Fabian Sack | The University of Sydney (original) (raw)

Papers by Fabian Sack

A novel Ecological Footprint and an example application

Over the past decade, an increasing number of authors have been examining the nexus of producer v... more Over the past decade, an increasing number of authors have been examining the nexus of producer versus consumer responsibility, often dealing with the question of how to assign responsibility for internationally traded greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, a similar problem has appeared in drafting the standards for the Ecological Footprint: While the method traditionally assumes a full life-cycle perspective with full consumer responsibility, a large number of producers (businesses and industry sectors) have started to calculate their own footprints. Adding any producer's footprint to other producers' footprints, or to population footprints, which all already cover the full upstream supply chain of their operating inputs, leads to double-counting: The sum over footprints of producers and consumers is larger than the total national footprint. The committee in charge of the Footprint standardisation process was hence faced with the decades-old non-additivity problem, posing the following dilemma for the accounting of footprints, or any other production factor: if one disallows double-counting, but wishes to be able to account for producers and consumers, then one cannot impose the requirement of full life-cycle coverage; the supply chains of agents have to be curtailed somehow in order to avoid double-counting. This work demonstrates and discusses a non-arbitrary method of consistently delineating these supply chains, into mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive portions of responsibility to be shared by all agents in an economy.

Focus Press, as part of its mantle as an innovator in the print industry, has undertaken a study ... more Focus Press, as part of its mantle as an innovator in the print industry, has undertaken a study of the social impact of its supply chain. Its co-author, Fabian Sack, provides insight into the process.

This paper provides insight into the attitudes and perceptions of young people who are studying, ... more This paper provides insight into the attitudes and perceptions of young people who are studying, or who are recent graduates of [vocational education and training] VET programs to identify and discuss issues and trends emerging from research into the development of 'skills for sustainability'. Located in the wake of the implementation of the Green Skills Agreement (Council of Australian Governments 2010), this paper brings together findings from recent research undertaken separately by these two researchers. The study by Sack (2012) was conducted under the auspices of the Dusseldorp Skills Forum and involves review and analysis of the 2008 and 2011 Gen Green surveys of Australian WorldSkills competitors. These two surveys have been analysed separately and more recently together, to provide a longitudinal snapshot of the issues and trends as depicted by young people in VET. The 2011 survey shows that some important environmental, social and economic skills are largely absent from courses and workplaces, suggesting scope for a broader revision of public policy around skills for sustainability in the future. Following a key finding from these two surveys that recognises technical and further education (TAFE) as the main source of learning about sustainability skills, this paper includes a slice drawn through the data in a recent study by Brown (2012) involving semi-structured interviews with 19 TAFE students located in three different TAFE institutes and one recent VET graduate. While far from universal, these TAFE students reported changes being implemented into both their work roles and their courses of study.

A new calculation of the Ecological Footprint (EF) of a water provider addresses limitations in t... more A new calculation of the Ecological Footprint (EF) of a water provider addresses limitations in the previous methodology by regionalising a previously national input-output model, and determining the area of disturbance caused by environmental toxicants not considered in the traditional EF model. In a first step, the regional input-output model determines indirect ef fects of water services activities in the form of point sources of pollutants. Accuracy is im proved by hybridisation using "process data" to account for the direct environmental burden of the water service. The accuracy of the input-output model is improved by reconciling data sources; calibrating concordance tables and employing optimisation techniques to deal with conflicting data sources. The second step involves a nested fate model, which follows the fate of the point source emissions at several spatial scales. The final output provides an indication of the direct and indirect burden connected with the water business, throughout its entire upstream supply chains. This proposed EF methodology improves on previous EF methodologies by avoiding exclusive reliance on national average data, and by including toxicants in a disturbance-based calculation analogous to the established inclusion of green house gases in EF, making it more comprehensive. It is hoped that the additional detail and comprehensiveness will make the new method a more effective environmental reporting and communications tool for the Australian water industry. This generic approach to environ mental reporting may potentially be applied to other economic activities.

International Journal of Training Research, Oct 1, 2012

In this research, skills for sustainability are broadly conceived as including skills for social,... more In this research, skills for sustainability are broadly conceived as including skills for social, economic and environmental sustainability – a triple bottom-line approach. Since 2009 Australian governments have been implementing an agreement that embeds skills for sustainability into vocational education and training, despite scant information about the actual levels of demand for, and supply of these skills. This study provides evidence on the actual depth and breadth of the take-up of these skills within Australian training organisations and workplaces. The demand studied in this research is that expressed by the primary consumers of Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) services, students who engage in VET studies, this is known in the literature as social demand for education. VET students and teachers responded to two survey instruments that explored the sustainability values, behaviours, learning and teaching of Australian apprentices, trainees and their teachers...

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 713676700, Aug 3, 2010

Faced with the task of communicating their combined social, environmental and economic impact, wa... more Faced with the task of communicating their combined social, environmental and economic impact, water service providers are seeking to report overall performance in an aggregated way. Such a methodology must be scientifically robust, easily communicated and allow benchmarking of performance while reflecting a transition towards sustainability. In this paper the ecological footprint (EF) is calculated for Sydney Water Corporation (SWC), using input-output analysis and land disturbance in an innovative approach that overcomes problems identified in the original EF concept. This pilot study has allowed SWC to gain some valuable insights into its impacts: SWC's annual EF is about 73 100 ha in terms of land disturbance. Of this, 54 000 ha are projected to become disturbed as a consequence of climate change, with the remainder of 19 100 ha being disturbed on SWC's premises (2400 ha) and on those of upstream suppliers (16 700 ha). Total on-site impacts equal 9300 ha, while indirect land disturbance contributes 63 600 ha. The EF appears promising as an educational and communication tool and may have potential as a decision support tool. However, further research is needed to incorporate downstream impacts into the EF, which would have significant benefits to SWC in terms of assessing and communicating the organization's overall progress towards sustainability.

The Issue The Issue "The crisis cannot be solved by the same kind of education that helped c... more The Issue The Issue "The crisis cannot be solved by the same kind of education that helped create the prob-lems... Schools, colleges and universities are part of the problem." (Orr, D. (1992). Eco-logical Literacy. Albany: SUNY Press, p. 83.) Despite growing efforts to integrate sustainability into classroom delivery by teachers across the globe, it is increasingly clear that the educational in-stitutions our societies rely upon to deliver tomorrow's workers need to be reimagined to meet the challenges of the future. The reason for this is at least partially because all around the world political and educational leaders continue to respond to the false lines our communities draw between highly valued academic studies, less well regarded vocational education and often entirely unrecognised socially acquired skills. Vocational skills are highly sought after by our society, but our education systems struggle to deliver to this demand, focusing instead on preparing school ...

Proceedings of the ICE - Engineering Sustainability, 2008

Proceedings of the ICE - Engineering Sustainability; ISSN: 1478-4629, Online ISSN: 1751-7680; DOI... more Proceedings of the ICE - Engineering Sustainability; ISSN: 1478-4629, Online ISSN: 1751-7680; DOI: 10.1680/ensu.2008.161.1.31; Volume 161, Issue 1, pages 31-37; © 2008 Thomas Telford Ltd. ...

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2003

Ecological Economics, 2007

Over the past decade, an increasing number of authors have been examining the nexus of producer v... more Over the past decade, an increasing number of authors have been examining the nexus of producer versus consumer responsibility, often dealing with the question of how to assign responsibility for internationally traded greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, a similar problem has appeared in drafting the standards for the Ecological Footprint: While the method traditionally assumes a full life-cycle perspective with full consumer responsibility, a large number of producers (businesses and industry sectors) have started to calculate their own footprints (see www.isa.org.usyd.edu.au). Adding any producer's footprint to other producers' footprints, or to population footprints, which all already cover the full upstream supply chain of their operating inputs, leads to double-counting: The sum of footprints of producers and consumers is larger than the total national footprint. The committee in charge of the Footprint standardisation process was hence faced with the decades-old nonadditivity problem, posing the following dilemma for the accounting of footprints, or any other production factor: if one disallows double-counting, but wishes to be able to account for producers and consumers, then one cannot impose the requirement of full life-cycle coverage; the supply chains of actors have to be curtailed somehow in order to avoid doublecounting. This work demonstrates and discusses a non-arbitrary method of consistently delineating these supply chains, into mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive portions of responsibility to be shared by all actors in an economy.

A novel Ecological Footprint and an example application

International Journal of Training Research, Oct 1, 2012

Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 713676700, Aug 3, 2010

Proceedings of the ICE - Engineering Sustainability, 2008

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2003

Ecological Economics, 2007

Over the past decade, an increasing number of authors have been examining the nexus of producer v... more Over the past decade, an increasing number of authors have been examining the nexus of producer versus consumer responsibility, often dealing with the question of how to assign responsibility for internationally traded greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, a similar problem has appeared in drafting the standards for the Ecological Footprint: While the method traditionally assumes a full life-cycle perspective with full consumer responsibility, a large number of producers (businesses and industry sectors) have started to calculate their own footprints (see www.isa.org.usyd.edu.au). Adding any producer's footprint to other producers' footprints, or to population footprints, which all already cover the full upstream supply chain of their operating inputs, leads to double-counting: The sum of footprints of producers and consumers is larger than the total national footprint. The committee in charge of the Footprint standardisation process was hence faced with the decades-old nonadditivity problem, posing the following dilemma for the accounting of footprints, or any other production factor: if one disallows double-counting, but wishes to be able to account for producers and consumers, then one cannot impose the requirement of full life-cycle coverage; the supply chains of actors have to be curtailed somehow in order to avoid doublecounting. This work demonstrates and discusses a non-arbitrary method of consistently delineating these supply chains, into mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive portions of responsibility to be shared by all actors in an economy.