Who should attend

This course is ideal if you want to:

• Understand what net zero and climate change mean for business strategy and organisational performance.

• Explore how the climate transition is reshaping markets, investment and regulation, and identify the risks and opportunities most relevant to your organisation.

• Learn how to harness the net zero transition to unlock value, including driving innovation, improving operational efficiency and strengthening reputation.

• Embed sustainability into your current role or transition to a role in sustainability

• Learn alongside peers from across sectors who are tackling the net zero transition in real time. 

What you will learn

By the end of this course, you will:

• Build confidence and clarity in responding to climate change. Demystify key concepts, gain the language to engage across your organisation, and know where to take action.

• Address climate-related risks while unlocking opportunities for growth. Learn how to use proven frameworks to identify climate-related impacts. 

• Understand new laws on mandatory climate-related financial reporting, and how businesses need to respond.

• Understand the main pathways to net zero and how they’ll shape economies, sectors and business operations. Explore what the shift means for your organisation.

Program structure

Pre-work

Through the course pre-work, you will establish a baseline understanding of the science of climate change, the international and domestic net zero regulatory contexts, emissions scopes, and the physical risks of climate change. You will also complete a short task to understand your organisation’s current approach to net zero.

Part 1: Net Zero in Context

Part 1 will ground your understanding of the latest trends, drivers, and evidence shaping the net zero agenda – from the Paris Agreement to increasing regulation and shifting stakeholder expectations.

Part 2: The Transition to Net Zero

Drawing from Climateworks Centre’s decarbonisation scenarios, you will explore what the transition to net zero looks like – including pathways and timelines for key solutions and technologies – and its implications for economies, sectors and organisations.

Part 3: Climate Reporting, Disclosure, and Stakeholder Expectations

This section will focus on the latest regulatory requirements and investor expectations around climate change. You will consider how these developments will impact your organisation, and what you can do to prepare.

Part 4: Identifying Climate-Related Risks and Opportunities

Participants will apply the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework – now incorporated into Australia’s incoming climate-related disclosure requirements – to understand the implications of climate change for their organisation.

Featured Experts & Course Facilitators

Our facilitators are drawn from this group of experts, with teaching teams and industry speakers varying by delivery.

Holly Dillabough
Senior Lecturer
Sustainable Development Education

Holly is a Senior Lecturer in the Sustainable Development Education team, where she leads the professional education portfolio including the Net Zero Academy. Through transformative education informed by the latest research and industry needs, she builds capability across leaders and organisations to shape and accelerate sustainability transitions. Drawing on sustainability expertise and experience working across government, not‑for‑profit and corporate sectors, Holly oversees the development and facilitation of applied executive and professional learning programs. She also teaches across the Monash Business School, empowering future business leaders with the skills needed to drive, and thrive in, a resilient, low‑carbon future. Holly holds a Master of Environment (University of Melbourne) and a Bachelor of Biology specialising in ecology (Laurentian University).

Elspeth Taylor
Program Manager
Climateworks Centre

Part of Climateworks Centre’s Capacity Building team, Elspeth works with the experts within Monash University to design and deliver professional education experiences that equip participants with the skills, knowledge and mindsets to take action in the transition to a Net Zero world. Elspeth’s background is in Change Management, working with PricewaterhouseCoopers to provide businesses and governments with strategic advice and implementation using a people-first framework. Prior to joining Climateworks Centre, Elspeth was a Strategic Designer and Project Manager at leading social enterprise STREAT. Here, Elspeth developed her passion for inclusive, accessible and engaging facilitation and education practice, using Trauma-Informed Design principles. Elspeth holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Business (Management) from Monash University.

Will Lewis
Project Advisor
Climateworks Centre

Working within Climateworks Centre’s Capacity Building team, Will supports the corporate sector to understand why decarbonisation is critical and how to turn commitments into action. His role provides a range of high-level project coordination, research and education content development services to support the end-to-end delivery of projects within Climateworks’ capacity building and education program. Will began his career in education working as a primary school teacher – both in Australia and abroad. He later moved into the world of sustainable international development, providing program and partnerships coordination for the Australian Volunteers Program (managed by AVI). Will holds a Master of Environment with University of Melbourne, and a Bachelor of Education from Deakin University.

Tom Rochford
Associate Director
KPMG Australia

Tom provides sustainability, climate risk and decarbonisation advisory services to a wide range of major clients across a range of industries. He has worked on climate scenario analysis, climate risk assessments, sustainability benchmarking, developing sustainability related policies, and sustainability strategy. Currently, he is spending a lot of time with organisations understanding the impacts of the incoming mandatory reporting requirements being driven by the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards. He has been providing assurance to large financial services companies over their annual TCFD disclosures, Net Zero Banking Alliance targets and financed emissions calculations, as well as providing multiple ASX listed companies with TCFD gap analysis and draft disclosures for their annual reports. Tom is an admitted lawyer to the Supreme Court of Victoria, and previously served as a non-executive director for Bendigo Bank’s Kew East Community branch.

For any additional information please contact MSDI-NetZeroAcademy@monash.edu