Heinz Schandl is a senior science leader at the Ecosystem Sciences Division of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). His research focus is not so much on the role of the individual in sustainable development, as the social structures or institutions that determine how we interact as individuals. He is an adjunct professor at the ANU Fenner School for environment and society, an adjunct professor at the Graduate School for Environmental Studies at Nagoya University, Japan, and a member of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) International Resource Panel. Schandl has a Ph.D. in sociology.