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Latest Sustainable Development Goals Progress Report
Monash Progress Report 2021 – Goal 11

Monash Progress Report 2021 – Goal 11

Monash University Progress Report 2021 on the Sustainable Development Goals

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Research

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Sustainable Mobility and Safety Research Group View

The Sustainable Mobility and Safety Research Group aims to make active and sustainable modes of transport, such as bike riding and walking, the leading modes of travel of the future, generating substantial gains in population and environmental health. It brings together experts in injury prevention, road safety, urban and transport planning, public health, and engineering.

The Australian Research Council funded Cycled Study will develop a platform to model the number of cyclists on each road in a city. This will address significant knowledge gaps in cycling safety, identify areas in which we need enhanced cycling infrastructure and enable the evaluation of the effectiveness of existing infrastructure. Overall, the study anticipates the use of these data will lead to increased cycling participation, enhanced safety, and improved infrastructure planning, thereby resulting in substantial gains in population and environmental health.

Monash Urban Lab View

The Monash Urban Lab distinguishes itself through its unique integration of practice-based design and urban planning research. The Lab combines multi-scalar architectural design investigations with policy studies focussed on transitioning to sustainable and equitable urban environments and communities at city and regional scales. Research focuses on three areas of investigation: Sustainable and Inclusive Cities, Urban Infrastructure Systems, and Visualising Urban Futures.

Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE) Program View

The Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE) program is researching how innovative water sensitive infrastructure can improve health, wellbeing, and water management across urban informal settlements in Indonesia and Fiji.

In 2021 RISE embraced the new operating environment that COVID-19 has created, and used it to show that breaking down structural inequalities of international collaboration can lead to new innovations and efficiencies, and that research and development programs can be stronger because of it.

The program's accelerated transition to a more strongly locally led model is giving greater agency to RISE research and implementation partners and creating new opportunities, such as establishing state-of-the-art PCR-based pathogen detection capacity at the RISE laboratories hosted at Hasanuddin University and Fiji National University, and instituting an ISO9001 quality management system across the RISE international research platform.

Monash Art Design and Architecture View

Monash Art, Design and Architecture’s research strives to enrich the human experience through transformational design and visual practice. Creative and critical research empowers us to reimagine the needs, challenges and aspirations of cities and drive meaningful change. Working with diverse communities and cultures, and across constructed and ecological environments, MADA's research – showcased in its R:ADAR digital publication – helps to propel us all towards greater sustainability, understanding and equity.

Net Zero Precincts View

Net Zero Precincts is an ARC Linkage funded project, and part of Monash's Net Zero Initiative, that aims to help cities and urban regions reach net zero emissions. It is bringing together a new approach to transition management by using design anthropology to engage with the precinct community and consider their lived experiences. Net Zero Precincts aims to co-create and envision collective and shared pathways to net zero precinct futures which are aligned with the precinct community’s everyday social, political and experiential realities and expectations. In collaboration with a cross-Monash interdisciplinary team and partners from industry, academia and the community, the project is using Monash’s own Clayton Campus and the Monash Technology Precincts as a ‘living laboratory’ to run experiments that can help us accelerate the transition to net zero emissions cities.

2021 Publications Performance View

Mean Field Weighted Citation Impact of Monash Outputs: 1.47

Number of Monash Research Outputs: 244

Education

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Unit statistics and highlights View

In 2021, 165 units directly related to SDG11 were offered across Monash University, with a total enrolment of 8,062 students.

The units highlighted below are a small sample of the units at Monash relating to sustainable cities and communities:

ATS2547 Cities and sustainability
ENE3031 Building sustainability
ENS5340 Transforming cities for sustainability

Engagement

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Informal Cities Lab View

The Informal Cities Lab seeks to address wicked, multidimensional challenges through research and development activities spanning spatial, social and economic dimensions. This is done through engaging with a coalition of partners working across sectors and disciplines.

In 2021, the Citarum Program, a partnership between Monash's Informal Cities Lab, Universitas Indonesia, the Indonesian government, communities and local NGOs working towards improving the health of the Citarum River, secured funding to establish a 'living lab' in the Citarum basin. This place-based initiative will collaborate with partners and local villages to co-design an integrated urban model that addresses river contamination caused by lack of waste and sanitation infrastructure.

Monash Commission Intermediary Cities Inquiry View

The Monash Commission gives independent expression to the expertise of Australian and International thought leaders through in-depth and independent inquiries that capture the best available evidence and public perspectives on priority issues facing our communities, business and government at a national or global level. In 2021, infrastructure, industry and planning leaders came together for the second phase of the Monash Commission which focussed on The Liveable Metropolis: The future role of intermediary cities to deliver resilience, impact and prosperity – the outcome of which will deliver practical recommendations for urban planners, governments and communities to design transformational cities of the future. Intermediary cities refer to 'second cities' or 'non-CBD cities', which are smaller, but deeply connected in a larger city network.

Better Cities, Better Life View

Better Cities, Better Life showcases projects being implemented across Monash in the area of urban sustainable development, and how they are helping influence urban policy decisions in addressing urban challenges and creating future opportunities.

YourGround View

In 2021, the Monash XYX Lab teamed up with CrowdSpot to develop YourGround, a digital platform that capture data and insights into access and inclusivity to public spaces for women and gender-diverse people to helped drive urban design initiatives in line with Victoria’s Equality Act 2020. YourGround Vic was supported by 25 Local and State Government partners. Central to the project was an interactive online map enabling women and gender-diverse people to anonymously ‘Add a Spot’ directly into a custom survey on the map, and share information information about their safety related recreational experiences.

Virtual Pacific Urban Forum View

As a member of the Pacific Partnership for the New Urban Agenda, Monash helped organise the 2021 Virtual Pacific Urban Forum on 26 August 2021. Together with regional development partners and eight country delegations, forum assessed the status of national urban development commitments across the Pacific region and shared updates on key urban priorities, progress and challenges by country representatives.

Operations

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Monash Commuter Club View

The Monash Commuter Club offers staff and students a 10 per cent discount on a yearly myki (public transport) pass.

Flexible work View

We recognise that the world of work has changed and that flexibility in where people work from is important to our staff. Working from home is just one of the ways we offer our staff flexibility. Flex at Monash remains committed to being a fully inclusive campus-based institution, with education and research at the centre of what we do and professional staff services must complement this. Flexible work should complement our commitment to equity and diversity and be repositioned to include all modes of flexibility, not just locations.

Monash’s vision for a flexible work approach is to enable and empower its leaders and staff to embed hybrid working and flexibility into the design and structure of its workforce, space and technology.

Pay as you use parking View

Recognising the travel patterns of staff and students will most likely never return to pre-COVID patterns, Monash replaced its fixed annual carparking permit system with a dynamic ‘pay as you use’ (PAYU) virtual parking system. PAYU parking will support a more flexible work and study model into the future. This new technology will enable greater flexibility for staff and students to choose on a daily basis their travel mode and incentivise those that choose to take sustainable transport. The data insights from the virtual parking system will also be invaluable for improved transport planning into the future.

Bike arrival facilities View

We have an active, supportive cycling community with bike facilities and parking available at all of our campuses, making cycling a great option for getting to campus. There are two bike arrival stations at the Clayton campus complete with showers, bathrooms and change rooms, lockers (BYO lock), and bike repair bays.

Sustainable transport View

The University’s integrated campus access strategy aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with travelling to Monash campuses through a shift from single-occupancy vehicles towards sustainable alternatives, such as public transport, University shuttle buses, carpooling, walking and cycling. Our priority is to have more than 70 per cent of staff and students to travel to Monash campuses using sustainable transport options. A net zero transport strategy was developed in 2021 with the goal to eliminate emissions across the University's flights, fleets and commutes.