BEX5706 · Sustainability collaboration project

Overview

How can we collaborate across sectors to transform our suburbs into sustainable, climate-safe, and nature-positive precincts? In this project-based unit, you will step into the role of an Urban Experimentation Consultant. You and your team will move beyond the classroom to tackle real-world challenges that don’t have a single "client," but instead require working across different sectors to find a way forward. Working at the intersection of place-based research and professional practice, your team will take on the complex sustainability or climate change problems facing our society. Delivered in partnership with the Sustainable Transitions Research Lab, this unit leverages Monash Living Lab capabilities to allow for experimentation with new ideas and solutions in a real-world environment on campus and beyond. By treating the campus and its surrounding areas as a living laboratory, you will be able to see the immediate impact of your work in a live context. You will address complex challenges focused on the core pillars of Climate and Circularity, supported by industry mentors, community members, and sustainability experts. You will apply these perspectives through a hands-on, experimentation-based consulting project, using actual data and field experiments to develop fit-for-purpose prototypes or concepts that can be tested in the real world. By the end of the unit, you will be equipped with the skills to navigate messy, real-world problems, to communicate with professional influence and lead projects with meeting various stakeholder needs — all while contributing meaningfully to the growth of resilient urban communities.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

The Handbook lists no prerequisite, corequisite or prohibition for this unit.

Learning outcomes

1. align the different interests of diverse stakeholders (including community, government, and industry) around a scope and project approach that addresses their shared sustainability challenge;
2. communicate complex and innovative project findings and recommendations that are evidence-based, relevant and accessible, across various cross-sector stakeholders;
3. collectively Implement an iterative and collaborative experimentation process that utilises field data and stakeholder feedback to inform a solution direction;
4. apply contemporary business practices that are climate-safe, nature-positive, and circularity-focused to a place-based sustainability challenge;
5. co-create fit-for-purpose and inclusive prototypes or conceptual solutions that move beyond theoretical models, with tangible evidence for future implementation;
6. evaluate personal and team growth while navigating complexity and ambiguity through an experimentation project, through the use of industry-standard feedback practices, digital tools and collaborative approaches that value diverse perspectives.

Workload

Minimum total expected workload to achieve the learning outcomes for this unit is 144 hours per semester typically comprising a mixture of scheduled learning activities, project team activities and independent study. Learning activities may include a combination of teacher directed, industry directed, peer directed and online engagement activities, some of which may be offsite. Project team activities are self-directed and may include project planning and coordination, research and output development and stakeholder management. While this is a primarily team-based unit, some independent study will be required and may include associated research, assessment and preparation for scheduled activities. You are expected to complete all pre-class activities prior to your scheduled class, and post-class activities should be completed after your scheduled class.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.