Environment & Sustainability

Environment & Sustainability

About

The ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society is one of the few places where economists and hydrologists, historians and ecologists, foresters, geographers, political scientists and climatologists work together on the environmental challenges and opportunities facing us.

Ranked 24th in the world (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2016), we are a major focus for integrated environmental research and training. Through links to other ANU schools, external research organisations and the policy community, we bring our skills and perspectives to bear on issues such as biodiversity loss, water, energy, drought and climate change.

We offer perspectives on complex environmental and sustainable development challenges, drawing on decades of quality empirical and applied research. Research focuses on understanding environmental changes across a range of scales in time and place, enabling the school to provide past, present and future narratives to guide science, policy and management.

The School has a particularly strong track record researching long-term environment and sustainability issues and challenges, and has extensive national and international networks with governments, NGOs, research organisations and the private sector, offering significant longitudinal expertise, knowledge and influence.

Of particular importance to us is our capacity to encourage sound policy and governance outcomes that support sustainability. We offer this guidance through a number of avenues: by providing professional development for policy leaders; training for environmental leadership; partnerships with practitioners; and offering support for those holding governance roles at local, state, territory, federal or global levels.

Facilities

Kioloa Campus

The 348-hectare ANU Kioloa Coastal Campus is one of Australia’s premier field stations, offering a diverse ecology which encourages research across all scientific disciplines.

View the facility

The ANU MakerSpace is an initiative by the Research School of Physics and Engineering, where we know people learn by doing.  

View the facility
Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary general manager Jason Cummings releases a bettong.

In partnership with the ACT Government and CSIRO, ANU researchers are working to improve box-gum grassy woodland for biodiversity at the Mulligans Flat and Goorooyarroo Nature Reserves.

View the facility
Mulloon Creek

A partnership between the ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society and the Mulloon Institute has allowed ANU students and researchers to study ecological farming principles at Mulloon Creek Natural Farms for 20 years.

View the facility
National Arboretum Canberra research site

The National Arboretum Canberra research site provides researchers with a unique environment to investigate climate variability, climate change, water use and precision measurement of trees and forests.

View the facility

The National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) is home to the Southern Hemisphere’s most highly-integrated supercomputer and filesystems, Australia’s highest performance research cloud, and one of the nation’s largest data catalogues—all supported by an expert team.

View the facility

The CPAS Podcast Studio is open to staff and students throughout ANU (not just scientists!) to record and grow podcast series. Your success is our success: we want to help you make the biggest and best podcast series in the world.  

View the facility
Science precinct

Our new $240-million science precinct on the ANU campus has state-of-the-art biological and chemical research laboratories, as well as a teaching hub.

View the facility

Designed by Eggleston, MacDonald and Secomb, the Forestry Building (#48) was officially opened on 16 May 1968 by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh with the unveiling of a wooden sculpture in the building’s main foyer.

View the facility

Articles

Two baby parrots

A new evaluation from ANU scientists of the number of swift parrots left in the wild has confirmed their population size is likely only a few hundred and declining rapidly. 

Read the article
Animals in a kitchen

What business does a wild animal have in contributing to our domestic bliss?

Read the article
man in the bush

How did Australia’s environment fare against this onslaught of global climate records? In short, 2023 was a year of opposites.

Read the article