Dr Damien Giurco, Leah Mason & Carlia Cooper, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney; Geoff Evans, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology, Sydney, University of Newcastle, Australia; Kieren Moffat & Anna Littleboy, CSIRO Minerals Down Under Flagship, Australia
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The ways in which Australia’s minerals resources are used to support sustainable futures merits serious and broad discussion. This paper reviews the issues associated with minerals and sustainability and the contemporary responses to these issues by stakeholders at the global, national and local scale.
A framework for integrating minerals and sustainability - the Mineral Resources Landscape - is used to map the contemporary issues and stakeholder activities relative to each other and provides a platform for discussion of further research questions required to position the Australian minerals sector as ‘metals service provider’ in a sustainable future.
This research begins part of a three year ‘Mineral Futures’ collaboration between universities and CSIRO exploring commodity futures, technology futures and mineral-rich regions in transition.
BIOS:
Damien Giurco is a Research Director at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, UTS with research interests in industrial ecology, resource futures and sustainable production and consumption. He is currently leading the Mineral Futures program of work at UTS as part of a CSIRO-funded collaboration cluster exploring commodity, technology and regional futures. His PhD research was recently published as a book entitled Copper Cycles: Modelling Material Flows, Technologies and Environmental Impacts (VDM-Verlag, 2009).
Geoff Evans researches ecosystem health/human health links, sustainability and social change theory. He is currently researching potential for A Just Transition to Sustainability in a Climate Change Hot-spot: The Hunter Valley, Australia. He has worked for non-government organisations, government agencies and as a consultant providing strategic research, and advocacy support to communities affected by mining, energy, and climate change issues in Australia and internationally. He currently teaches at the University of Newcastle.
Carlia Cooper has tertiary qualifications in Civil Engineering and Environmental Science from Griffith University and was awarded the University Medal. Carlia then worked as a consultant in these fields and is currently a PhD candidate and research assistant at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney. Her research is aimed at informing sustainability policy and the management of Australia’s mineral resources.
Leah Mason is a Research Assistant at the Institute for Sustainable Futures and has undertaken research on a range of resource sustainability projects, focussing on the social and environmental drivers for more efficient processes, in particular the impact of extended producer responsibility and Peak Oil on production consumption cycles.
Anna Littleboy established minerals and sustainability research as a theme within CSIRO and championed its significance as an issue of national importance warranting National Research Flagship status.
She is now Deputy Director for Minerals Down Under Flagship and is heavily involved in its management and internal and external collaborations, in particular the Mineral Futures Research Cluster. She is also part of the Global Scenarios on the Future of Mining & Metals run by the World Economic Forum.
Kieren Moffat is a social scientist working for the Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship at CSRIO. Kieren has a PhD in social and organisational psychology and is working within the Mineral Futures Initiative to assist the Flagship, and the minerals industry generally, to prepare for the sustainability challenges of the future. This Initiative has a particular focus on how social science can add value to efforts to achieve sustainability.