Sustainability
Sustainability at Bond
Bond University is committed to making authentic and positive progress towards a more sustainable future, with our ambitions outlined in our 2023-2027 Strategic Plan. Our commitment includes fostering innovation and leadership, enhancing academic programs to educate students on global sustainability, promoting sustainable practices within the community, advancing impactful research, and developing future-oriented infrastructure.
Through our care for the environment, we will show respect for the Kombumerri people, who are the Traditional Custodians of the land on which our University stands. We acknowledge the Indigenous ways of knowing and being that protected this country throughout history.
Our sustainability priorities align with the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals and focus on three key areas: educational leadership; carbon reduction; and changing behaviours.
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Striving for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Bond University strives to align its operations with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the heart of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The agenda provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. Bond was the first private, independent university in the Pacific region to be accepted as a signatory to the United Nations SDGs.
Bond recognises the pivotal role educational institutions play in teaching, researching, and implementing sustainable practices. Our engagement with the UNSDGs not only provides a framework for our academic and operational endeavours but also a means to communicate our commitment to applied skills, innovation, and transformative educational experiences.
Bond addresses each of the SDGs through a variety of initiatives, events, research, and education. In 2024, Bond's efforts were recognised in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings, placing in the top 80 for SDG 3, Good Health and Well-Being, and in the top 90 for SDG 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. The results mark Bond's highest ranking to date, demonstrating our continued improvement and ongoing efforts.
Explore some of our campus initiatives
The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.
— Robert Swan
Collaboration for global change
Every undergraduate student at Bond University completes our Core Curriculum, which provides learning content specific to the University’s graduate attributes, namely being capable individuals, effective collaborators and global citizens.
Core Curriculum content is linked with the United Nations SDGs so that every Bond undergraduate student can demonstrate their understanding and capacity to address broad global challenges. Bond offered a new subject from 2023 called Collaboration for Global Change, in which students work in a collaborative design laboratory to create authentic solutions to global challenges. Students connect their work to a SDG to frame their actions as global citizens.
Through our Beyond Bond program, students also participate in multiple approved activities relating to sustainability.
In our faculties
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Faculty of Law
At the undergraduate level, the Bachelor of Laws program has introduced a new double major in Climate Law as a flagship initiative. The program is the first of its kind globally and focuses on climate change's legal, scientific, social, and commercial aspects. A diverse range of environmental law and climate law electives are also made accessible to all undergraduate law students. Students are empowered to delve into the complex legal issues that inform environmental stewardship and climate action.
Several Faculty academics are members of a national research team examining and lobbying for integrating climate sustainability principles into the compulsory Bachelor of Laws curriculum, in an effort to ensure that every law student receives a comprehensive grounding in the legal aspects of sustainability.
Within the Faculty’s postgraduate offerings, sustainability is a priority within the popular Master of Laws in Enterprise Governance, through a mandatory ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) subject, ensuring graduates are adept in corporate governance and navigating the sustainability considerations that modern businesses must address. The Faculty is also reviewing the Juris Doctor curriculum and exploring ways to grant JD students access to climate law electives alongside the existing postgraduate environmental law offerings.
Law students have a unique opportunity to act by participating in the Climate Sustainability Clinic available in the Bond Legal Clinics Program. The clinic is conducted over nine weeks each semester, and selected students become an integral part of various ongoing projects aimed at improving climate sustainability performance and understanding climate change, the regulation of climate change initiatives, and actions we can all take today.
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Bond Business School
Bond Business School (BBS) committed to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management (PRME) in 2012. The mission of the PRME initiative is to achieve the UNSDGs through the implementation of the six principles for responsible management education. Since joining PRME, the School has successfully implemented the PRME principles through its curriculum and teaching, research activities, industry linkages and community outreach events.
A committee of academic staff reporting to the Executive Dean guides the BBS initiatives in these areas. Surveys conducted across 2021- 2023 confirmed that 76 per cent of subjects offered by the BBS included content related to business ethics (e.g. ethical practice, bribery, ethical dilemmas in business, violation of reporting standards, etc.), corporate social responsibility (e.g. corporate philanthropy, triple bottom line, etc.) and/or sustainability (e.g. environmental issues).
BBS also introduced a new subject in 2023 titled ‘Responsible and Sustainable Organisations’. This subject is designed to explore the complex environmental, social and governance challenges facing today's business organisations and provides a perspective on of business ethics and sustainable organisational practices. It is available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students.
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Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine
The Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine (HSM) has mapped its subject learning outcomes, class content, resources and assessment against the 17 United nations SDGs. The HSM Sustainability Committee are reviewing the mapping data with the aim of identifying opportunities to enhance resources. The HSM Sustainability Committee and the Faculty Learning & Teaching Committee will aid programs and subject coordinators in constructively aligning learning objectives, content, resources, and assessments. This collaborative effort demonstrates a commitment to holistic educational quality and sustainable practices within the faculty.
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Faculty of Society & Design
The Faculty of Society & Design (FSD) formed sustainability working and champion groups in 2022. A baseline audit was undertaken to measure the extent to which sustainability and the UNSDGs were embedded within the curriculum, and it was found that the majority of FSD subjects intersected with the UNSDGs in some way. In 2023, the Faculty focussed on sustainability through First Nations knowledge.
A faculty-wide review of the curriculum will be carried out through 2024 with the goal of ensuring that sustainability, First Nations knowledge, and the UNSDGs are formally embedded into our curriculum where it is appropriate and where there is a clear advantage for student futures and employability in doing so.
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Transformation degrees
To keep up with our rapidly-changing world, the students of today need to learn the skills of tomorrow – enter Bond’s cross-disciplinary Transformation degrees. With subjects informed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, these programs are designed for big thinkers who want to effect lasting change in their sector of choice.
Graduates will emerge with a new capacity to influence healthcare, entrepreneurship, technology or law – or perhaps another industry entirely – and will be equipped to problem-solve, communicate effectively, and ultimately, enact change in line with the SDGs.
At the undergraduate level, the Bachelor of Laws program has introduced a new double major in Climate Law as a flagship initiative. The program is the first of its kind globally and focuses on climate change's legal, scientific, social, and commercial aspects. A diverse range of environmental law and climate law electives are also made accessible to all undergraduate law students. Students are empowered to delve into the complex legal issues that inform environmental stewardship and climate action.
Several Faculty academics are members of a national research team examining and lobbying for integrating climate sustainability principles into the compulsory Bachelor of Laws curriculum, in an effort to ensure that every law student receives a comprehensive grounding in the legal aspects of sustainability.
Within the Faculty’s postgraduate offerings, sustainability is a priority within the popular Master of Laws in Enterprise Governance, through a mandatory ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) subject, ensuring graduates are adept in corporate governance and navigating the sustainability considerations that modern businesses must address. The Faculty is also reviewing the Juris Doctor curriculum and exploring ways to grant JD students access to climate law electives alongside the existing postgraduate environmental law offerings.
Law students have a unique opportunity to act by participating in the Climate Sustainability Clinic available in the Bond Legal Clinics Program. The clinic is conducted over nine weeks each semester, and selected students become an integral part of various ongoing projects aimed at improving climate sustainability performance and understanding climate change, the regulation of climate change initiatives, and actions we can all take today.
Bond Business School (BBS) committed to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management (PRME) in 2012. The mission of the PRME initiative is to achieve the UNSDGs through the implementation of the six principles for responsible management education. Since joining PRME, the School has successfully implemented the PRME principles through its curriculum and teaching, research activities, industry linkages and community outreach events.
A committee of academic staff reporting to the Executive Dean guides the BBS initiatives in these areas. Surveys conducted across 2021- 2023 confirmed that 76 per cent of subjects offered by the BBS included content related to business ethics (e.g. ethical practice, bribery, ethical dilemmas in business, violation of reporting standards, etc.), corporate social responsibility (e.g. corporate philanthropy, triple bottom line, etc.) and/or sustainability (e.g. environmental issues).
BBS also introduced a new subject in 2023 titled ‘Responsible and Sustainable Organisations’. This subject is designed to explore the complex environmental, social and governance challenges facing today's business organisations and provides a perspective on of business ethics and sustainable organisational practices. It is available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students.
The Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine (HSM) has mapped its subject learning outcomes, class content, resources and assessment against the 17 United nations SDGs. The HSM Sustainability Committee are reviewing the mapping data with the aim of identifying opportunities to enhance resources. The HSM Sustainability Committee and the Faculty Learning & Teaching Committee will aid programs and subject coordinators in constructively aligning learning objectives, content, resources, and assessments. This collaborative effort demonstrates a commitment to holistic educational quality and sustainable practices within the faculty.
The Faculty of Society & Design (FSD) formed sustainability working and champion groups in 2022. A baseline audit was undertaken to measure the extent to which sustainability and the UNSDGs were embedded within the curriculum, and it was found that the majority of FSD subjects intersected with the UNSDGs in some way. In 2023, the Faculty focussed on sustainability through First Nations knowledge.
A faculty-wide review of the curriculum will be carried out through 2024 with the goal of ensuring that sustainability, First Nations knowledge, and the UNSDGs are formally embedded into our curriculum where it is appropriate and where there is a clear advantage for student futures and employability in doing so.
To keep up with our rapidly-changing world, the students of today need to learn the skills of tomorrow – enter Bond’s cross-disciplinary Transformation degrees. With subjects informed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals, these programs are designed for big thinkers who want to effect lasting change in their sector of choice.
Graduates will emerge with a new capacity to influence healthcare, entrepreneurship, technology or law – or perhaps another industry entirely – and will be equipped to problem-solve, communicate effectively, and ultimately, enact change in line with the SDGs.
Programs that consider planetary health
Planetary health is incorporated into many degrees at Bond, with environmentally-focused subjects available across faculties in addition to the University's various environmental and global health programs.
Most Bond students are given the opportunity to be educated on planetary health strategies and their role in the environment, and taking full advantage of the available resources provides one of the simplest ways to improve our environmental impact. Many of the additional teaching resources and further readings offer tailored guidance for Bond students to apply a more eco-friendly approach to their day-to-day lives as well as their specific future careers and areas of interest.
You can reach out to our highly qualified academics at Bond during your studies with queries regarding planetary health — they are more informed and passionate about the topic than anyone else around.
Sustainability research
Sustainability is considered in the research carried out across all Bond's faculties and institutes, and we strive to grow and enhance this portfolio each year. Read about some of our research that centres around sustainability below.