Peter Newton

Professor – Swinburne University of Technology

Professor Peter Newton holds a joint research appointment in the Institute for Social Research and the Centre for Regional Development at Swinburne University. Prior to joining Swinburne University in December 2006, Peter held the position of Chief Research Scientiest at CSIRO, where he led the Urban Systems Program; and since 2001 has been Program Director, Sustainability, in the CRC for Construction Innovation.
Current research interests encompass:

  • The sustainability of cities (Peter was the author of the 2006 Australian State of Environment: Human Settlements Reports for the federal government; and is currently preparing a book Transitions: Pathways to More Sustainable Development in Australia for publication in late 2007).
  • The determinants of resource consumption and the ability of behaviour change, technology and urban design to reverse an alarming trend of unsustainable consumption (focus of an ARC Discovery application; and involvement in a CRD project with Outer Eastern Municipalities of Melbourne).
  • Urban deconstruction and redevelopment - a fundamental sustainability challenge for cities involving Swinburne, Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) and several municipalities in eastern Melbourne.
  • Sustainable building - currently via a book Transforming the Built Environment , presenting key outcomes from 6 years of CRC research.
  • Strategic urban planning and development processes (Peter was commissioned by DSE in December 2006 to audit the Melbourne 2030 strategy; he also has articles appearing in the 2007 edition of the high impact journal Environment and Planning and The Environmental Design Guide).
  • A range of invited positions on national and state committees (e.g. Banksia Foundation; Federal Action Agenda for the Built Environment Design Professions; International Council for Building and Innovation Research; Chair of the Scientific Committee for the 2008 International Conference for Sustainable Building).

 

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