Publications

Amin, N, Foster, T, Shimki, NT & Willetts, J 2024, 'Hospital wastewater (HWW) treatment in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review of microbial treatment efficacy', Science of The Total Environment, vol. 921, pp. 170994-170994.
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Csereklyei, Z, Dwyer, S, Kallies, A & Economou, D 2024, 'The role of community-scale batteries in the energy transition: Case studies from Australia's National Electricity Market', Journal of Energy Storage, vol. 93, pp. 112277-112277.
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Davila, F, Jacobs, B, Nadeem, F, Kelly, R & Kurimoto, N 2024, 'Finding climate smart agriculture in civil-society initiatives', Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, vol. 29, no. 2.
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AbstractInternational civil society and non-government organisations (NGOs) play a role in implementing agricultural projects, which contribute to the mitigation, adaptation, and food security dimensions of climate-smart agriculture (CSA). Despite the growth of CSA, it remains unclear how CSA is designed, conceptualised, and embedded into agricultural development projects led and implemented by NGOs, creating a lack of clarity as to the direction of future of agricultural development interventions. This paper examines the extent to which development programmes from the NGO sector actively incorporate CSA principles to benefit smallholder farmers under the major pillars of CSA. Drawing from six projects’ documentation since 2009, we conducted a thematic analysis to reveal the alignment of projects with the pillars of CSA and discuss the extent to which CSA allows for localised adaptability given the diverse agricultural contexts in which civil society and NGOs work. We find that despite a lack of clarity in CSA definition and focus, the agricultural practices in the six projects make heterogenous contributions to the adoption of CSA principles. We illustrate the diversity of ways in which CSA is ‘done’ by a global NGO across six areas: greening and forests, practices and knowledge exchange, markets, policy and institutions, nutrition, carbon and climate, and gender. We discuss the need for balance in contextual adaptability across the three pillars of CSA with explicit consideration of trade-offs to reduce unintended outcomes from CSA initiatives. We conclude with reflections on the role of civil society and NGOs as boundary agents in the agricultural development sector.

Fane, SA, Liu, A & Falletta, J 2024, 'Assessing minimum water efficiency standards for plumbing products in homes and business', Water Supply, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 1164-1175.
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ABSTRACT This paper describes a study that used end-use-based stock modelling to develop water, energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) savings forecasts for policy options. These options were alternative mechanisms for imposing minimum water efficiency standards on the fixtures and appliances within buildings. The study demonstrates how both residential and non-residential sub-sectors can be modelled, using demographic and industry forecasts and other available data sources, using an end-use/stock modelling approach. Specifically, the study modelled the expected water, energy and GHG savings from potential minimum water efficiency standards for plumbing products and appliances in homes and business in Australia. It discusses the relative merits of mechanisms for implementing the proposed minimum standards via: a sustainable building planning measure – such as the Building Sustainability Index (BASIX) in New South Wales; the Australian Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards (WELS) scheme; or via plumbing regulations within the National Construction Code (NCC). The paper concludes that as well as being a useful mechanism for imposing minimum standards in itself, a star-rating system such as WELS offers advantages in developing and modelling water efficiency policy options. The approach described can support decision-making on policies that improve water efficiency across building types.

Genter, F, Putri, GL, Handayani, R, Priadi, C, Willetts, J & Foster, T 2024, 'Evaluation of a participatory citizen approach to monitor microbial water quality of self-supply in urban Indonesia', Urban Water Journal, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 272-284.
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Gordon, E, Davila, F & Riedy, C 2024, 'Designing accreditation systems that enhance the transformative potential of regenerative agriculture: an action-oriented case study on discursive institutionalization', Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, vol. 48, no. 5, pp. 713-736.
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Graham-Nye, J, Florin, N & Retamal, M 2024, 'Windows of opportunity: The power dynamics in the disposable nappy regime and opportunities for niche innovations', Cleaner and Responsible Consumption, vol. 12, pp. 100169-100169.
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Horn, EK, Joyce, A, Chowdhury, RB, Caputo, S, Jacobs, B, Winkler, M & Proksch, G 2024, 'Translating Environmental Potential to Economic Reality: Assessment of Commercial Aquaponics through Sustainability Transitions Theory', Circular Economy and Sustainability, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 523-554.
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Ibrahim, IA, Choudhury, T, Sargeant, J, Shah, R, Hossain, MJ & Islam, S 2024, 'CEREI: An open-source tool for Cost-Effective Renewable Energy Investments', SoftwareX, vol. 26, pp. 101708-101708.
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Kabisch, N, Hornick, T, Bumberger, J, Krämer, R, Legg, R, Masztalerz, O, Bastl, M, Simon, JC, Treudler, R & Dunker, S 2024, 'Monitoring and perception of allergenic pollen in urban park environments', Landscape and Urban Planning, vol. 250, pp. 105133-105133.
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Khakmardan, S, Li, W, Giurco, D & Crawford, R 2024, 'Life cycle assessment of lithium carbonate production: Comparing sedimentary deposits', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 467, pp. 142955-142955.
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Lee, T, Wearne, S, Wakefield-Rann, R & Scardifield, K 2024, 'Enabling factors and critical extensions for the algal-based bioplastics industry', Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 457, pp. 142365-142365.
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Legg, R & Kabisch, N 2024, 'The effects of allergenic pollen in green space on mental health, behaviour and perceptions: A systematic review', Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, vol. 92, pp. 128204-128204.
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Madden, B & Florin, N 2024, 'Characterisation of household single-use packaging flows through a municipal waste system: A material flow analysis for New South Wales, Australia', Heliyon, vol. 10, no. 12, pp. e32878-e32878.
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Miyake, S, Teske, S, Rispler, J & Feenstra, M 2024, 'Solar and wind energy potential under land-resource constrained conditions in the Group of Twenty (G20)', Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 202, pp. 114622-114622.
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Priadi, CR, Suleeman, E, Darmajanti, L, Putri, GL, Genter, F, Foster, T & Willetts, J 2024, 'Policy and regulatory context for self-supplied drinking water services in two cities in Indonesia: Priorities for managing risks', Environmental Development, vol. 49, pp. 100940-100940.
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Riedy, C 2024, 'Earth for all: Five policy turnarounds for a sustainable world', Action Research, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 196-200.
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The second in the new series of reviews for Action Research Journal is inspired by, and aims to contribute to, this journal’s focus on transformations towards sustainability. How can we, as action researchers, connect our emancipatory, grassroots work with the big global transformations needed to bring forth a just, harmonious and thriving world? When so much needs to transform, where do we start? In 2022, the Club of Rome offered a possible response in a new report called Earth for All, also published as a book and supporting website. Framed as ‘a survival guide for humanity’, Earth for All calls for ‘five extraordinary policy turnarounds’: ending poverty; addressing gross inequality; empowering women; making our food system healthy for people and ecosystems; and transitioning to clean energy. It is ‘an aspirational, stubbornly optimistic guide to the future’ (p. 26). It argues that action on these five big issues could give us the momentum we need to transform the economy in support of sustainability. Action researchers can help to give this agenda momentum by bringing it into our conversations with citizens and facilitating spaces for dialogue and agonism.

Tahir, F, Dwyer, S & Kelly, S 2024, 'Emergent opportunities and barriers on the feasibility of microgrids: Qualitative findings from an Australian funding program', Energy Research & Social Science, vol. 109, pp. 103423-103423.
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Wearne, S & Riedy, C 2024, 'Whose “place” is it? Using corpus-based techniques to sketch place-based sustainability discourses in public and academic forums', Sustainability Science, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 883-904.
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AbstractCalls for a “place-based” approach to sustainability are increasingly common in the field of sustainability transitions and transformations (STT). To critically explore the agendas and politics a call towards place carries, we undertook a corpus-assisted discourse study (CADS) to examine a sample of public and academic texts from 2019 to 2020. Two distinct discourses about place were evident: an environmental discourse framing place as an assemblage of more-than-human constituents and an anthropocentric discourse framing place as a human community. These discourses present vastly different priorities about which species matter, what change entails, and what kind of future we should create. Our findings reflect the emergence of a discourse coalition that advocates for a place-based approach to STT, and we discuss how this viewpoint has continued to emerge since the compilation of our data. Our paper provides an overview of the discursive landscape we encountered, synthesises a central narrative about place-based STT based on what we observed, and provides a critical discussion of the tensions and opportunities that this narrative raises. In doing so, we suggest there remains an opportunity for fruitful dialogue amongst sustainability educators, sustainability practitioners, and researchers to refine what a place-based approach to STT looks like. By demonstrating an application of CADS, we hope to show how digital tools and techniques can be used to research discourses in sustainability. We outline specific opportunities to take this forward, including a broad opportunity to use web-derived corpora to help survey discursive landscapes, and a more specific application to explore discursive dynamics between communities, places, and at different spatial scales.

Foster, T & Priadi, C 1970, 'Self-supply and market-based approaches for safe drinking water in lower income countries', 10th World Water Forum, Bali.

Foster, T & UNICEF Pacific 1970, 'Financing Water, Sanitation & Hygiene in the Pacific', 10th World Water Forum, Bali.

Foster, T, Willetts, J, Priad, C, Al'Afghani, MM & Daniel 1970, 'Future-proofing community-based rural water supply', 10th World Water Forum.

Langdon, R, Berry, F, Barreto Lara, H, Giurco, D, Mendonca Severiano, B, Northey, S, Farjana, SH & Li, W 1970, 'Voluntary ESG reporting for Australian battery minerals: evolving context and future directions', 2nd AP Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems, Gold Coast, Australia.

Mendonca Severiano, B, Northey, S & Giurco, D 1970, 'Mining Industry Networks and Eco-innovation Diffusion in the Battery Minerals Sector', 4th LA Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems, Viña Del Mar, Chile.

Miyake, S & Teske, S 1970, 'Are lands sufficient for solar and onshore wind in the Group of Twenty (G20) and Australia to supply 2050 electricity demands?', The State of Energy Research Conference 2024, Perth, Australia.

Berry, F, Keegan, S, Renouf, J, Sadegh Koohestani, S & New, M UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures 2024, Is the Northern Rivers food system resilient? Northern Rivers food security scoping study, Lismore NSW.

Chowdhury, TJ, Gero, A, Winterford, K, Lemau, C, Kaiyanuyanu, I & Vakacegu, P University of Technology Sydney, Institute for Sustainable Futures 2024, Community Resilience in the Pacific: Research exploring monitoring, evaluation and learning – A learning Report, University of Technology Sydney.

Davila Cisneros, F, Berry, F, Grant, M & Willetts, J Australian Water Partnership 2024, Briefing paper: Gender and social inclusion in the Pacific water–food nexus, Canberra, ACT.

Gero, A & Chowdhury, T Australia Pacific Climate Partnership 2024, The Economics of Acting Early Evidence of climate and disaster actions in the Pacific, Australia.

Gero, A, Chowdhury, TJ, Winterford, K, Lemau, C, Kaiyanuyanu, I & Vakacegu, P University of Technology Sydney, Institute for Sustainable Futures 2024, Insights into Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning of Community Resilience: Application of a Community Resilience Framework- Technical Report, University of Technology Sydney.

Rispler, J, Dwyer, S, Roche, D, Fane, S & White, S ARENA 2024, Domestic Hot Water and Flexibility, University of Technology Sydney.
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Rousso, B, Willetts, J, Foster, T & Amin, N UTS-ISF 2024, A literature review of current and emerging water and sanitation technologies for health-care facilities, Sydney.

Rousso, B, Willetts, J, Foster, T & Amin, N UTS-ISF 2024, Water and sanitation technologies for healthcare facilities: selecting options for adoption and scale-up in the Western Pacific Region, Sydney.

Teske, S & Miyake, S Institute for Sustainable Futures 2024, Ukraine: Mapping the Energy Opportunities, Solar and Wind Assessment, report prepared for Greenpeace Germany, Sydney.

Teske, S, Feenstra, M, Miyake, S, Rispler, J, Niklas, S & Mohseni, S Institute for Sustainable Futures 2024, Rwanda: Energy Development Plan to decarbonize the Economy, Sydney.
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Power Shift Africa and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) developed a comprehensive energy pathway for Rwanda that is aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement goals and builds on Rwanda’s Energy Policy 2015 plan.

Teske, S, Feenstra, M, Miyake, S, Rispler, J, Niklas, S & Mohseni, S Institute for Sustainable Futures 2024, Tanzania: Energy Development Plan to decarbonize the Economy, Sydney.
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Power Shift Africa and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) developed a comprehensive energy pathway for Tanzania that is aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement goals and builds on the first energy concept for Tanzania published by UTS and Bread for the World in June 2017.

Teske, S, Feenstra, M, Rispler, J, Miyake, S, Niklas, S & Mohseni, S Institute for Sustainable Futures 2024, Kenya: Energy Development Plan to decarbonize the Economy, Sydney.
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Power Shift Africa and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) developed a comprehensive energy pathway for Kenya that is aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement goals.

Csereklyei, Z, Dwyer, S, Kallies, A & Economou, D 2024, 'The Role of Community-Scale Batteries in the Energy Transition: Case Studies from Australia's National Electricity Market', Elsevier BV.
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Khara, T 2024, 'Exploring Cultural Perspectives on Eating Farmed Animals versus Dogs and Cats'.

Khara, T 2024, 'The link between animal-directed violence and human well-being: Worker experiences in Vietnam’s dog and cat meat trade'.

Lai, F, Muller, S, Saldivar, JS, Philippe, A, Beylot, A, Collignon, V, Reys, A, Lefebvre, G, Leguerinel, M, da Silva Lima, L, Boone, L, Dewulf, J, Sakatadi, GN, Blengini, GA, Fons, AM, Koyamparambath, A, Sonnemann, G, Istrate, R, Xicotencatl, BM, Steubing, B, Aski, AM, Helbig, C, Northey, S, Segura-Salazar, J, Balboa-Espinoza, V, Paschalidou, I, Awuah-Offei, K, Yokoi, R, Islam, K, Motoshita, M, Murakami, S, Cerdas, F, Superti, V, Sonderegger, T, Cimprich, A & Young, S 2024, 'The global environmental footprint of metal commodities'.

Mills, F, Foster, T, Kome, A, Munankami, R, Halcrow, G, Ndungu, A, Evans, B & Willetts, J 2024, 'How safe is safely managed on-site sanitation? What we need to know beyond global monitoring', Research Square Platform LLC.
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Motoshita, M, Yokoi, R, Greffe, T, Jolliet, O, Alvarenga, R, Beylot, A, Drielsma, J, Huppertz, T, Kumar, M, Northey, S, Owsianiak, M, Pastor, A, Pradinaud, C, Pfister, S, Schulze, R & Grant, T 2024, 'Recommended model for the endpoint assessment of mineral resource use in GLAM3 project'.