Our next Sustainability Drinks event is on Wednesday 3rd of July, 6:00pm – 8:00pm.

Speaker: Professor David McInnes, PSM.

David McInnes is a widely experienced senior executive and currently CEO of Earthwatch Institute (Australia), an organisation formed in 1971 by scientists from the Smithsonian Institute. Earthwatch involves volunteers in scientific research projects engaging them and their communities in activities directed towards achieving a more sustainable planet.

David has tertiary qualifications in Finance, Education and Sustainability. In 2010 he completed Postgraduate studies in Sustainable Business at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He has been Director/CEO of one of Victoria’s largest TAFE Colleges and for 12 years was General Manager of the Australian Automotive Research Centre, a specialist automotive research and development organisation. A former senior executive with Linfox Pty Ltd for 15 years, David managed a diverse range of activities in this transport and logistics company,
across the Asia Pacific region.

In 2009 David was trained by Al Gore as one of his Climate Project Presenters in Australia. This is part of an international network of advocates who believe that significant change from our current carbon based economy is required if global and catastrophic climate change is to be avoided In 2006, David designed and implemented a Carbon Emissions Reduction programme within Linfox Pty Ltd that delivered, over a six year period a 38% reduction, in the rate of Greenhouse Gas Emissions. This achievement has been recognised as leading industry practice by contemporaries, industry associations, the press and the Federal Minister for the Environment.

David is a Professorial Fellow at Monash Sustainability Institute and is a holder of the Australian Public Service Medal awarded for services to industry and a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators.

Our next Sustainability Drinks event is on Wednesday 5th of June, 6:00pm – 8:00pm.

Speaker: Mark Boulet: Some practical behaviour change for sustainability

Have you ever caught yourself thinking that you either speak a different language or people are just plain idiots? The facts about our climate change are there, there’s recycling signs on bins and switch off signs on all lights. So why aren’t people listening?

Mark Boulet is the Program Manager for Green Steps, an award-winning education program at the Monash Sustainability Institute (MSI). Mark and the Green Steps team work directly with organisations and professionals to equip them with practical ‘Green Skills’ to reduce the environmental impact of their organisation. This is done through training and education programs and Green Steps student intern placements within organisations.

Mark’s passion lies in providing people with practical, hands-on sustainability skills to create real and lasting change in their organisation and wider community. Named in 2010 as one of the Top 100 Most Influential and Inspiring People by Melbourne Magazine, and with over 12 years of education delivery, sustainability strategy and behaviour change campaigns, Mark knows a thing or two about the influencers of human behaviour.

In this engaging talk, Mark will be unlocking common misconceptions on designing programs to change behaviours and provide some practical tips to test out in your change campaigns, be it for work, at home or your local community.

He hopes to leave you with some inspiration to think differently about your role as a change agent for sustainability.

LinkedIn – Facebook – Twitter

Our next Sustainability Drinks event is on Wednesday 1st of May, 6:00pm – 8:00pm.

Our guest speaker is Tom Haynes: Futurist, Strategic Innovator and Synergist

Tom’s life has been a quest to integrate two worldviews. He is originally from an artists’ community in the foothills of “Planet Perth”. As a teenager in the early eighties Tom won an international scholarship to study in Madras in South India. The year stretched him beyond any imaginable limits.

His life had changed…

The questioning of our current business paradigm for Tom began as an architect working on big-end-of-town Sydney projects. After some years he had to re-invent himself, which included years of meditation and silence in both India and Europe. Coming back to the world, he stood for parliament in both UK and Australia as part of a holistic awareness campaign.

In the United States, his Masters and PhD research took Tom deep into the relationship between contemporary design and an integrated ‘super theory’ of architecture. Following this, with a young family in tow, he was catapulted back into the cut and thrust of the business world. The passion was there, but Tom had to learn how to connect his holistic worldview with the contemporary professions.

To make this connection, he helped to establish one of Australia’s first consultancies applying sustainability in the development industry. The business drivers caught his attention, so Tom led a commercial program to research the business case for sustainability. Armed with these insights he consulted, gave keynotes and ran workshops in the USA, Canada, Asia, India and Africa.

Finally everything fell into place. He now draws on his experiences to attract individuals, groups, companies and cities to lead the inevitable paradigm shift. With key collaborators, he has established the “Industry Transformation Summit”: a rich mix of both insightful experience and commercial business opportunity. The aim is to build careers, profitability and a highly integrated, digital, globalised and sustainable planet.

Our next Sustainability Drinks event is on Wednesday 3rd of April, 6:00pm – 8:00pm.

Melbourne Sustainability Drinks introduces one of our new co-hosts Geoff Gourley as April guest speaker.

As a leading Global Social Entrepreneur Geoff possess more than 21 years experience in the environmental, sustainability, property and business communities.

Geoff is founder and company director of Shape Our Future, NuGreen Solutions, Sense of Place Eco Retreat; a board member of the United Nations Association of Australia (UNAA) Vic, holds a variety of positions on advisory boards and committees and is actively involved in a number of industry groups and associations.

Over the last 20+ years he has successfully established more than 10 businesses in sectors including Retail, Design, Construction and Sustainability. He possess strong and diverse networks and has a broad range of skills and expertise in all aspects of commercial and Not-for-Profit organisations, leadership, management, strategy and development.

Geoff was raised in country Victoria in the heart of the coal mining, electricity generation and pine plantation region, he has a strong and founded passion for community service, protecting the environment and creating a sustainable planet.

His personal mission is to lead, develop and influence business and community to a sustainable future.

He hopes to see his visions come to life, by working with, influencing and encouraging communities and businesses to take steps to a more sustainable approach ensuring a sustainable future for the global community.

Our next Sustainability Drinks event is on Wednesday 6th of March, 6:00pm – 8:00pm.

Our guest speaker is Anthony Aisenberg, Founder and Director of CrowdSpot, a recently launched start-up with the mission to help create quality public spaces in a social, inclusive and engaging process. CrowdSpot create interactive maps that allow people to give input on geographic locations. It is great for knowledge sharing, research or issue reporting projects. CrowdSpot currently has a project called the My EcoCity Map, a partnership with the Sustainable Living Festival and City of Melbourne, to crowdsource Melbourne’s sustainability activities.

‘By capturing our collective knowledge the goal is then for us to make
decisions that reflect the priorities and views of the community.’

Anthony’s diverse interdisciplinary experience is key for managing CrowdSpot’s operations and future vision. His strong project management background is in logistics, event management, urban planning and behaviour change. He has previously worked across Local and State Government departments and completed an AusAid Youth Ambassador role with the UN World Food Programme in Laos. With a passion for leadership and community engagement he guided Australia’s Ride to Work campaign to record participation levels. Anthony is also a fellow of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership.

crowdspot.com.au – facebook – twitter

Our guest speaker is Luke Taylor, Director of The Sustainable Living Foundation and Festival.

Luke has been the Director of the Sustainable Living Foundation for over a decade and is dedicated to the practice of ecological stewardship through embedding sustainability knowledge within the community.

As Director, Luke has been integral in the development and growth of the annual Sustainable Living Festival. Under Luke’s leadership the festival has grown from a small regional sustainability fair, to a thriving three-day weekend in Melbourne’s CBD, to the current two-week statewide festival that attracts over 150,000 visits and features over 300 unique community events.

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PANEL DISCUSSION – 2012 WRAP UP

Melbourne Sustainability Drinks invites you to join our wrap up session for 2012.

The Melbourne Sustainability Drinks community has been privileged to hear from such an inspiring range of speakers this year that we thought it only right to invite a few back to reflect upon the year gone by.

We’re going to take a look at the idea of ‘preaching to the converted’ and in that context, our four panelists will share their thoughts, feelings and insights into what they have observed in the sustainability space from their unique perspective (local, global, economic, community, personal, social etc) over the year and wrap up with a positive envisioning and framing of future directions and possibilities.

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Our guest speaker is Emily Ballantyne-Brodie, founder of Urban Reforestation a local Melbourne business that has a vision to inspire and design happy, healthy and green cities. Urban Reforestation aims to create sustainable everyday lifestyles in the urban places, enable liveable sustainability in communities, inspire new neighbourhoods to be green in fresh new ways and is a flourishing social enterprise making a real difference. Urban Reforestations currently has social garden projects in Australia and Italy, with aims to do some work in China and Japan.

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The global population has grown from 1.9 Billion to 7.1 billion in just 112 years, Charles Kovess, our October guest speaker for Melbourne Sustainability Drinks, will share what he has learned about an amazingly simple solution to this unsustainable trend through his work with the Global Energy Network Institute.

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