The Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources (ISER) invites you to join us at the Sustainability Spotlight series hosted at the University of Adelaide.

As part of the these events, recipients of the Foci and Magnets for Excellence (FAME) Sustainability grants will showcase their projects and its progress to date.

Topics presented will vary from promoting green technology in the Australian Wine Industry to Green Investment Index and many other interesting projects in between.

At this event, attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and network after the following presentations of Dr. Ivan Indriawan and Associate Professor Yan Tan:

1. The Australian Green Investment Index - by Dr Ivan Indriawan

Ivan's current project aims to gauge the extent of Green Investment within Australia. With the increased interest and expectations in sustainable investments, various market participants (consumers, media, investors, regulators, and international stakeholders) have engaged in various nature-positive initiatives. So far, however, these efforts have not been well quantified in a consolidated form. Through the Australian Green Investment Index (AGII), we aim to establish a standardized green investment score for each Australian state. This score will serve as a metric to evaluate the environmental impact of economic and financial activities across different regions within Australia.

2. Using Local Knowledge to Support Effective Transition and Sustainable Bushfire Risk Reduction in Australia - by Associate Professor Yan Tan

Bushfires are a catastrophic natural hazard in Australia. The frequency and severity of bushfire risk are further compounded by factors such as climate change, population growth, and urban expansion. To effectively reduce bushfire risk at a national scale, the Australian Fire Danger Rating System (AFDRS) has been implemented since September 2022. Despite modeling advancements, there is a lack of empirical evidence of the AFDRS’ suitability in local fire management contexts and its acceptance by end users. Yet, understanding how the AFDRS is received, communicated, and acted upon is vital for supporting effective transition and sustainable bushfire risk reduction in Australia. To bridge this gap, an interdisciplinary approach is adopted by employing both environmental engineering (EE) and social science (SS) methods to assess local knowledge and application of the AFDRS comprehensively. To quantify the suitability of this new system across varied fire management contexts, EE techniques have been used to develop an innovative sensitivity analysis that provides technical guidance on the physical and scientific dimensions of the model. Meanwhile, SS techniques are applied to leverage social insights on impacts and challenges for the AFDRS. Specifically, key stakeholder interviews across South Australia, a place prone to frequent and severe bushfires, alongside a nationwide survey will strengthen understanding of how the AFDRS’ modeling is perceived and knowledge transferred between experts and communities. This integration of social and technical dimensions promotes a holistic transition for mitigating bushfire risk and building systemic resilience through identifying adaptation priorities that lead to tangible benefits for both human and environmental systems.

Presenters' bios:

Dr. Ivan Indriawan is a Senior Lecturer in Finance at the Adelaide Business School, University of Adelaide. He received his Ph.D. in Finance from the Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Before joining the University of Adelaide, Ivan was a senior lecturer at the Auckland University of Technology, a Research Fellow at the Auckland Centre for Financial Research, and a Credit Risk Scoring Analyst at Citibank. Ivan’s research interests include financial markets, market quality, news announcements, and applied econometrics. His works have been published in various leading finance journals.

Dr Yan Tan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, Environment, and Population at the University of Adelaide. She is the Director of the Hugo Population and Migration Program at Stretton Institute. Yan’s research falls within the field of population and environmental studies, with a focus on migration. She is the lead CI on two ARC-funded Discovery Projects (DP230103060, DP170101726); she was earlier ARC QEII Fellow/CI (DP110105522). Her research has advanced the state of knowledge in migration, displacement, and resettlement within China and with Australia; created analytical frameworks and techniques to unravel migration–diaspora–development relationships; reshaped migration theory where data had been incomplete, inaccurate, or definitionally vague. She has a strong interest in addressing human–environment interactions, carbon mitigation, and other environmental stresses—especially land-use change, ecosystem services, agroecosystems, and food insecurity—in the context of traumatic urban expansion and rapid growth of the urban population in China.