Consumption, Waste and Environment

I am a South Australian author and researcher in the field of environmental and social sustainability. My perspective on our environmental crisis has been shaped by a background in the humanities, initially through an Oxford doctorate in the history of philosophy, religion and science, and subsequently by teaching and research in the history and theory of architecture and design. I work at the University of South Australia where I am Deputy Director of the China Australia Centre for Sustainable Development, a research collaboration with Tianjin University.

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I am the author of Somebody Else’s Problem: Consumerism, Design and Sustainability (Greenleaf, 2016), which won ‘gold’ in the Axiom Best Business Books list of 2017. I am revising this book for a second, expanded edition, to be published in 2020.

 

I am now working on a collaborative project on transparency and product design, which will result in an international seminar to be held in Adelaide in February. I am also the co-editor of a series of books on topics related to sustainable design, including design for reuse and the circular economy.

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The main focus of my research has been the relationship between consumption and our environmental crisis, with a particular interest in the potential role of design in furthering the goal of social and environmental sustainability.

 

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