Louise Gallagher

OVERVIEW

Dr. Louise Gallagher is a Senior Fellow at the Global Centre for Mineral Security within the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland. She co-leads the Responsible Sand and Silicates Initiative with Professor Daniel Franks and Daniel Holm. This new initiative will be formally launched in 2025 and is building on a partnership with OECD, IKEA, and Roca Group to ensure the responsible sourcing of sand and silicates. This multistakeholder coalition aims to define and implement responsible sourcing practices in critical supply chains, creating opportunities for sustainability transformations in global production and consumption systems.

BACKGROUND

The common thread throughout Louise's career is the drive to link sustainability theory, transdisciplinary research, action and innovation for impact.

Louise originally trained as a human geographer and ecological economist, with a PhD in environmental science and policy. She has designed and facilitated programmes for systems change at the intersection of societal development, ecosystems, and sustainability challenges over the last 15 years with organisations like the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), WWF, and various academic institutions.

Her knowledge and experience span various fields, including sustainability science, natural capital valuation, circular and green economies, chemicals and waste management, environmental policy, local energy transitions, inclusive land use planning, the water-energy-food-climate nexus, and minerals resource governance. During her time at UNEP, she actively contributed to significant initiatives such as advocating for fisheries subsidies reform at the WTO, integrating waste and circular economy considerations into the Green Economy Report (2008), mainstreaming the sound management of chemicals in development planning, and contributing to the inaugural Global Chemicals Outlook (2011). At WWF, Louise pioneered the organisation's inaugural green economy programme in the Greater Mekong region, driving biodiversity conservation and sustainable development efforts across Southeast Asia's vital transboundary landscapes. From 2014 to 2017, she led science-policy-practice innovation to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services analysis and conservation action. Louise's research and teaching at the University of Geneva centred on sustainability innovation processes for fostering inclusive, deliberative policy-making and collective action in the water-energy-food nexus, local energy transitions, and the global governance of sand resources.

She is the lead author of the UNEP (2019) report on Sand and Sustainability: Finding new solutions for environmental governance. She co-authored the UNEP (2022) Sand and Sustainability: 10 Strategic Recommendations to Avert a Crisis. Louise also led the governance research and action for UNEP/GRID-Geneva’s Global Sand Observatory Initiative until 2021. She was a lead contributor to The University of Queensland and the University of Geneva’s collaboration on Ore Sand: a potential new solution to the mine tailings and global sand sustainability crises.

Louise joined the Global Centre for Mineral Security at the University of Queensland's Sustainable Minerals Institute in 2022, driven by her commitment to deeper engagement with the private sector and other non-governmental partners on issues related to sand and sustainability. In addition to her action research, Louise serves as an advisor and evaluator to organisations committed to systems change and transformation impact. Recent partners include the IKEA Foundation, Gilbane Building Company, Mastercard Foundation, the International Institute for Environment and Development, the Packard Foundation, and WWF-Netherlands.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Louise’s research interests lie in understanding why and how successful collective action contributes to institutional innovation that enables sustainability transformations to emerge. Her current focus is advancing multistakeholder cooperation to innovate on sustainability standards and responsible sourcing practices that can address pressing issues related to sand and silicates supply chain impacts and opportunities.

See her profiles on Google Scholar and ResearchGate for more information.

Skills

• Strategy & action planning

• Partnership brokering & facilitating multi-stakeholder processes

• Co-design, co-creation process design and facilitation

• Complex project management

• Community engagement

• Systems-informed project/programme design and evaluation

Preferred methods

• Nonmarket valuation

• Sustainability risk and impact analysis and assessment

• Participatory sensemaking, impact evaluation and scenario planning

• Stakeholder identification and analysis

• Survey design and administration

Knowledge domain expertise

• Social and environmental risks and impacts in sand and silicate supply chains

• Global environmental sustainability and governance

• The Environment-Development nexus

• Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services analysis, Conservation social science

• Sustainability indicators

• Science-Policy-Practice innovation

Languages

• English

• French