Dr Sabrina Chakori

Dr Sabrina Chakori is an interdisciplinary researcher, educator and multi-award-winning social entrepreneur.

Sabrina holds a BSc. in Biology (University of Geneva, Switzerland) and a MSc. in Environmental Management (The University of Queensland, UQ, Australia). Her interdisciplinary PhD research (The University of Queensland, Australia) analysed the drivers of packaged food. Her work provided a repositioning of the socio-materiality of food packaging, politicising packaged food. Her findings highlighted the need to pursue degrowth strategies to increase the sustainability of food systems.

Currently, Sabrina is a postdoctoral researcher at CSIRO, Australia’s National Science Agency. Her research explores how to navigate sustainability transitions (Navigating Sustainability Transitions team, Valuing Sustainability, Future Science Platform, CSIRO). Her work explores the governance of transitions, with a particular interest in exnovation-innovation dynamics. She is also interested in exploring beyond-GDP frameworks that could unlock post-growth economies (e.g. post-growth food enterprises). Her work encompasses several areas, including circular economies, food systems sustainability and social entrepreneurship. Sabrina is a passionate inter- and trans-disciplinary scholar and systems modeller (i.e. systems thinking, system dynamics, network analysis). She believes that systems approaches are crucial to understanding and tackling the current socio-ecological poly-crisis of the Capitalocene. Her work encompasses several disciplines, including ecological economics and sustainability transition science.

Sabrina has been a course coordinator and lecturer in various courses, teaching, for example, circular economy, social entrepreneurship, system dynamics and food systems sustainability. She is also an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Sabrina has been working towards a more sustainable society for over 17 years, leading numerous collaborations in various countries across Europe, Kenya, Ecuador, Mexico and Australia, including an initiative with Queensland’s Environment Minister to introduce the law banning single-use plastic bags. To translate her knowledge and vision into practice, in 2017, she founded the Brisbane Tool Library, a social enterprise that encourages people to borrow tools, camping gear and other equipment. This community-driven circular economy model reduces productivism and consumerism. The Brisbane Tool Library has been Australia’s first and only ‘library of things’ to be located within a public library (the State Library of Queensland).

Sabrina is also the co-founding editor of the Degrowth Journal, an academic journal that explores degrowth, embraces slow science and advances the decommodification of knowledge.

Sabrina was also selected as a Post Growth Institute fellow (2021) and a Hothouse Future Leader Fellow 2024 (Australian National University), where she is currently a visiting research fellow. Her work led to several recognitions, including the WasteSmart Brisbane City Council Award (2023), Create Change: 7News Young Achiever Award (QLD, 2020) and the Emerging Female Leader bursary from the National Council of Women of Queensland (2020).