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Strategic direction
Sustainable development
Latest Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report
Monash Progress Report 2020
Monash Progress Report 2020 – Goal 7

Monash Progress Report 2020 – Goal 7

Monash University Progress Report 2020 on the Sustainable Development Goals

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

Research

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Monash Energy Institute View

Monash Energy Institute is working to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable energy future by fostering and facilitating impactful interdisciplinary research, in collaboration with its trusted partners.

The Institute has been instrumental in harnessing the university’s research capital and capabilities to deliver transformative initiatives such as the Net Zero Initiative, the Grid Innovation Hub and the Woodside Monash Energy Partnership. They are connecting leading educators and researchers with industry to offer joint PhD scholarships, to facilitate problem-solving, innovation and commercialisation in the energy sector, and also helping align educational goals with the sector’s current and future needs.

RACE for 2030 CRC View

Monash is the lead Victorian research institution in the new Coorperative Research Centre (CRC) for Reliable Affordable Clean Energy (RACE) for 2030, which won a $349 million grant from the Australian Government in March 2020. The CRC will address one of Australia’s major challenges – delivering reliable, affordable and clean energy services for consumers and businesses.

A cross-disciplinary partnership between the Faculty of Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Monash Business School, the Monash Grid Innovation Hub, Monash Sustainable Development Institute and the Monash Energy Institute is working to amplify Monash’s research impact in the energy sector. Monash will also lead the RACE for Networks program, which is working to optimise Australia’s electricity grid through customer distributed energy resources and network integration.

2020 Publications Performance View

Mean Field Weighted Citation Impact of Monash Outputs: 2.36

Number of Monash Research Outputs: 268

Education

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Unit statistics and highlights View

In 2020, 62 units directly related to SDG7 were offered across Monash University, with a total enrolment of 4,575 students.

The units highlighted below are a small sample of the units at Monash relating to affordable and clean energy:

ENE2021 Energy and the environment
MEC6888 Renewable energy systems
RSE4050 Energy systems and design

Engagement

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Monash Energy YouTube Channel View

The Monash Energy You Tube channel provides access to almost 20 webinars organised by the Monash Energy Institute in 2020, showcasing the work of Monash energy researchers and key national and international experts.

The webinars aim to engage a broader community on the progress made to solve industry energy challenges, showcase innovations, solutions and build new collaborations for a greener future. Each webinar focuses on research to get better business models, better technologies, better solutions allowing the acceleration of our energy transition to a low carbon economy.

Climateworks Centre View

Climateworks Centre is a not-for-profit founded by Monash University and the Myer Foundation to bridge the gap between research and climate action, and accelerate the transition to net zero emissions for Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Its 2020 initiatives included the launch of the Australian Industry Energy Transitions Initiative, which brings together leaders from industry and business to coordinate learning and action on net zero emissions supply chains. Its Net Zero Momentum Tracker initiative produced detailed assessments of net zero commitments across local government, retail, transport, superannuation and resources sectors in Australia.

Microgrid Electricity Market Operator View

Building on Monash’s experiences with implementing its own campus microgrid, the Microgrid Electricity Market Operator (MEMO) project demonstrates the market potential for third-party entities to be responsible for microgrids.

Monash has also undertaken work to understand and quantify the value proposition presented by microgrids to Victoria in the context of the current Victorian regulations and constraints; and provide initial regulatory, policy, and market reform recommendations.This project was supported by the Victorian Government’s Microgrid Demonstration Initiative.

Operations

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Net Zero buildings View

To prepare ourselves for the move to 100 per cent renewable energy, we're re-thinking the design of our new buildings and retro-fitting our old buildings to be state-of-the-art spaces for comfort and performance.

Our new buildings are all electric with roof top solar, designed to Passive House principles to achieve low energy demands and high occupant comfort. We have also set a target for all existing campus buildings to be electrified by by 2030.

Net Zero Initiative View

In 2017, Monash University made a commitment to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2030. Our award winning Net Zero Initiative aims to facilitate the transition to an energy-efficient, renewable energy-powered future by transforming and utilising campus assets and to date have invested $37 million in capital upgrades to reduce our energy usage and carbon emissions and have made significant progress against our targets.

^{Graph: ESG Performance Report – Operations}

Divestment from fossil fuels View

Monash has a policy to divest from fossil fuels and this commitment was formalised in our first ESG statement launched in December 2016. Progress reports were published in 2018 and 2021.

Our new ESG statement launched in Oct 2021 reaffirms this commitment. Monash was first University to sign UNPRI in 2017.

Energy use intensity View

We have reduced our energy intensity (GJ/m2) by 24 percent between 2015 to 2020.

^{Graph: ESG Performance Report – Operations}