Access to clean drinking water continues to challenge communities globally.
South Australia is the driest state, in the driest continent on Earth, and UniSA leads the way in water research with a trail-blazing research institution called the Centre for Water Management and Reuse (CWMR).
Since its establishment in 2004, the CWMR's research and consulting services have focused on finding and designing solutions for water and waste water treatment, stormwater harvesting, water reuse, water cycle management, water sensitive urban design, environmental biotechnology, River Murray, and the provision of water services for rural and desert communities.
Your support today will help UniSA researchers engage communities with innovative approaches to generate behaviour change and lay the foundations for more sustainable water consumption and recycling practices.
The problems of increasing emissions, resource depletion, waste and unsustainable consumption are global in nature.
We have already used one third of our planet's non-renewable resources, with unnecessary production and burning of fossil fuels contributing to increasing greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.
Across the globe around four billion metric tonnes of waste is produced annually, of which only around twenty per cent is currently recovered or recycled.
There is an urgent need for new strategies to engage communities worldwide to generate sustainable consumption, reduced waste and changed behaviour across individuals, institutions and industries.
Our researchers are working on new strategies for waste reduction and consumption, low carbon living and behaviour change, and design-led approaches to more sustainable cities.
Our projects are collaborative and involve researchers from many different disciplines, including architecture, design and engineering, environmental science, social science, education, history, governance, policy, planning and psychology.
At UniSA's Zero Waste SA Research Centre for Sustainable Design and Behaviour, our researchers are investigating green industries and sustainable urban systems, the transformative power of the circular economy, designed reuse in Adelaide's eco-precincts, food provisioning for low carbon living, and sustainable solutions for waste in Australia and Asia.
South Australian government policies for sustainable waste management are informed by their partnership with the University of South Australia. Thanks to community involvement, South Australia has the highest rate of recycling and resource recovery in Australia and research at UniSA is helping to maintain and improve that result.
UniSA research is demonstrating that slight temperature increases through global warming will have an even greater impact on the world's cities.
A 1.2 degree rise in temperatures across Australia is likely to be amplified to a 4.5 degree rise in urban centres. This heat stress creates significant impact on populations and on forecasted energy consumption.
Our researchers are working on developing super energy efficient houses, designed to work in harmony with the local climate and generate sufficient renewable energy on-site over the course of a year to supply all expected on-site energy services for the household.
Through innovative buildings and precinct design, and new renewable energy systems, our research is helping create more resilient urban communities.
100% of your gift will go directly to support environmental research at UniSA – there are no administration fees, no overheads and no hidden costs.
This way you can ensure that your money is put to work immediately to find the results and the solutions we all need.
