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For the business and industry sector

A national review of environmental education and its contribution to sustainability in Australia: Volume 4 Business and Industry Education

This project identified, at a strategic level, the status and needs of sustainability education in the key sectors of formal education, industry and the community in Australia. The final report is in five volumes, with summary findings available for each volume.

• Volume 4: Business and Industry Education (2005) 

Industry sustainability

The objective of this research was to examine the range of resources which exist to help business and industry engage with sustainability concepts and to assess the practicality and usefulness of those products. The final report is Industry Sustainability Toolkit Project - A review of sustainability resources for industry (2005) 

Stage 2: An action research project engaged participants from large Australian companies and organisations in managing change towards sustainability. The organisations were Amcor, BHP Billiton, National Australia Bank, Parramatta City Council, Toyota, VISY, Wesley Mission, Westpac and Yarra Valley Water. Participants developed and implemented internal action plans to assess and improve the effectiveness of sustainability practices and processes within their organisations.

In addition, the research produced a practical resource booklet to assist a broad range of organisations, entitled Shifting Towards Sustainability - Six insights into successful organisational change for sustainability (2006) 

Education for and about sustainability within Australian business schools

To achieve the cultural change needed to ensure tomorrow's business leaders know the principles of sustainability, MBA courses and business schools need to be engaged in education for sustainability. This project: examined the current level of education about and for sustainability within business school courses, identified best practice in Australia and benchmarked it against international standards; and made recommendations for action. The final report about this project is Education for and about sustainability within Australian business schools (2005) .

Stage 2: ARIES worked closely with seven of Australia's leading business schools to achieve change towards sustainability in their MBA courses and business professional short courses.  The project resulted in increased staff capacity, new sustainability courses, new curriculum material, including case studies, industry partnerships and an increased profile of sustainability within the business schools. A summary of findings is entitled Embedding sustainability in MBA programs (2006) 

Stage 3:  This project aimed to accelerate effective sustainability practices by sharing experiences, and developing and strengthening partnerships between business schools and corporations. The project engaged sustainability champions from a selection of Australia business schools and corporations. The report is Education about and for Sustainability in Australian business schools Stage 3: Partnering business schools with corporations (2009) 

Professional development in climate change adaptation

This project assisted in mainstreaming climate change adaptation within accredited professional education. Using an action inquiry process, change agents within selected professional accrediting bodies investigated realistic and relevant ways of improving the quality of training and education of engineers, architects and planners so that they can make informed and effective contributions to climate change adaptation. The project partners were:

• Engineers Australia
• Royal Australian Institute of Architects
• Planning Institute of Australia
• Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture

The report is Shifting Towards Sustainability: Education for climate change adaptation in the built environment sector (2007)