Search results

The purpose of this paper is to understand the sources of climate change information used and trusted by key stakeholders in the Australian property industry, their information needs and their capacity to translate that information into decision-making.

Qualitative research applying in-depth interviews with 24 key stakeholders from a diverse range of property/real estate companies in Australia.

This research identified a wide range of information types used by key stakeholders, ranging from reliance on unsophisticated mass media reporting to detailed analysis of scientific research. The capacity of stakeholders to translate this information for their organisation was polarised; 11 of the 24 interviewees indicated they had the capacity, while the other 13 indicated they did not, often owing to time horizons or lack of current interest within the organisation or from clients.

This research was limited to 24 in-depth interviews and is not intended to be a representative sample. However, this limitation is offset by the fact that a diverse range of stakeholders were interviewed and an in-depth and rich understanding has been provided about their approach to climate change.

The results can inform the development of better communication channels for climate change for the property industry by supporting science-practice collaborations in the timely and effective dissemination of research. This is important to understand given the identified need to bridge the gap among research, policy and practice.

Climate change poses significant challenges and risks for built environments. The property industry, as a key stakeholder, has great potential to influence current practices. The results reported here assist in addressing these challenges.

At present, limited research globally has been conducted about climate change actions in the property industry. This research responds to this gap.

To identify barriers to climate change adaptation in the Australian property industry.

Semi-structured interviews with twenty-four stakeholders from a diverse cross-section of the Australian property industry were undertaken in 2018 and 2019.

A range of barriers to action on climate change were identified. These barriers centre around (1) information: lack of clear, reliable, and trusted sources of climate change information; (2) cost: competing economic demands, and the perceived threat that investing in climate change action poses to competitiveness; and (3) regulation: the inaction of governments thus failing to provide a regulatory environment to address climate change.

The qualitative research provides perspectives from actors in different sectors of the Australian property industry. While it provides an in-depth understanding of the barriers to addressing climate change adaptation, it is not necessarily a nationally representative sample.

The study identifies barriers to climate change adaptation, and establishes practical ways in which the Australian property industry can address these barriers and the role that government regulation could have in generating industry-wide change.

Climate change poses significant challenges to society. Built environments are significant contributors to climate change, and thus the property industry is well-placed to make positive contributions to this global challenge.

Limited research has examined barriers to climate change action in the property industry. This research provides novel insights from the perspective of key actors across a diverse range of property industry sectors. This new knowledge fills an important gap in understanding how to address climate change in Australia and broader contexts.

The aim of this paper is to outline the collaborative approach used to craft national learning standards for tertiary programs in the field of environment and sustainability in Australia. The field of environment and sustainability is broad and constituted by diverse stakeholders. As such, articulating a common set of learning standards presents challenges.

The authors developed and used a staged collaborative curriculum design methodology to engage more than 250 stakeholders in tertiary environmental education, including discipline scholars, students, professional associations and employers and other environmental educators. The approach was adaptive, to ensure underrepresented stakeholders’ perspectives were welcomed and recognised. The project was commissioned by the Australian Council of Environmental Deans and Directors (ACEDD) and funded by the Federal Government’s Office for Learning and Teaching.

The collaborative approach developed and used for this work facilitated an inclusive process that valued diversity of perspectives, rather than marginalise diversity in favour of a perspective representing a minimum level of agreement. This is reflected in the standards themselves, and is evidenced by participant feedback, piloting of the standards and their subsequent application at multiple universities. Achieving this required careful planning and facilitation, to ensure a democratisation of the stakeholder consultation process, and to build consensus in support of the standards. Endorsement by ACEDD formalised the standards’ status.

Collaborative curriculum design offered the opportunity to foster a shared sense of common purpose amongst diverse environmental education stakeholders. This approach to curriculum design is intensive and generative but uncommon and may be usefully adapted and applied in other contexts. The authors note one subsequent instance where the approach has been further developed and applied in transforming a generalist science program, suggesting the methodology used in this case may be applied across other contexts, albeit with appropriate adjustments: the authors offer it here in the spirit of supporting others in their own complex curriculum design challenges.

Risk notification is part of a focus on preventive medicine that is dominant in contemporary Western biomedicine. Genomics has forecasted great advances in alleviating disease and prolonging human life, moving from a reactive to a preventative practice. However, in doing so, genomics redraws boundaries, potentially classifying all people as possible carriers of malfunctioning genes. This chapter presents a critical review of the practice of ‘risk notification’ as undertaken by familial cancer genetic testing services, focusing on the right to be informed or not to be informed and implications of knowing.

With backgrounds in anthropology, psychology and public health, the authors draw upon literature around risk notification from a range of disciplines.

In the context of familial cancer, clients may be asked to provide contact information for biological family members to inform them of their potential genetic risk. Through these processes a number of tensions and issues may emerge that relate to fundamental bioethical principles. The ability and decision whether to know, or conversely, to not know, is ethically fraught. We consider the roles and rights of family members and clients, as well as the broader goal of population health.

While much attention has been devoted to clients’ right to know in the context of medical research and treatment, relatively little work has examined the right not to know and adverse consequences of knowing. This review addresses concerns which have rarely been critically examined and debated in the context of risk notification of biological family members.

The purpose of this paper is to study the resilience and elastic properties of short pastry with the meals of soy, sunflower and milk thistle.

Recent studies in the emerging food technologies of short pastry with use of meals were considered. Their focus on the improvement of the functional peculiarities of short pastry and benefits for people were the defining characteristics of the studies.

Model food compositions have been developed from soybean meal, sunflower meal and milk thistle for adding them to semi-finished short pastry products. The technology of short pastry confectionery made from short pastry with oilseed meal has been scientifically substantiated and developed. The chemical composition of shortbread cookies with the use of oilseed meal was calculated. The developed technology increased protein content by 2.5 times, cellulose content – by six times, significantly increased mineralization in the developed confectionery products. The content of calcium increased by 172.9 mg, selenium – by 13.06 mcg, iodine – by 2.76 mcg and vitamin E by 2.4 mg.

The developed technology of short pastry with a model composition of the meal can be used in practice. The use of a meal composition is a promising direction to improve the brittleness of short pastry products. The developed pastry products made from short pastry with added meal can be introduced into catering establishments as functional products with improved biological value.

Developed pastry products can be used as functional products with improved biological value, which is important for people’s health and has positive effects on the human body.

The use of meals of soy, sunflower and milk thistle in short pastry increases its nutritional and biological value, which improves the impact on the human body. The developed pastry products can be introduced as functional products with improved biological value, which is important for the improvement of people’s health in different countries of the world.

THIS month usually sees the estimates adopted that must govern public library spending for the year to come. It is likely to be a testing time for many librarians and we look forward with much interest to their experiences this year. The international rearmament programme, which authority has told us will not radically change our economic position, must have its repercussions on all municipal activities; expansion, so badly needed and so often deferred, is not likely to come immediately. However, as we remarked last month, dismal prophecies have so often been confounded by the subsequent facts that we hope 1951 will not be an exception. The defence programme may have some Staff effects, especially if the Z reserves are called again to the Colours. There is much that we may hope and much we should plan for in the months immediately ahead.

This study aims to construct an evaluation system for farmers’ livelihood capital in minority areas and evaluate the impact of relocation in response to climate change on farmers’ livelihood capital.

According to the characteristics of Yunnan minority areas, the livelihood capital of farmers in minority areas is divided into natural, physical, financial, social, human and cultural capital. The improved livelihood capital evaluation system measures farmers’ livelihood capital from 2015 to 2021. The net impact of relocation on farmers’ livelihood capital was separated using propensity score matching and the difference-in-difference (PSM-DID) method.

The shortage of livelihood capital makes it difficult for farmers to resist climate change, and the negative impacts of climate change further aggravate their livelihood vulnerability and reduce their livelihood capital. Relocation has dramatically increased the livelihood capital of farmers living in areas with poor natural conditions by 15.67% and has enhanced their ability to cope with climate change and realise sustainable livelihoods.

An improved livelihood capital evaluation system is constructed to realise the future localisation and development of livelihood capital research. The PSM-DID method was used to overcome endogeneity problems and sample selection bias of the policy evaluation methods. This study provides new ideas for academic research and policy formulation by integrating climate change, poverty governance and sustainable livelihoods.