Christopher Dey

The University of Sydney · Centre for Integrated Sustainability Analysis (ISA)

In Australia, Coal Seam Gas (CSG) is a relatively new source of natural gas commonly advocated as a lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions alternative to coal. This study investigates how GHG emissions have been, and potentially could be, assessed within the Australian CSG industry. The research involved a document analysis of several Environmental I...

In this article, we develop a modelling approach which examines selected drivers of ecosystem functioning and agricultural productivity. In particular, we develop linkages between land use and biodiversity and between biodiversity and agricultural productivity. We review the literature for quantitative estimates of key relationships and their param...

Input-output table plays a central role in the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) method. This chapter presents an integrated and distributed computational modeling system capable of estimating and updating large-size input-output tables. The complexity of national economy leads to extremely large-size models to represent every d...

Input-output table plays a central role in the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) method. This chapter presents an integrated and distributed computational modeling system capable of estimating and updating large-size input-output tables. The complexity of national economy leads to extremely large-size models to represent every d...

This paper gives an overview of the construction techniques and methods used to assign greenhouse gas accounts to industry sectors and of the use of input-output analysis to subsequently calculate the carbon footprint of Australia. The work is motivated by the introduction of an emissions-trading scheme in Australia, and by the need for policy to b...

Businesses offering to make you or your company carbon neutral are proliferating on the Internet. The term carbon neutral is being defined by common usage. There are no standard ways of measuring your carbon emissions and so no standards for becoming carbon neutral. This paper examines eleven websites offering carbon neutrality. It compares online...

Taking social indicators and the triple bottom line as a jumping off point we discuss current approaches to social sustainability as part of the social welfare debate. We consider a broader systems framework in which everything is connected to everything else. We suggest life span as a fundamental social indicator and suggest a metaphor to convey i...

Modern living means consuming, and consuming causes resource depletion and environmental degradation. Environmental education and action plans for households typically focus on the environmental pressures associated directly with household requirements, such as electricity generation, the direct combustion of fuels and direct water use. Though impo...

The provision of food causes environmental impacts that range from local through to global in scale. Organic farming, used in general here to mean farming practices with a greater emphasis on long-term sustainability, is one general approach to reduce these impacts. Whilst organic farming may be argued to be superior to conventional farming on the...

This report Balancing Act, uses the well developed analytical approach of ‘generalised input-output analysis’ to develop a numerate triple bottom line account of the Australian economy for three financial, three social and four environmental indicators. For each of 135 economic sectors, every indicator is developed as an intensity, that is, per one...

For each dollar of final demand, primary production and its value added food and fibre products, have greenhouse, water and land disturbance intensities that are many times the average. These sectors are by definition physically intensive, but the prices we pay for the products reflect the marginal cost of production, rather than the full resource...

Not withstanding the traditional smokestack image of the manufacturing sectors, its overall TBL performance is reasonably balanced. Energy use and greenhouse emissions are above average while employment generation and income are below average. Many of the manufacturing sectors currently face strong competition from countries with lower wages and la...

Both private services (eg banking and insurance) and public services (eg health, education and community services) are characterised by environmental indicators that are well below the national averages. Commentators often use this profile to suggest the likely sustainability end point for the Australian economy, dominated by private service sector...

Triple Bottom Line accounting is widely advanced as a way in which firms can realise broader societal objectives in addition to increasing shareholder value. In our analysis of the Australian economy, we integrate financial input–output tables that describe the interdependencies between economic sectors, with national social and environmental accou...

Input-output modeling is a useful tool for tracing environmental impacts of consumption. Because it includes impacts originating from production layers of infinite order (capturing the entire economy), input-output modeling is highly relevant for studies operating in a life-cycle context. In this article we show how the input-output approach can be...

Supporting the lifestyles of the populations of modern cities requires vast quantities of natural resources and leads to environmental stresses such as air and water pollution. Research into the metabolism of cities therefore aims at understanding the physical flows into, within, and out of cities with a view to reducing the use of resources and th...

Australian Research Council funding has been granted to develop, build and test the first Multi Tower Solar Array (MTSA) prototype in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. The MTSA concept has been described in previous papers referenced and offers very high ground or roof coverage (>90%) by using an array of small towers or posts 8-12 m high on w...

It is intended to build and test a Multi Tower Solar Array (MTSA) prototype at the new CSIRO Energy Technology Centre in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. The MTSA concept can achieve very high ground or roof coverage (>90%) by using an array of small towers or posts 8 – 12 m high on which receivers are mounted. The aim of the MTSA is to addre...

The problem of climate change is complex, global, and long-term, and therefore difficult to grapple with for politicians, scientists, teachers, and students alike. Teachers in particular face the problem of presenting climate change in a way that is not abstract and distant. To engage the intellect as well as emotions, students need to feel persona...

An input–output study of the energy requirements for the manufacture of basic iron and steel products by the Australian steel industry is presented. The basis of this study is a decomposition of the total energy requirement per mass output of steel into partial requirements from industry sectors supplying the steel industry. A separation into diffe...

All renewable energy systems make some contribution to climate change. This is due to the emission of greenhouse gases from the fossil fuels combusted for their construction, and as back-up energy during their operation. Accurate calculation of greenhouse gas emissions per kilowatt hour of electricity is difficult, but is an important part of polic...

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided by many individuals and organizations in developing this paper. We are grateful for the financial support received from the ESRC, The Carnegie Trust and the ACCA who have funded ‐ or are continuing to fund ‐ elements of this research project. We wish to express out thanks to the staff at Traidcraft...

There is a wealth of studies on the trends of environmental pressures that demonstrate that the main driver for the level and increase of resource uses and pollutant emissions is private consumption, and predominantly that in industrialized countries (Parikh and Painuly 1994). As a consequence, demand-side measures for achieving sustainability appe...