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 #1 University in Australia for Natural Sciences (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024), 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
A group of people attentively watching a demonstration of 3D printers in a workshop setting.

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

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
A row of large server cabinets decorated with colorful nebula imagery in a modern data center.

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
A laptop, microphone, headphones, and audio mixer on a textured gray surface, suggesting a podcast or recording setup.

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

News

Two men  outdoors

In this collaborative project, researchers are working to develop future satellites for fire management by using traditional Indigenous knowledge and collaborating on remote sensing technology to help manage wildfires.

Read the article
Satellie photo of the globe

Australia’s access to space services depends almost entirely on satellites owned and run by foreign governments and companies. In an increasingly uncertain world, having our own sovereign space technology is becoming even more important for security.

Read the article
Environment placards

The cost of living has been dominating headlines this election campaign, but an ANU expert assures young people they can still vote for climate action.

Read the article
Headshot of a man

Professor Mark Howden will deliver his final State of the Climate address at the 2025 ANU Climate Update.

Read the article
Group of wallabies eating

We need more fox-free safe havens and greater collaboration between government and landowners to ensure the survival of the Parma wallaby.

Read the article
illustration of mountain landscape

When scientists observed snow gums dying in huge numbers, they immediately suspected a beetle might be the culprit. The next step seemed easy: catch some beetles. But this is a story about what it’s like to tackle an entirely new problem, so nothing is easy. Not even catching some beetles.

Read the article