Griffith University is engaged with communities locally, nationally, regionally and internationally on energy efficiency.
This includes both programmes for local communities to learn about the importance of energy efficiency and clean energy and research and research services to explore solutions towards a more self-sufficient, and a clean energy future.
Throughout 2023, projects ranged from co-designing a resilient water and energy toolbox for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in remote areas, to projects that focus on how to create solutions for renewable energy and decentralised water supply sources, through to evidence-informed research on water, electricity, and gas management strategies.
Additionally, Griffith research hubs are focused on researching renewable energy options, across industries, and providing services to industry. Some of these examples include biomass reuse, water saving technologies, and possibilities for resilient electricity with no electricity grid, as a partnership with state and federal governments.
The research centres provide the facilities necessary for new breakthroughs that can impact local and national government, policymakers, and industry.
Local community outreach
At Griffith we engage industry, government, policymakers, practitioners and the broader community to showcase innovations, work with community to promote energy efficiency and ensure access to clean energy, solve industry energy challenges, and build new collaborations that promote affordable and clean energy for all and accelerate our energy transition to a low carbon economy. Our research centres, facilitate a suite of activities and events to engage the whole community to inspire behaviour change and political transformation in relation to climate policy, while many of research projects are undertaken directly with community and involve education and outreach. At Griffith, we are focused on the transition to renewables and the need for a net-zero environment.
Our outreach
iknow weKnow (2023-2026), which is being led by Professor Cara Beal and Dr Melissa Jackson, is focused on community outreach for energy and water efficiency, and includes the provision of co-design programmes for local community to learn about importance of energy and water efficiency and clean energy.
The iKnow weKnow is a three-year project (2023 – 2026), focusing on overcoming water inequalities in Australia’s remote communities, to create a sustainable water and energy toolbox for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The name iKnow weKnow represents the unique combination of Indigenous knowledge, water and energy expertise, as well as technological advances necessary to create a sustainable future.
To date, the project has collaborated with remote communities in the Torres Strait, Cape York, and Remote Northern Territory communities, working directly with these communities and local industry partners. It is funded by project partners in the Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia and an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage grant. Partners have included Torres Strait Island Regional Council, Indigenous Technology, PowerWater, Centre for Appropriate Technology Limited, Ergon Energy, Water Corporation, Northern Territory Government.
Find out more Project summary iKnow weKnow empowers Indigenous communities for a sustainable future
The 2022-2023 project, with the Social Marketing as the Griffith Lead, aimed to enhance energy practices for grid support through home energy technologies and energy efficiency amongst community members. It also focused on smart algorithms to optimize household energy use and reduce costs for both consumers and the energy system, thus promoting energy efficiency. The outreach and energy assessment revealed critical insights into household energy distribution, with 40% used for heating/cooling, 30% for appliances, and 25% for hot water. Despite the popularity of rooftop solar, installed in over 30% of homes by 2022, only 19% of households expressed interest in new energy-efficient technologies to manage costs. However, the assessment pointed to potential solutions, with local community members – who were participants in the project – learning about importance of energy efficiency and clean energy. In particular, engaging community members through education and tailored approaches showed promise, with a third of households considering adopting smart tech in the next five years.
176 participants engaged in 17 co-design workshops with community members through Social Marketing at Griffith. Solar PV and Home Energy Management Systems emerged as the most popular ideas across various groups, while flexible pricing plans that align with individual lifestyles were highly sought after. The study identified challenges, particularly the upfront costs and returns associated with adopting new technologies, especially for renters lacking control over energy choices. Participants expressed a need for real-time energy usage monitoring and flexible pricing plans tailored to household structures to promote efficient energy use. 95% of respondents sought improved relationships with energy providers, desiring tailored solutions and clear, region-specific guidance on adopting new technologies to support them to learn about and implement energy efficient practices. This research program offered vital insights for Energy Queensland, emphasizing the significance of understanding customer needs and behaviours. The data collected provided invaluable guidance for Energy Queensland’s future business investments and pricing strategies, aimed towards contributing to a safer, more affordable, secure, and sustainable energy network aligned with customer expectations.
Our research centres
The Climate Action Beacon research focuses on climate action, motivations, transitions and justice. The Beacon provides educational programmes, interdisciplinary research, and community outreach, including hosting events to empower the wider community. Recent events that the Climate Action Beacon have hosted or been speakers at include:
Net Zero Emissions: How can we promote the wise use of “Net Zero Emission” commitment?
Professor Brendan Mackay, Director of Griffith Climate Change Beacon (date 24 March 2024)
Carbon and Nature Offsets: In the market for Ecocide?
Various governmental carbon and nature offset policies were discussed, along with emissions reductions and nature restoration options. This event was facilitated by the Australian Earth Laws Alliance. Guests included Professor Brendan Mackey, Christine Miln, Rob White and Michelle Maloney (date 18 May 2023)
The Cities Research Institute has a team of researchers that work towards climate action and climate resilient cities and communities, that are energy efficient and using clean energy, with the goal of shaping collaborative, strong communities, people, and the planet. To do so, the Cities Research Institute has partnered with important governmental and non-governmental organisations, including state and territory governments, First Nations authorities, business, practitioners, and peak industry bodies, as well as community organisations and researchers from around the world. Cities Research Institute also offers short courses, guest speakers for conferences and events, research collaboration and consultancy work.
Find out more about the services, partnerships, events, community outreach, and research undertaken by Cities Research Institute
The Centre for Catalysis and Clean Energy (CCCE) is focused on energy efficiency and sustainability. The Centre seeks to promote access to affordable and clean energy for all. The centre was previously known as the Centre for Clean Environment and Energy until 2021.
CCCE is made up of key partnerships, researchers, and facilities, and has contributed significantly to the development of electrocatalysis, photo-electrocatalysis and thermos-catalysis principles, and nanostructured catalysts for important reactions of solar energy conversion, batteries, fuel cells, hydrogen generation, nitrogen-fixation, biomass-derived platform compounds upgrading, environmental remediation, bactericidal and sensing applications.
Energy efficiency services for industry
At Griffith, our research centres provide energy efficiency services direct to local industry aimed at improving energy efficiency and clean energy. This includes research into renewable energy options, as well as workshops and assessments. The majority of our services are offered free to industry through government funding.
Researching renewable energy options forms a significant part of Griffith University’s research. Such research is focused on energy efficiency for key industries, as well as clean energy sources. For example, the Research Hub works on innovative ways of transforming carbon dioxide from our energy into carbon neutrality, as part of a partnership with Turquoise Group, a leading organisation of the ‘green industrial revolution’, focusing on eliminating CO and CO2 emissions. Other projects currently focus on ways to create or assess clean energy sources that are efficient, cost-effective and reliable.
Policy Development
Griffith University has close partnerships with key industry organisations and governments – locally, regionally (through state government), nationally and globally – to investigate clean energy technologies and to inform and support government in clean energy and energy-efficient technology policy development. Some of the policy-focused projects being tackled include the Australian Battery Industrialisation Centre (ABIC), policy direction for biomass production, energy conversion and storage, battery reuse and recycle possibilities, green production of chemicals and fuels, materials for clean environment applications, amongst many others. As part of these projects, the teams work closely with governments at all levels to in to inform and support the development of clean and efficient technology and related policies.
Industry partners: Queensland Government, in partnership with the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR), consortium of Queensland universities, Australian Battery Industrialisation Centre Inquiry (ABIC).
The Queensland Battery Industry Strategy outlines how the state government will work with business, industry, and research institutes to realise opportunities and create a diverse and dynamic battery sector to support Queensland’s transition to reach zero net emissions by 2050. This strategy identifies responsible battery stewardship including battery reuse, repurposing and recycling which is playing an increasingly important role in battery markets globally. Underpinned by a robust governance structure, this strategy sets a clear path for government, industry and academia to coordinate both existing and new initiatives that will pave the way for future investment and unlock significant social, environmental and economic benefits to Queensland, particularly across our regions.
As part of the strategy, the Australian Battery Industrialisation Centre (ABIC) will a national hub for manufacturing, innovation, collaboration, training and skills development, battery research and development and commercialisation activities. The ABIC has the potential to be the transformational piece of the Australian Government’s Australian Made Battery Precinct by providing a concentration of commercial, pilot-scale manufacturing and educational services that will encourage industry to co-locate, form strategic partnerships, and invest in larger-scale battery manufacturing over time. The ABIC draws on the combined research strengths of a consortium of Queensland universities, including Griffith, and will engage with industry participants to bolster the growth of Australia’s battery capabilities.
Industry Partners: UTS , Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity
The aim of this Opportunity Assessment for Anaerobic Digestion (AD) in Australia is to deliver a research roadmap that identifies the most impactful projects to 2030 that create new markets and scale-up the biogas industry in Australia and the policy direction for biogas. Biogas from AD is renewable which is a distributable and dispatchable energy resource. It can be used for generating either baseload or load-following power, thermal energy or transport fuel. Professor Prasad Kaparaju was the Project Lead on this project.
The International Conference on Energy and Environmental Materials (ICEEM), hosted by the Centre for Catalysis and Clean Energy, ran from 26-28 August 2023 at the Novotel Surfers Paradise, on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
The ICEEM conference consisted of global-leading scientists, as well as academic researchers, research institutions, and industry bodies coming together to share key findings on energy and environmental breakthroughs on energy conversion and storage, battery reuse and recycle possibilities, green production of chemicals and fuels, materials for clean environment applications, amongst many others.
Professor Prasad Kaparaju, with support of the Griffith International Development Unit, offers the opportunity for officials and researchers from various ministries, regional and provincial government departments, industries and NGOs to contribute towards renewable energy source innovations and policy development, with the goal of eventual widespread use of clean and efficient energy within developing countries.
These Australian Awards for Indonesia (AAI) short-courses are funded by Department of Foreign Affairs, Government of Australia. For each AAI short-course a workshop with 25 participants takes place, with each participant allowed 2 and a half months to work on their Award Project supported by their organisation and mentored by the course leaders. Most of these Award Projects are related to the development of policy framework and/or technical feasibility of renewable energy generation and use in Indonesia especially for achieving 100% electricity and net zero emissions by 2050. In 2023, the training sought to mainstream gender equality in all renewable energy projects in Indonesia. A precursor workshop took place within Indonesia, followed by another two-week workshop at Griffith University in Australia, and finally another three-day workshop back in Indonesia to finalise the project – policy and resource – contributions.
Participants received direct mentorship from researchers within Griffith University; however, with the projects having relevance to and policy implications for their own Indonesian organisations. Prof. Prasad Kaparaju has been active and offered AAI short courses since 2018 with funding from the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
In 2023, Griffith University also welcomed to Australia 14 Vietnamese learning about GHG emission reductions in Vietnam’s waste sector. The exchange was part of the Australia Awards Fellowships. The fellows travelled from Vietnam to spend 2 weeks in Brisbane learning from A/Prof Sunil Herat and Professor Prasad Kaparaju about building the capacity of the public sector and local partners in implementing environmental policy and regulations recently introduced in Vietnam. The group had a particular focus on policies and regulations related to waste management. This Fellowship was funded by the Australian Government and delivered by Griffith University.
Also in 2023, was the Australian Awards for South Asia and Mongolia. Short Course Award on Energy Sector Development in Mongolia. Participants travelled to the Snowy Hydro Discovery Centre in Cooma, in the state of New South Wales, to learn about the project which has been providing on-demand, reliable energy to Australia for over 70 years. Professor Prasad Kaparaju and Dr Sascha Stegen guided the participants through the interactive centre which details the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme’s vast renewable energy portfolio and history.
In the 2023, “Assessment of preparedness of the NSW energy market: 2023/24” published by the NSW Chief Scientist, a Griffith article, by Associate Professor Joel Gilmour from the Centre for Applied Energy Economics and Policy Research (CAEEPR), was cited. This article provided recommendations to government on making energy more affordable.
Associate Professor Joel Gilmour wrote:
“These problems are not unique to Australia but for governments to reduce prices, they must address these two challenges in particular.
Governments have limited ability to shift international fuel costs but could mandate fuel reserves be directed to Australian users as a priority – so-called domestic gas reservation policies. Western Australia operates a similar policy. This would increase supply and therefore reduce the cost that power stations and domestic gas users must pay.
Another option is to cap the extreme prices that consumers pay and gas producers receive, but still at a level likely to be far higher than the original business cases for those gas fields required. Alternatively, a superprofits tax on gas exports could ensure that Australians receive their fair share of the value of our natural resources. For example, Norway taxes natural gas exports at 78% which has resulted in a massive sovereign wealth fund held on behalf of all citizens. The European Union is also considering a superprofits tax on renewable energy and nuclear power stations if they have not already sold their energy to customers.
Finally, governments are already moving rapidly to ensure we have additional supply in the market. Rewiring the Nation, state renewable energy targets, and plans for long-duration storage will help deliver additional capacity quickly. Governments could also consider the reliability of existing units and strengthen signals for that capacity to be available to reduce prices.
In all cases, governments should pay particularly attention to households who may face energy poverty and ensure that our most vulnerable communities are not at risk as we head into summer.”
Assistance to low-carbon innovation
Griffith University provides assistance for start-ups that foster and support a low-carbon economy or technology. Recent case studies include:
Since 2022, Griffith University has collaborated with EMMI to advance machine learning techniques for carbon footprint prediction and forecasting, led by Professor Diaz-Rainey. The project has involved working closely with EMMI’s data science team throughout 2023 and 2024, as well as an external partner Dr Quyen Nugyen from GNS Science, to facilitate knowledge exchange and technical development in support of the start-up. Dr Ben McNeil, a Griffith University graduate and co-founder of EMMI, has played an instrumental role in this effort.
This partnership has aligned with broader research initiatives, including a paper published jointly with EMMI team members in PLOS Climate in November 2023, that examines indirect upstream and downstream emissions (known as Scope 3 emissions). The study has identified significant divergences in carbon footprint data and highlighted reporting challenges, particularly regarding high materiality categories like 'use of good sold'. It has also employed machine-learning models to enhance predictions for non-reporting firms, showing a potential 25% increase in accuracy when categories are estimated individually. This paper had won the Best Paper Prize for Climate Finance Research at Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Investing (GRASFI) Conference in Zurich in 2022. This prize was sponsored by Imperial College Business School.
Together, Professor Diaz-Rainey and Dr Ben McNeil have demonstrated a commitment to supporting investors in making informed, climate-positive decisions, showcasing the integration of academic research with practical applications in sustainability.
In 2023, Associate Professor Rob Hales from Griffith University with Sebastian Binnewies from The App Factory worked with the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation Trading to create a carbon credit trading platform. This start-up integrated a user-friendly interface for customers to purchase Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) and track their carbon footprint, helping support a low carbon economy. Key features include a comprehensive product management system, low stock notifications, and automated reporting for compliance with regulatory requirements. Additionally, the platform enhances community engagement through social media integration and offers certificates for purchases, fostering transparency and accountability in carbon offsetting initiatives.
The Centre for Catalysis and Clean Energy (CCCE) is focused on energy sustainability. The Centre seeks to promote access to affordable and clean energy for all, and a low carbon economy and technology. The CCCE also contributed to a key shift in the management of water quality, with tools created to enable significant increase in water quality monitoring, with PeCOD® sensing technology now used worldwide and endorsed by Health Canada Drinking Water Guidelines.
Contact Griffith Sustainability
Griffith Sustainability Room 0.08, Building N23, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan QLD, 4111