Sustainability partners

Sustainability partners

Global partnerships driving real world sustainability solutions

Adelaide University works with leading institutions around the world to accelerate progress toward a more sustainable future, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Through shared research programs, joint projects, and coordinated insights, we combine global expertise with local capability to crete solutions that strengthen communities, restore environments, and support the development of resilient systems toward a sustainable future.

17: Partnerships for the goals

Local partners

Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS)

Adelaide University is a proud member of ACTS, a not-for-profit, member-led organisation working to engage, empower, and exemplify organisations in the higher education sector working to tackle complex social, economic, and environmental challenges and support meaningful change towards a more sustainable future.

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SA Zero

The Committee for Adelaide is leading SA ZERO, Adelaide’s first net-zero cluster for public-private-academia collaboration. Our mission is to accelerate South Australia’s zero carbon and zero waste pathways. Adelaide University is proud to be collaborating with government, industry, and business in South Australia for sustainable outcomes for our state.

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Global partners

Flagship and Emerging Flagship Sustainability Partners

Theme focus:

  • Planetary health and biodiversity restoration
  • Sustainable production and consumption through clean technologies
  • Resilient, healthy and sustainable communities, buildings and infrastructure
  • Sustainable governance and decision-making
13: Climate action

Theme focus:

  • Governance of sustainability
  • Environmental humanities
  • Sustainable systems engineering and built environment
  • Transdisciplinary sustainability research
  • Operational sustainability management
16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Theme focus:

  • Energy and environment
  • Sustainable production and consumption
  • Sustainable systems
  • Sustainable and resilient supply chains
12: Responsible consumption and production

Collaboration focus includes:

  • Symposia to unifying research resources towards joint energy sustainability initiatives
  • Energy and sustainability partnership involving heavy industry low-carbon transition workshops
9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Collaboration focus includes:

  • A joint partnership fund designed to foster collaboration in sustainable green transition, advanced computing (quantum) and artificial intelligence.
  • Projects involving converting waste and CO₂ into fuels and chemicals using machine learning.
9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
7: Affordable and clean energy

Collaboration focus includes:

  • Smart and renewable energy, sustainable supply chain, climate change and health
  • Offshore wind and wave energy harnessing
  • Health impacts of climate change
  • Sustainable operations and supply chain management
  • Sustainable agriculture
7: Affordable and clean energy
12: Responsible for consumption and production

Collaboration focus includes:

  • climate change and greenspace exposure impacts on public health
  • low-carbon transition mechanisms
  • development of green materials for carbon pollution control
3: Good health and well-being

Collaboration focus includes:

  • Sustainable fashion
  • Energy storage and efficiency
  • Green hydrogen production
  • Renewable energy
  • Sustainable urban development
  • Heavy industry decarbonisation
  • Sustainable logistic supply chain
  • Food security
9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
12: Responsible for consumption and production

The Adelaide University has been deepening its partnership with Vietnam through impactful collaborations across education, research, and people-to-people linkages—ranging from co-leading international workshops on high-integrity blue carbon markets, to delivering adaptive leadership training for environmental resilience, and building capacity in climate-smart irrigation and water management through Australia Awards Fellowships.

Key initiatives include:

  • Mekong Australia Partnership Trilateral Masterclass on Adaptive Leadership for Environmental Resilience
    Professor Melissa Nursey-Bray, Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow led a Mekong Australia Partnership Trilateral Masterclass titled Adaptive Leadership for Environmental Resilience. Delivered to 22 senior government officials from Vietnam and Laos, the course focused on equipping participants with leadership tools to address environmental challenges. Each participant was required to design and implement a resilience-building project within their professional portfolio. The final assessment involved presenting their project outcomes at a showcase event in Laos. This initiative forms part of the Mekong–Australia Partnership’s strategic efforts to build regional environmental leadership capacity.
6: Clean water and sanitation
  • Australia Awards Fellowships round 20 – Training and Capacity Building in Vietnam in Irrigation and Water Management
    The Australia Awards Fellowship round 20 awarded a collaboration between the Goyder Institute for Water Research and the Institute for Water Resources Economics and Management under the Vietnam Academy of Water Resources to foster training and capacity building in climate-smart irrigation and water resources management. Led by Dr Alec Rolston, Director, Goyder Institute for Water Research and Professor Bronwyn Gillanders, the program focuses on building professional and technical capacity in climate-smart irrigation and integrated water resources management. Over five weeks, Vietnamese water managers and academics engaged in intensive training covering climate resilience, water pricing, institutional reform, drought and sanitation strategies, gender equality, disability, and social inclusion principles, green growth, and water recycling. The initiative fosters knowledge exchange – including First Nations perspectives - and strengthens ties between Australian and Vietnamese institutions, contributing to sustainable water management solutions in the face of global environmental challenges.

  • High-integrity blue carbon markets
    Adelaide University is actively collaborating with Vietnam to advance research and understanding in designing and operating high-integrity blue carbon markets. In May 2024, researchers from the Environment Institute, Professor Andrew Lowe and Dr Alice Jones, co-led an international workshop in Vietnam, bringing together Vietnamese government agencies, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the World Wide Fund for Nature to share lessons on blue carbon markets. This initiative aimed to enhance legal frameworks and stakeholder capacity for effective blue carbon market implementation in Vietnam. The collaboration underscored the University’s commitment to supporting Vietnam’s climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies through sustainable coastal forest management and carbon sequestration efforts.

  • Sustainable Futures Showcase Seminar
    Adelaide University and Vietnam’s National Economics University co-hosted the inaugural Sustainable Futures Showcase Seminar in Hanoi in August 2024, bringing together international experts in energy, climate change, green technology, circular economy, and sustainable development. Discussions aligned with Vietnam’s 2050 net-zero goals and highlighted opportunities for collaborative research and innovation. A follow-up seminar took place in August 2025 as part of the University of Adelaide’s ongoing Senior Executive Mission (SEM) to Vietnam, reinforcing its commitment to long-term partnership and regional impact.