DrStephen Northey

Dr Stephen Northey is a Research Director at the Insitute for Sustainable Futures, UTS. Stephen's research seeks to understand the interaction between material supply and sustainable development outcomes as we transition towards a decarbonised economy. As part of this, Stephen is a recognised specialist in the application of quantitative sustainability assessment methods within the context of the mineral and metal sectors. This work has spanned from detailed regional supply scenarios for commodities of importance for electrification and battery technologies, through to development of the foundational datasets used to benchmark the greenhouse gas emissions and water use impacts of metal supply. Stephen is particularly interested in situations where sustainability theory meets practice - and so he has conducted detailed evaluations of corporate disclosures and sustainability reporting, worked to improve recommendations for sustainability indicator design and selection used within environmental Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies, developed new database and modelling approaches to resolve key sectoral challenges, and provided frank advice on the design and operation of sustainability services and schemes to businesses, clients and government.

Stephen initially joined UTS as a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Prior to this, Stephen worked in a range of roles with Monash University and CSIRO, where he assessed the global supply and demand of mineral products, evaluated water and energy consumption throughout the mining industry, and conducted techno-economic and life cycle assessment studies of technologies being developed for mining, mineral processing and metal production. Stephen has also been extensively involved in international working groups to improve the theoretical underpinnings of impact characterization models for resource use and scarcity that are used as part of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies.

Stephen is always keen to discuss the outcomes of his research and the implications for business practices, government policy and society. So please reach out if you would like to engage on these issues.