Sustainability Week events

Running from 3-9 October, Sustainability Week: Modern slavery impacts will feature a number of online and in-person events for both staff and students that focus on the impacts of modern slavery, climate change, ethical investment, sustainable travel and more.

Our Sustainability Week activities reflect both the importance of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’. Both these documents call for all of us to work together to care for our common home and encourage us all to act on the urgent needs facing the world – including caring for the environment, fighting poverty and hunger, reducing inequalities, fostering peace and justice, and creating sustainable communities.

While COVID-19 lockdowns mean face-to-face events are not possible on all campuses, there are still many ways you can participate online. Explore the below list of events and resources, get involved – and encourage our students to do the same.

Sustainably investing your super

Ensuring investments are sustainable is a major focus for major organisations and individual investors. Join a discussion with expert panellists to understand why this is so important, the Catholic theological imperative for sustainable investments, what superannuation companies are doing to help, and the role your superannuation plays in the broader picture of finance and climate change.

Panellists

Stephanie Collins – Associate Professor, Dianoia Institute of Philosophy at ACU. Her current research aims to conceptualise organisations as wrongdoers, with an application to climate change. Stephanie’s recently published book is Group Duties: Their Existence and Their Implications for Individuals.

Sally Neaves – Integral Ecology Animator and Mission Ministry Resource Coordinator for the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea. For many years, Sally has worked in ecology ministry settings facilitating holistic education, spirituality and advocacy programs.

Sybil Dixon – UniSuper Governance and Sustainability Manager. Since joining UniSuper’s Investment Department in 2008, Sybil has been undertaking environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and analysis and, since 2015, leading the development of UniSuper’s Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). She is the Company Secretary for the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC) and a lead investor for CA100+.

Dr Ben Neville – Associate Professor Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne.

Details

When: Friday 8 October, 1–2pm (AEDT)

Where: Teams Live event

You don’t need to register to attend this session – simply add the above link to your calendar and follow the link to the Teams Live event on the day.

Slavery in Australia: Our futures informed by our past

Adults and children both globally and locally are affected by many forms of slavery, even in today’s world. Inspired by Pope Francis’s observation in the Laudato Si' that, “we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to social degradation”, this panel will explore interconnections between the social, historical and cultural realities of our lives.

Join our expert panellists in a discussion of three themes: intergenerational harm of past practices on Aboriginal peoples, lack of support for families, and social inequities throughout Australia’s history.

Panellists

Professor Jim Nyland – Associate Vice-Chancellor QLD, ACU, and Chair, Engagement Australia. Professor Nyland is dedicated to the process of applying a magnifying glass to concerns about the environment, alongside the interconnected social, cultural and economic areas of our lives.

Dr Jon Piccini – Historian, School of Arts (Qld), ACU. Jon believes in the capacity of critical historical scholarship to destabilise received wisdom.

Professor Daryl Higgins – Director, Institute of Child Protection Studies, ACU. Professor Higgins’s research focuses on public health approaches to protecting children and child-safe organisational strategies. As a registered psychologist, Professor Higgins has been researching child abuse impacts and prevention, family violence and family functioning for over 25 years.

Linc Yow Yeh – Linc Yow Yeh is a proud Aboriginal South Sea Islander Murri man from Queensland and of Bayali/Goreng Goreng/Gunja heritage. He spent the last 16 years working and living in Wurundjeri country, Melbourne, and is Coordinator of Jim-Baa-Yer, the ACU Indigenous Higher Education Unit. He is passionate about working with and learning from Indigenous students with different study and career aspirations.

Details

When: Wednesday 6 October 1pm-2pm (AEDT) / 12pm-1pm (AEST)

Where: Teams Live event

You don’t need to register to attend this session – simply add the above link to your calendar and follow the link to the Teams Live event on the day.

Sustainability Week resources

To commemorate Sustainability Week ‘Modern slavery impacts’, the ACU Library has compiled a comprehensive list of books, films, resources and databases for you to explore.

Explore Sustainability Week resources list

Ride to Uni breakfast in Brisbane

Skip the emissions, travel sustainably, and save the planet – all before lunch.

Join ACU Sport and the Properties and Facilities team for a zero-waste-to-landfill vegetarian Ride to Uni breakfast.

Details

When: Thursday 14 October from 9am

Where: The Track, Brisbane Campus

Stay connected

Don’t forget to look out for other sustainability news, events, updates and initiatives in the Sustainability@ACU Workplace group.

Sustainability Week events for students

For the first time, students will be able to participate in a range of Sustainability Week events online and on-campus (where possible).

View a detailed schedule of events on the Student Portal.