Reducing the cost of climate change

Dr Xin Ma’s award-winning research proves that finding solutions to environmental problems can achieve greater sustainability for businesses as well as the planet.

Helping to mitigate climate change doesn’t have to be costly – in fact, sometimes the solutions can be mutually beneficial, according to Monash Business School’s Dr Xin Ma.

The Department of Management Senior Lecturer has designed novel operational models that capture and solve real-world business issues such as responsible sourcing, strategic production, and pricing decisions.

His research is helping organisations find efficiencies that reduce their carbon footprint and improve their bottom lines.

“The key practical impact of my collective work is to help progress the measurement, accuracy and precision of critical decision-making around carbon emissions and healthcare,” he says.

“My work provides industry with more efficient operational strategies and solutions across supply chains, and can help organisations and governments to economically reduce carbon emissions.”

Dr Ma says the expected outcomes of his research include a sustainable electricity ecosystem that can provide more reliable, low-cost energy supplies to consumers.

"Collaboration with industrial partners helped me find the realistic issues (while) collaboration with scholars helped me learn the latest solutions."

“This also provides benefits including the transition to net-zero emissions, improving social welfare, and significant economic returns,” he says.

Dr Ma has collaborated widely, establishing connections in six countries and 19 industry and academic institutions.

“The collaboration with industrial partners helped me find the realistic issues; meanwhile the collaboration with scholars helped me to learn the latest solutions,” Dr Ma says.

The ground-breaking work has earned Dr Ma a Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research by an Early Career Researcher, as well as international recognition including a Most Significant Contribution Award from Decision Sciences Journal.

Dr Ma says he believes everyone has a responsibility to help mitigate climate change.

“Global warming is causing long-lasting changes to our climate system, which threatens irreversible consequences if we do not act,” Dr Ma says.

“I want to make a contribution to help deal with these challenges, such as proposing efficient solutions to achieve net zero by 2050.”

He hopes to continue to combine his expertise in supply chain management, information technology, and applied mathematics to understand and solve real-world business issues such as consumer behaviour-based pricing in the retail and electricity market.

“In doing so, it will address a significant missing element of new knowledge about trade-offs among multiple stakeholders relating to sudden shocks and carbon emissions in Australia and globally,” he says.