CfD Director - Dr Ralph Horne

Ralph Horne initially took a combined Honours Batchelor degree in earth sciences and human geography before a Masters in Environmental Resources and a PhD in environmental assessment and climate change. His interest has developed over the last decade in wider dimensions of sustainability and the role of design and planning processes. He took up the Director’s post at the Centre in February 2005, moving to Australia from previous posts in the UK, which included Senior Lecturer in the Resources Research Unit at SheffieldHallamUniversity, Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, and Associate of North Energy Associates, which specialises in energy services consultancy.

With a personal passion in re-imagining and creating sustainable cities, he sees the furtherance of the sustainability agenda as a key underlying driver of innovation. The necessary technology and sustainable design ideas exist, but too often they are not imbued with sufficient social, economic and political engagement to create the desired changes. Design and planning research in sustainable cities must therefore necessarily concern itself with the interplay.

Research projects since February 2005 have tended to focus on the environmental sustainability of housing, with a growing focus on the urban scale. This has involved comparisons of environmental performance of Australian housing with those overseas, critical analyses of rating tools, and policy-oriented environmental assessment research. However, product and packaging eco-design and life cycle assessment are also a continuing theme, for example, through his involvement in the Sustainable Packaging Alliance and Sustainability Victoria’s Design for Sustainability program.

He is currently developing new research projects in the Re-imagining the Australian Suburb, and Sustainable Buildings and Cities research areas, including carbon neutral communities. He is also supervising four Doctoral candidates, two of whom are interested in the sustainability of Australian suburbs, one the environmental specification of building materials, and the fourth is studying the transition towards sustainable packaging design. He has 10 years’ experience of masters and PhD supervisions and completions.