Graduates from ISF’s graduate research program have consistently achieved excellent examiners' reports from international leaders in their fields. Most have been eligible for the UTS Chancellor's Award, and several have been placed on the Chancellor's List.
Change-makers of tomorrow
Moving beyond corporate social responsibility
After working in Bhutan where their development philosophy focuses on Gross National Happiness (GNH), Dr Isabel Sebastian wanted to look deeper into the dynamics of operating sustainable business.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies, activities and reporting are often considered an indication of businesses’ good intentions and corporate citizenship. But good CSR performance is not synonymous with good business ethics and responsibility.
Inspired by Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness philosophy and her interest in how this influences business ethics, conduct and sustainability, Isabel’s 2018 PhD thesis explores how Bhutanese and international businesses move beyond “conventional CSR”.
Isabel’s research developed the “Beyond CSR Maturity Model” which allows mapping of businesses against five dimensions of maturity to understand their level of CSR maturity and identify ways to move beyond “conventional CSR”.
‘I wanted to look at business through a holistic lens – to consider both Eastern and Western philosophies, business ethnics and systems theories. With ISF I had the support to take this transdisciplinary approach. The diverse and international group of team members and PhD Students at ISF made it a very rich and inspiring experience’, she says.
Isabel is now a Research Associate at the University of Luxembourg, working on Nexus Futures, a transdisciplinary project that explores the sustainable water, soil and energy nexus in Luxemburg.
Read Isabel's full thesis on OPUS Looking beyond corporate social responsibility through a holistic systems lens: an Eastern and Western focus
ISF graduates
Samuel Wearne (2024) Dynamics of Place & Discourse: Empirical, methodological, and theoretical research into socio-cultural transformations toward sustainability
Deyvid Baretto Rosa (2024) Assessing the Benefits of Green and Blue Infrastructure in Peri-Urban Areas
Juan Garzon (2024) Transmodern transitions to buen vivir in early 21st century Andean seed systems
Rupert Legg (2024) A geography of the disruptive effects of contaminated sites on residents’ mental health: The regulation of PFAS sites in NSW, Australia
Zaheer Allam (2024) A New Frontier for Green New Deals: Incorporating Ecosystem Approaches and the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Developing Economies
Ed Langham (2023) Harnessing Open Business Model Dynamics for Societal Value Creation: A Systems Analysis
Ella Middelhoff (2023) Hybrid concentrated solar biomass (HCSB) plants for supporting the clean energy transition in New South Wales, Australia
Ethan Gordon (2023) Discursive Mindscapes in Regenerative Agriculture: Exploring Different Interpretations of Regenerative Agriculture and Implications for Transformation
Nivek Thompson (2023) Deliberative Mini-publics: Institutional Design and the Quality of Democracy
Bao Anh Nong (2023) Participatory Adaptive Integrated Urban Water Management – the Tensions
Ben Madden (2023) Examining resource recovery pathways for low carbon waste management in New South Wales, Australia
Jess MacArthur (2023) Exploring gender equality outcomes in international development programs: Transformative approaches and opportunities
Louise Boronyak (2023) Transformation from Conflict to Coexistence with Large Carnivores in Social-Ecological Landscapes
Mariana Gonzalez Lago (2023) (Re) Politicising soils: eliciting mental models at the science-policy interface for renewing soil governance
Paloma Vejarano (2023) Traditional Ecological Knowledge in the Governance of the Colombian Amazon in a Post-Peace Accord Scenario A Social Ecological Study with Cacua People
Stuart Martin (2023) Integrating Natural Capital Accounting into Agricultural Decision-Making
Michael Falla (2022) Sporting mega-events and their influence on the social and physical capital of communities in the host city: The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games experience
Naomi Carrard (2022) Placing Sustainability at the Centre of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Sector: A Transdisciplinary Inquiry
Bhathiya Kekulandala (2022) Adaptive co-management of small tank cascade systems in Sri Lanka in a changing climate
Bishal Baniya (2022) Global environment-related initiatives and green growth – investigating the integration of their goals into government policies and prospects for delivery
Erika Whillas (2022) Increasing community engagement in NYC’s green-space planning with PPGIS and deliberative democracy
Momtaj Bintay Khalil (2022) Women’s role in adaptation to climate change in Bangladesh
Suzanne Dunford (2022) The governance of local climate commons
Ian Cunningham (2021) Designing for motivations in community‐managed rural water supply
Tani Khara (2021) Exploring meat-eating practices in Mumbai and Sydney with a view towards encouraging a reduced-meat diet
Katie Ross (2021) Transforming the Ways We Create Change: Experiencing and Cultivating Transformative Sustainability Learning
Bronwyn Cumbo (2020) Child Participation Beyond the Adult Realm: Participatory Design in Nature-play Contexts
Tani Shaw (2020) Pressing the Case for Wider Economic, Social and Environmental Measures of Progress: A Case Study of the OECD Global Project
Lily Huang (2020) Analysis of the Embodied Carbon Emissions Flows in China: Applying a Network Perspective to Sectors, Provinces, and Carbon Communities Within the Chinese Economy
Mathew Hounsell (2020) Using Big Data from TOTOR ETS to optimise public transport operations
Kathryne (Kate) Hughes (2020) The Socially Literate Expert: A New Model of Risk Communication and Social Engagement Bridging Content and Bridging Process
Simon Wright (2020) A State of Innovation – The Role of Government in the Design and Orchestration of Sustainability Transitions
Jacob (Jack) Thomson (2020) The First and Last Mile: Rural communities’ management of evolving disaster risk and the implications for preparedness in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
Judith (Judy) Friedlander (2020) A Meaty Discourse: Raising the agenda of an inconvenient message
Chris Dunstan (2019) In the Balance: Electricity, Sustainability and Least Cost Competition
Rachael Wakefield-Rann (2019) Redefining hygiene in practice: addressing emerging health risks in home microecologies
Emilia de la Sienra (2018) Exploring the hidden power of worldviews : a new learning framework to advance the transformative agenda of education for sustainable development
Matt Daly (2018) The Most Powerful Form of Activism is Just the Way You Live”: Grassroots Intentional Communities and the Sustainability of Everyday Practice
Tanja Rosenqvist (2018) Experiencing Everyday Sanitation Governance: A Critical Inquiry into the Governance of Community-Managed Sanitation Services in Indonesia and Whether It Could be Otherwise
Jeremy Kohlitz (2018) Responding to climate change to sustain community-managed water services in Vanuatu
Stephen McGrail (2018) The roles and use of prospective knowledge practices in sustainability-related transitions
Kevin Morrison (2018) The tale of two taxes: a study of mineral and petroleum resource taxation in Australia
Laure-Elise Ruoso (2018) Understanding place identity and productive landscapes peri-urban environments
Isabel Sebastian (2018) Looking beyond Corporate Social Responsibility through a holistic systems lens
Sarina Kilham (2017) Farmers, autonomy and sustainable rural livelihoods: biodiese production in Brazil and Timor-Leste
Rachel Watson (2017) The role of local recycled water systems for sustainable urban water servicing
Verena Streitferdt (2017) Optimising energy efficiency finance in emerging economies in Southeast Asia
Ariane Liu (2016) Smart water-use feedback: options, preferences, impacts, and implications for implementation
Reza Memary (2016) Life cycle assessment for metals: from technical investigations to system innovations
Eleanor Glenn (2015) From clashing to matching: examining the legitimation codes that underpin shifting views about climate change
John McKibbin (2015) Ascendance, resistance, resilience: concepts and analyses for designing affordable and robust energy and water systems
Tania Leimbach (2015) Sustainability and the Material Imagination in Australian Cultural Organisations
Juergen Peterseim (2015) Enabling concentrating solar power in Australia: An investigation of the benefits and potential role of concentrating solar power/non-conventional fuel hybrid plants in Australia’s transition to a low-carbon energy future
Johannes Behrisch (2013) Incorporating ecological consideration into industrial design practice
Keren Winterford (2013) A strengths perspective on social accountability: informing citizen and state action for improved services and development
Andrew Glover (2012) Should it stay or should it go? Negotiating value and waste in the divestment of household objects
Jenny Kent (2012) Climate change – whose responsibility? From the personal to the global
Chris Nelson (2012) Applying phenomenography to development aid: should we recognise and embrace complexity in aid practice?
Christiane Baumann (2012) Making better choices — an investigation of collaborative stakeholder dialogue as catalyst for consensus building and learning in the transport policy process
Jane Palmer (2011) 'An eye open in the dark': Life story ethnography and the future of social-ecological systems
Tanzi Smith (2011) Ecological frameworks for sustainable communities: testing the theory in a developing country context
Dana Cordell (2010) The Story of Phosphorus: Sustainability implications of global phosphorus scarcity for food security
Chris Reardon (2010) The diffusion of sustainable practices within the Australian housing industry: implications for future change management
Suzanne Grob (2010) Sustainable organisational procurement: pathway of transition for Australian organisations
Kumi Abeysuriya (2008) A pathway to sustainability in urban sanitation for developing Asian countries
Michelle Zeibots (2008) Space, time, economics and asphalt: an investigation of induced traffic growth caused by urban motorway expansion and the implications this has for the sustainability of cities
Dick Clarke (2006) Planning Controls and Sustainability – Planfirst's potential seen through a case study of Pittwater 21
Chris Riedy (2005) The Eye of the Storm: An Integral Perspective on Sustainable Development and Greenhouse Policy
Simon Fane (2005) Planning for sustainable urban water: systems-approaches and distributed strategies
Paul Crawford (2004) Aiding aid: a monitoring and evaluation framework to enhance international aid effectiveness
Wahidul K. Biswas (2003) Empowering Rural Poor through Renewable Energy Technologies for Sustainable Development in Bangladesh
Annie Bolitho (2003, co-supervised by ISF) New Dimensions in Water Conservation; An Inter-animation of writing and water
Gabrielle Kuiper (2002) Environmental Information, Decision-Making & Communicating
Karla Sperling (2002) Overcoming legal impediments to urban planning for sustainability in the Sydney greater metropolitan region
Chris Riedy, Andrew Glover, Dena Fam and Cynthia Mitchell
