Karli Verghese

Associate Professor Karli Verghese is a Principal Research Fellow in the Industrial Design program of the School of Design, RMIT University, Melbourne. Her research projects have included the development of decision support tools for packaging, resource efficiency, food waste, Eco-design and one developed for Australia's Antarctic research station (Casey). Research themes include the role of packaging, packaging sustainability, food loss/waste across supply chains, resource efficiency, waste management, life cycle assessment, agriculture and food systems and connections with nature. She was also the inaugural REDUCE Program Leader in the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre from 2018-2023. She supervisors Honours, Masters and PhD students.

Projects
Examples of research projects include the following:

Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) Industry Sector Action Plan funded by NSW EPA, Queensland Government, Australian Retailers Association,  National Retail Association and End Food Waste CRC, 2023-24

Reduce Program Leader: Inaugural Leader of the Reduce Program in the national Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre (now known as End Food Waste CRC). Led RMIT University’s involvement in the bid phase (2017-18) and subsequently help establish the CRC as part of the Management Team and development of the research portfolio in the Reduce Program, 2017-2021

Consumer perceptions of the role of packaging in reducing food waste funded by Sustainability Victoria, Woolworths and the Fight Food Waste CRC. 

DIRECT commercialisation saw the development of a business-ready, digital, cloud-based food waste tool that can assist industry to reduce food loss and waste funded by Empauer and Fight Food Waste CRC. 

Save food packaging criteria and framework saw the development of packaging design criteria and communication material to assist retail, food service and consumers to minimise food waste funded by Australian Institue of Packaging, Save Food Packaging Alliance and End Food Waste CRC. 

The opportunities for Australia’s packaging and processing machinery sector to tackle food waste consolidated the ways that Australian packaging and processing machinery can reduce and/or transform food waste and to provide equipment manufacturers with improved knowledge and understanding of the food waste challenges funded by Australian Packaging and Processing Machinery Association and Fight Food Waste CRC.

The role of packaging for Australian fresh produce funded by Empauer and Australian Fresh Producers Alliance (AFPA). 

Food waste opportunities in the wholesale and retail sectors provided NSW Environment Protection Authority with a better understanding of the opportunities and barriers to reduce the amount of food waste going to landfill from the wholesale and retail sectors.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the last frontier: quantifying the environmental impacts and environmental impact reduction strategy for Australia’s Antarctic infrastructure involved working with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) to collect and model life cycle impacts from the operations necessary to support human operations on Casey station.

Food supply chain resource efficiency and 'true cost of waste' teaming up with Visy, a global packaging and recycling company and volunteer customers, this project used RMIT's Dynamic Industry Resource Efficiency Calculation Tool (DIRECT) to record and measure resource flows from harvest to retail.

Review of emerging packaging technologies and trends for red meat funded by Meat and Livestock Association. 

Food waste reduction opportunities in the food manufacturing sector involved working with the Plenty Food Group to develop a true cost of waste calculation tool called Dynamic Industry Resource Efficiency Calculation Tool (DIRECT).

Food waste insights in the home, working with Banyule City Council, involved understanding how households plan, purchase, store, prepare and dispose of food.

Role of packaging in minimising food waste in the supply chain focused on packaging opportunities that may help to reduce or recover food waste funded by CHEP Australia.

The Future of Packaging White Paper working in conjunction with the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) this white paper considered past, current and future issues within a sustainability framework.

Life cycle flows of materials and energy at Scott Base Antarctica working with Antarctic New Zealand this project used streamlined life cycle assessment to model and analyse material and energy flows to support New Zealand’s Scott base in Antarctica.

Greenfly was developed with Industrial Designers and helps you design environmentally improved products. It corporates life cycle modelling and EcoDesign strategies showing the environmental impacts of your design choices through strong graphical representation.

PIQET developed in conjunction with packaging technologists and environmental/sustainability managers, the Packaging Impact Quick Evaluation Tool (PIQET) incorporates life cycle modelling of different packaging formats. RMIT University was involved in its development, leading the research project which started in 2004. PIQET was commercialised in 2009 and RMIT was involved in research, development and support of the tool until 2014.

Australian Packaging Covenant Sustainable Packaging Guidelines working with the Australian Packaging Covenant Council, this project involved working with 8 APC signatories and documenting how they were using the Sustainable packaging Guidelines in their operations.