The science of scaling sustainability impact

By Dr Zelalem Moti.

Despite decades of research and innovation, many sustainability-oriented technologies haven’t been widely adopted. Why?   

Agriculture is one sector where this is a real challenge. Various roadmaps by Ernst Young, by Climate Works, all suggest net zero agriculture is just around the corner, but agriculture continues to be 14% of our national emissions and the way forward looks impossible.  

Our farmers are among the most innovative and efficient in the world and we produce more food than we use. In some sectors such as wheat and meat, we contribute 14% and 10% respectively. 

If Australia is feeding the world, it is probably a roast beef sandwich.  

In fact, we do have some technologies that can reduce emissions for farmers, things like livestock feed supplements, and green urea products – deployed these could make a big difference. But technology alone of course is insufficient. In both cases we can’t really yet get supply, there are in some cases market regulation barriers, and most importantly in both cases, there is a price barrier – the cost stops uptake. Even where some changes on paper look profitable and a win for production and a win for greenhouse gas reduction, things like trust, the capability and time and resources to deploy, and upfront costs all can act as barriers.   

Another example is also related to the support systems in place for farmers to easily report on their emissions. While Australia has a robust national greenhouse reporting system, there are still considerable difficulties for farmers to develop enterprise-level emissions accounts. This is because it is hard – local practice, history and context all have huge impacts on emissions. Also, despite there are a range of existing tools for farmers, they are not consistent – and this undermines confidence.  

That is why my research focuses on the scaling question. To dig deeper, to better understand how scaling of the impact of low carbon farming technologies can be accelerated. My focus is on learning from global case studies – critically reviewing how scaling of impact processes from sustainable agriculture has happened in different contexts. This will help me identify different scaling pathways, barriers and drivers for scaling the impact of climate-smart agricultural practices.  

I ask a different and better scaling question not just about technologies but frame questions around the magnitude of the problem. My research aims to reset the scaling debate by recentring the analysis on the process of scaling impact, specifically the impact of sustainable agricultural approaches such as climate-smart agriculture.  

If we are going to get to a Net Zero economy we need to deploy options, but also need these to be scaled and put into widespread use. Understanding the science behind the impact process and how it works for different options in different locations is important for all sectors. But it is especially challenging in agriculture, where personal values, perception of risks, the strong constraint on capital access, and capacity really have an influence. I am learning from agriculture, to inform the net zero transition more broadly.  

Then the next better question I also ask is around how we facilitate the impact process in action.  The question around how emerging sustainability solutions to decarbonise agriculture can be better supported. How can sustainability initiatives in agriculture engage with the science of scaling impact at the early stage- the co-design stage?

That is why I am also interested in the systems approach to facilitate the integration of diverse knowledge in co-designing sustainability solutions initiated by different projects. For instance, I lead stakeholder engagement, including First Nations people, for a new CSIRO project called Pest READI in a co-design process to develop digital twins with communities for area-wide integrated pest management, supporting the transition to a chemically limited farming future for the horticulture industry in Northern Rivers region. My goal is to utilise the principles of scaling sustainability impact.

This involves engaging various stakeholders in the early stages of design in a learning process, to establish trust, develop relationships, and form shared goals in order to address the scale of the problem. The aim is to guide their collaborative efforts towards achieving widespread impact, using innovation as a driving force.