During this time, she joined the Law Institute of Victoria's Young Lawyers social justice issues committee, and worked on mitigating food waste, which led to the establishment of the One Umbrella organisation.
She followed this path after conversations with Jeremy Leggett, former petroleum geologist and later solar energy entrepreneur, who said that he had always struggled to obtain funding from sceptical bankers.
[1] In 2009 Skarbek became the executive director of the Climateworks Centre, a non-profit group under the auspices of Monash University which develops projects to reduce carbon emissions.
"Skarbek also commented that for countries to achieve what she terms "deep decarbonisation" by 2050, improvements are required in: advanced energy storage, reliable and affordable carbon capture and storage technology, renewable energy technology, high performance buildings and appliances, zero-emissions vehicles and fossil fuel substitutes for marine and air transport.
[4] As of September 2015[update], Skarbek was a member of the Government of South Australia's low-carbon expert panel with former Liberal party politician John Hewson and ANU Professor Frank Jotzo.