Keynote and Invited Speakers

Professor Don Huisingh

Position and affiliations

Senior Scientist in Sustainable Development
Centre for Clean Products and Clean Technologies
Energy, Environment and Resources Centre
University of Tennessee

Sponsor

Kwinana Industries Council.

Biography

Dr. Huisingh is dedicated to interdisciplinary education and integrated approaches to defining and solving society's problems. He addresses topics ranging from toxic substances and hazardous waste in industry and the home to the philosophical, ethical, and political implications of improper land-use management, human population growth and control, and energy use.

Dr. Huisingh's work has focused on Pollution Prevention/Waste Reduction approaches to managing toxic substances and hazardous wastes. His primary research focus has been on developing policies, concepts, and technologies to help government and industry identify sustainable approaches to pollution prevention and waste minimization. He seeks to improve environmental quality by integrating these preventive approaches with traditional pollution-control approaches.

Dr. Huisingh is active in many national and international organizations, including UNEP, UNIDO, WHO, Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank. In addition to his position with EERC, he continues part-time faculty positions at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (Lund University, Sweden), the University of Massachusetts (Lowell), and Monterrey Tec (Technological Institute of Monterrey, Mexico).

Dr. Huisingh also serves as editor in chief for the Journal of Cleaner Production and directs, under the auspices of Erasmus University, an international off-campus PhD program in Cleaner Production, Cleaner Products, Industrial Ecology, and Sustainable Development.

Ms Meg Taylor

Position and affiliations

Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman,
International Finance Corporation
Papua New Guinea

Biography

Meg Taylor, a national of Papua New Guinea, received her LL. B from Melbourne University, Australia and her LL.M from Harvard University, USA. She practiced law in Papua New Guinea and serves as a member of the Law Reform Commission. She was Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the United States, Mexico and Canada in Washington DC from 1989-94. She is co-founder of Conservation Melanesia and has served on the Boards of the World Wildlife Fund-USA and the World Resources Institute. She was a member of the World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development. In addition, Meg Taylor has served as a board member of a number of companies in Papua New Guinea in the natural resources, financial and agricultural sectors.

Greg Bourne

Position and affiliations

Chief Executive of WWF Australia, since October 2004.
National Advisory Committee for Environment Business Australia.
Previously Regional President of BP Australasia

Biography

Greg Bourne studied chemistry at the University of Western Australia under a scholarship from BP Refinery, Kwinana. After graduating with honours in 1971, he carried out research into refinery processes for two years at BP's Research Centre in Sunbury in England before joining BP Exploration as a Drilling Engineer in Abu Dhabi. His Exploration activities saw him living and working in the United Kingdom, America, Canada, Ireland, Brazil, China and Australia.

Seconded to the Prime Minister's Policy Unit at 10 Downing Street in 1988, he was the Special Adviser on Energy and Transport, and returned to BP in January 1990 to take up the position of Chief Executive, BP Marine, London.

He returned to Australia in October 1992 as President and General Manager - Exploration and Gas, BP Developments Australia Ltd., with responsibility for BP Exploration's activities in Australia and Papua New Guinea. After working overseas as Director BP Scotland and then Regional Director - Latin America, based in Caracas; he returned to Australia in January 1999 to become Regional President - BP Australasia the position from which he retired from BP in September 2003. Greg took up his current position as CEO WWF-Australia in October 2004.

Greg is also Chair of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Victoria and a Member of the CSIRO Sector Advisory Council to the Natural Resource Management and Environment Sector. He was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to the environment.

Anita Roper

Position and affiliations

Director - Sustainability
New York City, N.Y.

Sponsor

ALCOA

Biography

Anita Roper joined Alcoa in a newly created position as Director of Sustainability in January 2004. She is responsible for coordinating the ongoing activities in sustainable development and initiating and deploying new programs for the company in this important area.

Before joining ALCOA, Anita held senior positions with the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) and the Global Mining Initiative (GMI). The world's leading mining, metals and minerals companies sponsored the GMI to develop their industry's role in the transition to sustainable development. The GMI contributed to preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in South Africa in September 2002 and resulted in the creation of the ICMM.

Anita serves on the board of directors of the Women's Network for Sustainable Future. She is a contributor to the Institute for Corporate Culture Affairs (ICCA) publication ICCA Handbook on Corporate Social Responsibility. In 2005/06 she sat on the editorial board for the publication, Corporate Responsibility Management.

Professor Daniela Stehlik

Position and affiliations

Foundation Chair, Stronger Communities &
Inaugural Director, Alcoa Research Centre for Stronger Communities
Curtin University of Technology
Western Australia.

Biography

Professor Daniela Stehlik is Foundation Chair in Stronger Communities in the Division of Humanities at Curtin University of Technology. As inaugural Director of the Alcoa Research Centre for Stronger Communities, a social science research centre launched in 2004, where she leads a team of researchers focusing on industry/community partnerships, place management and social sustainability issues. Daniela's involvement in community development activities, and the impact of change on communities has led to a number of publications focusing on intergenerational change, service provision in rural and remote communities, and evidence based policy. She is particularly interested in the generative capacity of women's energy and enthusiasm (as carers and practitioners) as an important component of community resiliency.

Professor Peter Newman

Position and affiliations

Professor in City Policy and Director of Institute for Sustainability
and Technology Policy, Murdoch University

Biography

Peter Newman is the Professor of City Policy and Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, at Murdoch University.

In 2006/7 he was in the US as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Virginia Charlottesville, examining innovations in sustainability in US cities, regions and states. This is based on comparative work he did in Western Australia at the political level when he worked with the Premier of WA from 2001 to 2004 to develop the State Sustainability Strategy; this was the first state in the world with such a strategy, covering 42 areas of government. In 2004-5 Peter was the NSW Sustainability Commissioner assisting with the production of the Metropolitan Strategy.

He is well known in Perth for his work in rebuilding Perth's rail system which is now seen as a model for modern cities. Peter's academic work includes his book with Jeff Kenworthy 'Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence' which was launched in the White House in 1999 and his 2001 co-authored book is called 'Back on Track: Rethinking Australian and New Zealand Transport.' Peter is the author of the chapter on Greening Urban Transportation in Worldwatch Institute's 'State of the World, 2007'.

Rolfe Hartley

Position and affiliations

FIEAust, CPEng, FEIANZ, FIPENZ
National President, Engineers Australia

Biography

Rolfe Hartley has over twenty five years' experience in civil and environmental engineering and project management. He graduated in civil engineering from the University of New South Wales in 1974 and holds postgraduate degrees in transport engineering from the University of NSW and in infrastructure planning and management from Stanford University, USA.

He has acted as project manager for a range of infrastructure projects, from smaller works to major airport and Defence facility developments and planning studies. He has also managed the production of environmental impact assessments, as well as the assessment and remediation of a range of complex contaminated sites.

Rolfe commenced his career as an airports civil engineer with the Australian Department of Civil Aviation, before moving to the Department of Defence in 1987. His eight years with Defence included a period as the Department's Director of Environment and Heritage. In this role, he guided the introduction of environmental assessment and management practices into the Defence organisation.

He joined Kinhill Engineers, now Kellogg Brown & Root, in 1995. In his most recent position he managed facilities project and operational services provided to a range of Australian Government clients by the Government and Defence Services group of KBR. Rolfe retired from KBR in March 2007.

Rolfe has been active in Engineers Australia since shortly after graduation. He was President of Canberra Division in 1998 and subsequently served as Canberra Division's representative on the National Congress. He was elected a National Vice President in January 2003 and National Deputy President in November 2005. He assumed the office of National President in November 2006.