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Each year, UNSW Business School proudly awards five Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Research Grants, empowering our HDR candidates to tackle pressing global challenges.

These grants support innovative research that drives progress toward the UN SDGs 2030 through transformative industry or government interventions at local, national, or international levels.

Three of the grants are funded by the UNSW Business School’s SDG Committee, while the remaining two are generously supported by the UNSW Global Water Institute.

The funding is dedicated to advancing research projects that inspire real-world impact and sustainable solutions. For the 2023-2024 cycle, a panel of expert judges selected five exceptional recipients: Giovanni Cunico, Amelia Li, Eugenia Fang, Arash Taheri, and Rita (Yuli) Li.

Their groundbreaking proposals and compelling presentations stood out for their strength, validity, and potential to create meaningful change. Congratulations to this year’s awardees—innovators leading the way for a more sustainable future!

To learn more about these expectational research projects, UNSW Business School spoke to each awardee about their research and how this will enable positive Societal impact.��

The ultimate aim is to provide a framework that enhances our understanding of the complex interactions between climate risks and economic stability, offering valuable insights for policymakers and insurers.

Why is this relevant today?

This research is highly relevant in today's context, where climate change is increasingly recognized as a systemic risk to global financial markets. Climate extremes, like floods and droughts, not only cause widespread damage but also create cascading economic crises.

In response, insurance plays a crucial role in managing these risks, but its full potential remains untapped. My research explores how insurance can be better utilized to stabilize economies, reduce the social cost of carbon, and protect against financial crises exacerbated by climate events. As climate change intensifies, this understanding is vital for creating resilient and sustainable economies. The integration of insurance as a risk management tool in climate policies is particularly important as climate shocks become more frequent and severe.

What has been the significance of receiving the UNSW BUS SDG Grant on your research?

The UNSW BUS SDG Grant has been instrumental in reshaping my research through a sustainable development lens. It motivated me to reconsider my project with a broader perspective on how insurance can contribute to global sustainability goals.

The grant provided crucial support, allowing me to attend international conferences where I engaged with experts in climate risk and sustainable finance. These experiences have enriched my research and helped align it more closely with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in terms of climate action and economic resilience.

In the first chapter of the thesis, I investigate the impact of wind and solar PV technologies on the electricity market revenues of coal and gas-fired power plants in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM), and in the second, I investigate the relationship between grid-scale storage and the revenues of wind and solar PV technologies in the NEM.

What contemporary issue does your thesis address?

My thesis is closely related to and addresses the decarbonisation of electricity grids to mitigate the emission of greenhouse gases from the energy sector. Specifically, it focuses on two aspects of decarbonisation: the need for access to dispatchable generation technologies to maintain secure and reliable power systems as more renewables enter the grid, and potential complementarities and competition between storage and renewables in a changing generation landscape.

As such, a comprehensive understanding of the potential barriers to and the dynamics of a transitioning electricity market is crucial for policymakers aiming to achieve such emission reductions.

What has been the significance of receiving the UNSW SDG BUS Grant on your research?

The UNSW BUS SDG Grant has been instrumental in helping me workshop my research at academic conferences to seek feedback from experts and to improve the quality of my work. It has also given me access to the funds needed to enlist professional help to clean very large datasets and prepare them for analysis.��

Approximately 30%–50% of fresh, edible fruits and vegetables never reach supermarket shelves, leading to a whooping annual loss of $161.6 billion in U.S., which is almost equivalent to the annual GDP of Kuwait. The rejection of edible yet unattractive produce not only harms retailers’ bottom line, but also leads to damaging consequences for the environment.��

To address this increasingly important sustainability issue, my research suggests a cost-effective and easy-to-implement strategy to increase consumers’ purchase intentions toward unattractive produce. Through a series of experiments and fields spanning from 2021 to 2024, I found that other-benefit appeal (i.e., helping farmers and retailers) is a more effective strategy than self-benefit appeal (i.e., substantial discount).

Why is this relevant today?

Food waste has been increasingly acknowledged as an urgent issue, with adverse impacts on environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Given the paramount challenge of global food waste, the United Nations included “halving world food waste by 2030” among its 2015 global development goals. Nevertheless, research on consumer-related food waste is only emerging in recent years, and further research is required to tackle the challenge.

My thesis contributes directly to several SDG goals, including #2 Zero Hunger, #12 Responsible Consumption and Production and #13 Climate Action. Furthermore, my research is particularly relevant as our data collection was completed during and after the global pandemic, which provides unique opportunity to understand the effects of economic recession on consumers behaviour and mindset.

What has been the significance of receiving the UNSW BUS SDG Grant on your research?

The UNSW SDG grant immensely supports my research and allows me to conduct rounds of data collection. It also provides a great opportunity for me to present my research and obtain ideas and inspiration from fellow researchers.

Our findings provide important theoretical and practical implications. Chiefly, our findings contradict the widely held belief that people are inherently egoistic and selfish by demonstrating the efficacy of other-benefit (vs. self-benefit) appeal. Our findings offer far-reaching practical implications for food retailers, marketers, and policymakers, who aim to design successful marketing strategies to encourage consumers to purchase aesthetically unattractive produce and mitigate global food waste.

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To learn more about Giovanni Cunico’s and Amelia Li’s research, click here.��