC industry, now as Sustainability and Compliance Manager at INEOS ChlorVinyls, Europe’s largest PVC producer. He has an active European role in a number of trade associations, especially on environmental and waste management issues, and is the current Chairman of the Controlled-Loop Recycling Committee of VinylPlus – the European PVC industry voluntary commitment. Jason is the author of a number of books and publications especially on issues relating to sustainability.
September 2011
21 September: Dr Alice Woodhead presented a one-day ARIES workshop to the Lachlan CMA.
Systems Thinking for Resilient NRM.
A practical introduction to systems thinking and complex adaptive systems.
July 2011
1 July: ARIES announced that its partnership with the Macquarie University Faculty of Business and Economics was successful in gaining a grant from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage to develop an Energy Efficiency Training Program for accounting and business management projects. The program will consist of three courses:
- Training for practising accountants who have Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) and personal clients
- Training for accountants in improving greenhouse gas measurement and reporting in large energy users
- Developing dedicated sections on accounting and reporting for energy efficiency within undergraduate and postgraduate units at Macquarie University.
The first two courses will be delivered by CPA Australia.
The project team will be assisted by leading experts on sustainability and energy efficiency including Mr Nick Ridehalgh (Director of KPMG), Mr Steven Beletich (Beletich & Associates), and Mr Andrew Petersen (CEO of Sustainable Business Australia).
June 2011
1 June: ARIES launched the following free sustainability teaching materials.
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
The Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations commissioned ARIES to develop a module in energy efficiency and renewable energy for students in the tertiary education sector, as part of the Skills for the Carbon Challenge initiative.
It is designed to provide students with the understanding, skills and capabilities to incorporate concerns about energy efficiency, energy effectiveness and renewable energy into their personal and working lives. The modular construction of the unit allows teachers and lecturers to either utilise the content within existing courses, or to develop new short courses.
More details here.
Indigenous Concepts of Country and Sustainability
The Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations also commissioned ARIES, as part of the Skills for the Carbon Challenge initiative, to develop a 3-hour Indigenous Concepts of Country and Sustainability module that could be inserted across a variety of university curricula – particularly within non-technical courses including business, education, arts, health and other social sciences.
The Indigenous concept of Country provides an excellent way for students to engage with systemic thinking and sustainability. It is the holistic engagement of a person with a specific physical location that is both symbolic and real. Australian Indigenous people have a deep emotional connection to Country – they care for and nurture Country; visit Country; talk to Country; sing for Country; and feel sorry for Country. Country defines identity and with identity comes obligation to oneself, to others past, present and future, and to nature.
More details here.
April 2011
11 April: The Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) launched its new website of resources for learning and teaching sustainability. ARIES was commissioned by the ALTC to compile the Teaching Toolkit for this website. The toolkit comprises a database of teaching materials to incorporate sustainability into the higher education curriculum, and is searchable by discipline area or by issue.
Visit the ALTC's Learning and Teaching Sustainability website here.
Two ARIES projects were launched at the same time:
- A module in energy efficiency and renewable energy for students in the tertiary education sector, commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations as part of the Skills for the Carbon Challenge initiative.
- A teaching module in Indigenous Concepts of Country and Sustainability for students in the higher education sector, also commissioned by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations as part of the Skills for the Carbon Challenge initiative.
February 2011
15 February: "Where Public Policy and Sustainability Intersect". Prof Suzanne Benn was invited to facilitate this discussion with David Bell, General Manager Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, Westpac, as part of the A&NZSustain's Roundtable Series.
January 2011
28 January: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's remarks to the World Economic Forum session on redefining sustainable development, in Davos, Switzerland.
Key points:
- Our current over-consumption is a 'suicide pact'.
- We need a free-market revolution for global sustainability.
- The one resource that is scarcest of all: time.
To read his short talk, click here.
January: Publication of new book by Prof Suzanne Benn and Dianne Bolton, Key Concepts in Corporate Social Responsibility.
24 January: Prof Suzanne Benn is appointed as a Trustee of the Western Sydney Parklands Trust.
Click here to go to the Western Sydney Parklands website.
December 2010
December: Tomorrow Today was published by UNESCO this month. ARIES was invited to contribute to this international publication, and the chapter titled 'Contributing to sustainable development' was written by Suzanne Benn and Jessica North.
Click here for more information, and purchasing details (PDF <1 MB).
8-10 December: Prof Suzanne Benn with Prof Dexter Dunphy and Dr Bruce Perrott introduced their upcoming publication Teaching Sustainability with Cases at the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management Conference, 'Managing for Unknowable Futures', in Adelaide.
September 2010
30 September: Inaugural summit: Sustainability in key professions: Accountancy.
Quay Grand Suites, Sydney.
Prof Suzanne Benn began the program which included speakers from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, CPA Australia, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
More details here.July 2010
20 July: Online publication of talk by Prof Suzanne Benn, 'Managing sustainably', in Clegg S (ed.) Managing Organizations: Fundamentals and latest thinking, The Marketing &
Management Collection, Henry Stewart Talks Ltd, London.
To view the online talk at the Henry Stewart website, click here.
5 July: Prof Suzanne Benn invited to judge the ProSPER.Net-Scopus Young Researcher Award in Sustainable Development 2010, held in Shanghai. This annual award is sponsored by Elsevier.
Prof Peng Zhou, shown here with Prof Suzanne Benn, was the winner of the sustainable development category.
More details at the United Nations University website here.
A podcast of interviews with the winners is available here.
June 2010
7 June: Prof Suzanne Benn elected to Executive of the Organizations and Natural Environment Division of the Academy of Management's Publications Team.
More details at the AOM website here.
May 2010
17 May: ARIES seminar on Corporate Social Responsibility. Presenter Prof. Richard Welford.
More details and video of the talk here.
March 2010
25 March: Macquarie University joined international State of the Planet 2010 global video link-up.
February 2010
8 February: ARIES Seminar: Beyond competitive advantage: Sustainable supply chains and the promotion of human wellbeing
PRESENTER: Prof Clive Smallman, Faculty of Commerce, Lincoln University, New Zealand
December 2009
12 December: Prof Suzanne Benn was interviewed by Westpac about how customers juggle various aspects when making sustainability-related purchases.
Visit the Westpac website here to read their article and listen online to Suzanne's response.
11 December: ARIES praised by international study
ARIES was one of several Australian practices singled out for praise in a recent report from the International Alliance of Leading Education Institutions titled Climate Change and Sustainable Development: the Response from Education.
Recommendations in the report include:
- integrating Education for Sustainability into school practices
- expanding the Education for Sustainability research base
- more training opportunities for teachers
- focusing on the skills to live sustainably.
Dr Dianne Chambers, from the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education, prepared the Australian component of the report. More details are available here (University of Melbourne).
9 December: Sustainability and Future Supply Chain Workshop
This half-day workshop provided a practical, realistic introduction to the Thinking Systems framework for understanding and planning organisational innovation and sustainability in supply chains. Presented by:
-
Dr Alice Woodhead (founder and Director of Link Strategy)
- Prof Suzanne Benn (co-author of Organizational Change for Corporate Sustainability and Director of ARIES)
November 2009
17 November: Inaugural Sustainability Roundtable Forum
Skills for the New Economy: Accountancy
The Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES) hosted the first sustainability roundtable forum. The following organisations participated:
- Australian Institute of Company Directors
- CPA Australia
- Financial Services Institute of Australasia
- Australian Accounting Standards Board / Financial Reporting Council
- International Accounting Standards Board
- Australian Institute of Company Directors
- Business/Higher Education Round Table
- Council of Environment Business
- Professions Australia
- Skills Australia
- St James Ethics Centre
- Ernst & Young
- Pricewaterhouse Coopers
- Westpac
- Universities Australia
- UNSW
- University Technology, Sydney
- University of Queensland
- Monash University
- Macquarie University
The forum was sponsored by the Australian Department of the Environment, Water Heritage and the Arts and addressed the issues below:
- There is concern about the preparedness of many businesses to address looming issues such as the carbon economy.
- It is difficult for businesses to obtain reliable advice on future needs and the reporting systems required to address those needs.
- There is a projected shortage of Australian accounting professionals qualified to address future issues.
- There are limited opportunities for accounting professionals to acquire appropriate skills.
- There is a lack of consensus as to what those skills should be.
- Financial constraints apply to university schools of accounting.
- There is little opportunity for business, the accounting profession, government and the universities to engage in open dialogue on future challenges with regard to accounting, accountability, governance and the skills needed to provide for future needs.
12 November: Prof Suzanne Benn was an invited panel member at the 2009 Sustainability Conference in New Zealand. Eco efficient or eco effective: what should we expect from sustainable businesses in 2012? Conference Theme: The Sustainability Debate: The Way Forward Massey University, Albany Campus, Auckland, New Zealand. For more information download the flyer here.
2 November: Prof Suzanne Benn gave a keynote presentation The Role for Community Education and Engagement at the Local Government Forum, Creating Sustainable Communities through Learning, Darling Harbour, Sydney. For further details: www.gemsevents.com.au/educationforum/index.shtml.
October 2009
30 October: Prof Suzanne Benn was invited to join a panel discussion on sustainability and its application in business, economics and regulation for the Macquarie University Faculty of Business and Economics Higher Degree Research (HDR) Expo at the Hilton Hotel, Sydney
21 October: Prof Suzanne Benn and Robert Perey gave an ARIES seminar and interactive workshop presentation: Learning & Change for Sustainability: Using education to enhance your program outcomes at the Australian Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage & the Arts, Canberra.
7 October: Chelliah J and Benn S (2009) HP Australia: Sustainability in Supply Chain Strategies, International Conference on Business and Information, Kuala Lumpur. bai2009.org/file/Pages/Strategy.htm
1 October: Prof Suzanne Benn gave a workshop presentation: Learning sustainability through systemic change, at the 9th International Conference of Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability, Macquarie University, Sydney.
September 2009
7 September: Robert Perey (ARIES) & Wendy Goldstein (Macquarie University's, Graduate School of the Environment) presented a session on environmental management with a corporate governance framework at the Australasian Correctional Leadership Program.
August 2009
29 August: Prof Suzanne Benn was invited to be a panel member for the panel session, Education for Sustainable Development, at the ACPET National Conference, Leading Learning in Times of Change. National Convention Centre, Canberra, ACT. http://www.acpetconference.info/
7 August: Prof Suzanne Benn contributed to a professional development workshop, Greening and Sustainability Across the Management Curriculum, at the Academy of Management Conference, Chicago. Action research as an approach to integrating sustainability into MBA programs: an exploratory study. http://meeting.aomonline.org/2009/ Prof Benn described the function and history of ARIES, with a focus on the MBA Action Research Projects.
July 2009
27 July: ARIES hosted a talk by Dr Noa Avriel-Avni, Post-doctoral fellow, Environmental Education Ramon Science Center, Ben Gurion Universit, Israel.
Title: A school-based network of environmental monitoring - An opportunity to develop the link between ecological literacy, environmental activism and sense of place.
Eleven schools from the Jewish and Bedouin populations in Israel, and from the city of Aqaba in Jordan are involved in this project. Each school becomes a site to monitor long term processes in the fields of climate, ecology, geomorphology and sociology. The cooperation developed between the school communities serves as a peace bridge between different social communities of the Negev and in other neighboring areas of the Middle East. www.pr.mq.edu.au/events/index.asp?ItemID=3851
June 2009
4–5 June: On behalf of DEWHA, Prof Suzanne Benn attended the ProSPER.Net General Assembly and the First Annual Symposium on Sustainability in Business Education at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. www.conferencealerts.com/seeconf.mv?q=ca1m036m
3 June: Prof Suzanne Benn was invited to be a Judge, Category of Business, for the first annual ProSPER.Net-Scopus Young Scientist Awards in Sustainable Development, Thailand. www.ias.unu.edu/sub_page.aspx?catID=108&ddlID=696
May 2009
12 May: Launch at UNSW of a special issue of the Journal of Environmental Management, edited by Paul Brown and Suzanne Benn 4 April 2009.
Brown P and Benn S (2009) “Toxic risk and governance: the case of hexachlobenzene’, Special issue, Toxic Risk and Governance, P Brown & S Benn (Eds), Journal of Environmental Management. Volume 90, Issue 4, Pages 1557-1558.
Benn S, Brown P and North-Samardzic A (2009). Decision-making in the “risk society”: challenges for organisational legitimacy and governance. Special issue, Toxic Risk and Governance, P Brown & S Benn (Eds), Journal of Environmental Management. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2008.05.021. Volume 90, Issue 4, April 2009, Pages 1655-1662.
Benn S and Jones R (2009). Forming corporate identity: symbolic capital, industry perspectives and community participation. Special issue. P Brown & S Benn (Eds), Journal of Environmental Management. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2008.05.014. Volume 90, Issue 4, April 2009, pages1593-1604.
Benn S, Dunphy D and Martin A (2009). New forms of governance: the relationship between corporations, government and communities. Special issue. Toxic Risk and Governance P Brown & S Benn (Eds), Journal of Environmental Management.
6 May: Prof Suzanne Benn gave a seminar about ARIES to the Macquarie University School of Biological Sciences.
April 2009
2–3 April: Prof Suzanne Benn participated as a member of the Expert Panel, Taking the Lead in Climate Change, 7th Annual Higher Education Summit, Melbourne. www.highereducationsummit.com.au.
Feburary 2009
6 February: Prof Suzanne Benn participated as a member of the Expert Panel in the Local Government Conference 'Governance for Sustainabilty', 5-6 February, Luna Park.
27 February: Prof Suzanne Benn was invited by the NSW Premier to participate in the Green Skills workshop. www.det.nsw.edu.au/industryprograms/green_skills/greenskills.htm
January 2009
23 January: Prof Suzanne Benn participated in a roundtable with Sustainability Victoria and the Sustainability Educators group in Melbourne.
22 January: Prof Suzanne Benn visited Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne to advise on integrating sustainability into the undergraduate business school curriculum.