Join our Citizen Science Network
Citizen science is the involvement of the community in scientific research
The Power of Citizen Science
Zero30 will be powered directly by research, with data provided from the community through its citizen science network.
Zero30 will provide the community with a platform to:
- Participate in Zero30 science projects by collecting relevant data;
- Provide data that will assist Zero30 in tracking the progress towards Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard by 2030;
- Provide data that will enable us to benchmark and monitor community adaptation and resilience.
About carbon tracking – sneak peek!
Zero30 is a collaboration between the Armidale Regional Council, the University of New England, Business New England and the broader regional community, supported by Verso Design. Zero30 will achieve certification of the Armidale Local Government Area through the Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard for Precincts. The Climate Active Carbon Neutral Standard will help us to manage our greenhouse emissions and achieve our goal of carbon neutrality by 2030.
As part of our Zero30 Project, we have developed a customised Carbon Tracking Tool to assist beef farmers with calculating their carbon emissions and identifying associated activities. We are excited to have built a tracker which is simple to use and relevant to our regional Australian farming community.
We are looking forward to helping our farmers determine and track their farms’ carbon footprint, and equally excited that you will be able to contribute your data directly to our research.
Our next intention is to focus on developing a suite of greenhouse gas emission tools similar to the Beef Farmer Carbon Tracker Tool. We wish to acknowledge the University of Melbourne’s Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre (PICCC) and reference the Beef (B-GAF) Farm Greenhouse Accounting Framework Tool, which is freely available as MS Excel spreadsheets, (D-GAF) Dairy GHG Accounting Framework V13.
Developing our carbon tracking data tool
Version 1 of the Beef Farmer Carbon Tracker Tool was developed in 2020 by regional students, under the supervision of Project Zero30 with support from Verso Design. Four UNE Computer Science 3rd year students took up the development team opportunity to apply their skills to an industry issue within their studies. We are delighted to introduce the development team:
Russel Knight
Russell is a 29 year old studying at UNE online from Melbourne. He is currently undertaking his final trimester of a Bachelor of Computer Science, with aspirations of continuing into a graduate software development program once complete.
Chris Hollman
I’m a 3rd and final year external student based out of Brisbane, QLD currently studying a Bachelor of Computer Science. I returned to study after completing ~7 years with the Queensland Police, looking to challenge myself at university by formally studying my longtime passion for computers. Outside of university I enjoy doing statistical analysis and forecasting of sports, playing guitar, and keeping fit.
Blake Hamilton
My name is Blake Hamilton. I live in Newcastle NSW and I’m a third year UNE student studying a bachelor of Computer Science.
Andrew Grimm
I work as a full stack web developer for IMB bank. Prior to this I worked in China for 5 years. I like working on projects that have a material impact on peoples lives.
Version 2 of the Beef Farmer Carbon Tracker Tool was developed in 2021 by David Miron.
Associate-Professor David Miron
Project Lead on behalf of the University of New England
David is the UNE Zero30 Project Lead, as well as the Director Strategic Research Initiatives at the University of New England, Armidale. David has a PhD in Computer Science, and a passion for pursuing research outcomes which provide benefit to regional communities, farmers and local businesses.
Overview of the Beef Farmer Carbon Tracker Tool
Click here to view the following screenshots show the simplicity of the Beef Farmer Carbon Tracker Tool. A farmer can input data for multiple farms, decide which outputs are relevant to a particular farm and enter relevant numbers to calculate the direct (Scope 1) emissions which are presented as a table and graphed.
About our Post-Doctoral Research Fellow Dr Kara Tighe
The Zero30 Project is proud to announce the appointment of our talented Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Dr. Kara Tighe.
Kara will be applying her considerable expertise to undertake the Armidale Local Government Area (ALGA) baseline measurement activity for the development of our carbon emissions audit, as well as conduct research into the climate mitigation and adaptation initiatives which will assist us to achieve our goal. This is a unique research opportunity for a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow to work directly within the local community, business and agriculture sectors, to develop a clear understanding of the needs and expectations of a regional-rural area, in managing climate adaptation and mitigation.
As Kara will be liaising directly with the community in a number of her activities, please say hello if you see her out and about!
About Kara
Kara is a recent Agricultural Economics PhD graduate from the University of New England. She is an applied economist with research experience in agro-forestry, consumer demand modelling and econometric analysis. Her research interests centre on the application of economic and consumer behaviour modelling to improve food and resource use efficiency.
Kara started her professional life as a Market Analyst at Meat and Livestock Australia before embarking on a PhD. During her PhD, she taught Farm and Resource Management and contributed to a range of research projects within the Agricultural Economics discipline.