FSL Alumni 2007
Victoria Schladetsch
Victoria was born in her namesake state, but spent most of her life living “up North” in the lush coastal town of Noosa, on the Sunshine Coast. Noosa is a region infamous for being constantly torn between urban development and environmental preservation, and Victoria attributes growing up in this environment to her lifelong interest in the conservation movement.
Passionate about travel, Victoria balanced a dual degree in International Relations and Development Studies at the University of Queensland with several jaunts across the world on her breaks. Living in Nepal was a highlight, where she worked on an orphanage for an NGO, and built a playground and a water reservoir in a team of 14 whilst teaching English. Seeing the terrible state of the local environment whilst living in Kathmandu and in rural villages, Victoria came to realise that education about environmental sustainability, the most basic necessity to a growing population, was also the most obvious thing lacking in most modern-day civilisations – including those in the Western world. Returning to University, this became the key focus in her courses, and she decided to devote her life entirely to the environmental movement.
Victoria looks forward to sharing her obsessions with organics, pilates, sustainable architecture, marine animals, her beach, and strong coffee with her fellow FSL participants. Although she has always secretly desired to be a khaki-clad explorer, she has realised she can combine this guilty pleasure with work, by spreading the basic tenets of sustainable living wherever in the world she goes exploring. She hopes to offer FSL her sense of adventure, her sense of humour, and her sense of justice, and is excited at the prospect of being immersed in a group of people as passionate about sustainable living as she is.
She is going to miss her beach very much, but wouldn’t think twice about making this small sacrifice to join FSL “down South”, and to ensure that another world is possible…
Update 2008: What Victoria has been doing since graduating
Jo Bidwell
Jo had a freedom filled childhood in Fiji and New Zealand and always had an interest in the outdoors. She obtained a Bachelors degree in Applied Science (Horticulture) and worked in the New Zealand wine industry as a cellarhand and vineyard hand before studying for a Graduate Diploma in Marketing. It was her intention to eventually become a marketing manager, however, after a period working in the Australian and New Zealand wine industries where she worked for two industry leaders, Jo developed an intolerance to wine and experienced a number of debilitating health issues including depression, fatigue and environmental sensitivities.
In her search for better health and wellbeing she spent a lot of time researching and came to the conclusion that she needed to make some lifestyle changes. She soon discovered that many health improvement practices also had positive environmental implications, that it felt good to help yourself and the environment, and that you are more likely to pay attention to the immediate concerns of the world when you are well and happy.
In order to help herself and others with similar experiences, she started studying Building Biology at the Australian College of Environmental Studies in 2004. Jo is particularly passionate about improving the health and sustainability of our work environments and is in the initial stages of developing her own business, ‘Balance Building Biology’. She also works part-time for depressioNet, an organisation that helps people with depression online.
By participating in FSL 2007, Jo would like to improve people’s awareness of how our physical environment affects our health and wellbeing and how improvements to one often benefit the other. Aside from Jo’s marketing and relationship management skills, she also brings to FSL; determination, passion, enthusiasm, and the desire to be a part of a network of likeminded people who are determined to initiate positive change and manage it into the future.
Update 2008: What Jo has been doing since graduating
Huong Truong
Huong is currently undertaking her Masters in Environment and Planning at RMIT. She has developed a keen interest in environmental theory, the energy sector, public transport systems and strategic planning, especially in Victoria. In 2005 Huong completed her undergraduate studies in Arts at Melbourne University (Australian Studies and Cultural Studies), and spent 2006 working full-time at a federal welfare services agency.
Since December 2006 Huong has been volunteering with Beyond Zero Emissions (prominent zero emissions climate campaign group based in Fitzroy) producing media releases and as a dedicated campaign assistant. This work has lead Huong to make it one of her biggest life’s passions to see the world’s economic and societal structures turn around within the next decade to zero emissions minus activity. She also believes that redressing the lack of balanced and articulate political analysis of all perspectives in all issues is critical for people to feel compelled to act. And for all that she has
learnt thus far, Huong is all for a shake up of our current political systems and infrastructures.
This year, Huong is thrilled to be engaging with the Centre for Sustainability Leadership and the prospect of connecting with more sustainability-oriented people. She is also involved in social change activity with Environment Victoria and the Australian Greens Victoria. She hopes to share and build on her experiences of working for social change and learn more about the potential for sustainability in economics and commerce.
Through the training and guidance provided from the Future Leaders in Sustainability program Huong expects she will learn things she could never have expected to and new ways in which to translate her beliefs into action.
Huong is fluent in English and Vietnamese, and calls the Melbourne’s west ‘home’. She also enjoys dressmaking and talking to people who deny the things she believes in.
Update 2008: What Huong has been doing since graduating
Wyan Carter
Born in Australia, Wyan was raised overseas as an ex pat brat, as his father is a contract manager within the petrochemical industry. He lived in England, Holland, Norway, Malaysia and the Middle East in conjunction with his father’s work. This early exposure to industrial projects provided him with an understanding of the momentous scale that engineering projects operate on, as well as an imperative to address the impacts of these enterprises.
Having recently completed a Bachelor of Science (Ecology) at the University of Queensland, Wyan has moved down to Melbourne to pursue employment opportunities with environmental consultancies. In the next 5-10 years he wants to develop his skills and knowledge of environmental practices to the point where he can make a contribution to the global effort he sees as being required to halt and reverse the damage that has been sustained by ecosystems around the planet. He believes that the best way to implement significant environmental change is by addressing the corporate sector,
particularly in traditionally destructive industries such as construction and mining.
Wyan also strongly believes that environmentalism is often a grass roots movement that side-steps the lumbering and heavy handed approach of governments. The variety, innovation and determination of community environmental action groups is a delightful and energising thing. Already a volunteer with the Conservation Volunteers of Australia and at the Yarra Bend Park, he foresees himself taking a more active role in community groups as his knowledge and expertise increase.
Wyan is just beginning a career focused on environmental sustainability and sees the FSL program as a powerful first step that will provide the knowledge, motivation and tools he needs to become a proactive and effective sustainability leader.
Update 2008: What Wyan has been doing since graduating
Mark Dingle
As an outdoor educator since 1994 Mark has worked with thousands young people across Australia and in Canada on rivers, bush tracks, cliff faces and ropes courses. In Australia he facilitated adventure-based and environmental education programs for five years in independent and government schools before starting his own outdoor education business.
Two years after establishing the business Mark was drawn to Melbourne from south-east Queensland to be with his partner Rachel. They married in 2004 and are expecting their first child later this year.
Mark is now Executive Officer of the Victorian Outdoor Education Association, the largest professional teaching association and peak body for outdoor education professionals in Australia. This role is as diverse as it is demanding combining responsibility for overseeing a small team of staff and consultants, managing complex projects, coordinating conferences and professional development events, and, undertaking advocacy on behalf of the profession.
In September 2007 Mark is coordinating the 15th National Outdoor Education Conference to be held in Ballarat. This event will bring together hundreds of outdoor education professionals to engage with the theme – Sustaining our Spirit of Place.
In addition to his role with the VOEA Mark is President of the Council of Professional Teaching Associations of Victoria representing more than forty professional teaching associations; Secretary of Outdoor Education Australia the network of Australian outdoor education associations; and, Chair of the VOEA Department of Education Safety Guidelines Review Panel undertaking the first complete review of the education department guidelines for outdoor and adventure activities in twenty years.
Kim Farrant
Kim Farrant is a structural engineer with Kellogg, Brown & Root in Melbourne, having completed Bachelor’s degrees in both Civil Engineering and Economics at the University of Adelaide. As an undergraduate, Kim spent time in Sweden and observed the way in which environmental issues were actively addressed there, and recognized that there was a viable alternative to Australia’s rising rate of natural resource consumption.
Since that time, Kim has had a passion for sustainability and the conservation of environmental resources, and has endeavoured to apply principles of sustainability both through her work as a structural engineer and in her personal life. She has addressed industry conferences – including the 2005 International Young Professionals Summit in Brisbane and a Property Council event, on opportunities for implementing sustainability in building design. She has also been involved in “Engineers without Borders” both in Adelaide and Melbourne.
Kim has recently returned from the UK, where she completed a Master of Science degree in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy at Oxford University. She wrote her Oxford dissertation on the role that shareholder resolutions play in holding multinational corporations socially and environmentally accountable.
She is inspired by the steps that have been taken toward sustainable engineering design in Europe and the UK, and believes that the future ‘built environment’ must be developed while sustaining the natural resources of the world and enhancing the quality of life for all people. Furthermore, she believes that this can only be achieved through a collaborative effort between all industries and sectors and which focuses firstly upon education.
Kim is looking forward to contributing her knowledge of the built environment, environmental policy and socially responsible investment. She hopes that, through participation in the 2007 Future Sustainability Leaders Program, she will have the opportunity to meet and collaborate with like-minded young people and industry leaders. And, by implementing the technical knowledge learned through her studies, be able to effect change toward more sustainable practices, both within the engineering profession and the wider community.
Kam Ho
His academic history has taken him through 10 schools across 5 cities in 4 countries; Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and United Kingdom, attending various International Schools in South-East Asia before completing his HSC at Randwick Boys’ High School in Sydney.
Kam has consistently taken on the proactive approach to problems in his environment, playing key roles as a mentor to students, assisting in creating safer local communities, a committee member of the UNICEF Club at University of Melbourne and a part time researcher in the field of renewable power engineering. Through a proactive and committed lifestyle towards a sustainable world, Kam hopes to bring a unique and international insight into both local and global problems varying from climate change, extinction and food shortages.
Passionate in combating climate change and creating a sustainable world, Kam is keen on meeting fellow emerging sustainability leaders in this challenging program to broaden his perspective and develop key leadership skills while being dedicated to continuous improvement. On completion of the FSL 2007 program, Kam looks forward to implement the knowledge gained and in the future lead global organizations in developing a clean and sustainable world.
Update 2008: What Kam has been doing since graduating
Megan Holbeck
Megan Holbeck has been interested in the environment for as long as she can remember. Growing up during the last decade of the Cold War, she puzzled teachers by making nuclear waste the subject of her fiction and diatribes without really knowing what it was. An interest in outdoor adventure led to a stronger focus for her involvement with sustainability issues, which remained with her through school and university, eventually informing her choice of career.
Jobs as an an outdoor instructor and in the graphics and public relations department of an architectural company that prides itself on sustainable design somehow led to Megan’s role as Editor of Wild and Rock, independent magazines that focus on wilderness adventures such as bushwalking and rockclimbing. Both publications have a strong environmental message, with Megan enjoying the chance to regularly write on a variety of conservation issues and commission articles on
relevant subjects. She still manages to get out bush whenever she can.
Megan is an excellent communicator, with experience in public relations, teaching, writing, desktop publishing and the media. She also knows many people in the media and environment fields. Through the FEL program, Megan hopes to develop a better understanding of the corporate and political machinations and processes behind decisions on sustainability so that she can better influence these outcomes. She’s looking forward to meeting like-minded people from all different
spheres, to realising the ways in which the world can be changed for the better, and developing the skills to help this process.
Matt Perry
Over the last twelve years Matt has built a career in marketing communication working with some of the world’s biggest brands in London, New York, Sydney before he moved to Melbourne.
After a short stint on the client side he launched his career in London with M&CSaatchi. Here he worked on developing advertising strategies with brands including British Airways, British Telecom, Masterfoods and lastminute.com
In 1999 he helped launch eMCSaatchi which was the agency’s first digital marketing division. He developed digital communications strategy for clients such as Nestle, MGRover and the British Government and was responsible for connecting digital thinking into the advertising agency.
In 2001 he was seconded to the agency’s New York office to export the eMCSaatchi model and grow digital business across the Atlantic.
In 2003 Matt and his wife spent six months traveling through South & Central America where they became increasingly aware of the environmental impact that people were having on the planet. On arrival in Australia they decided to make a small but positive sustainable environmental contribution.
They bought some dis-used sugarcane farmland near Maroochydore QLD which they have regenerated by planting 13,000 Eucalypts and 2000 rainforest trees. Their ambition is to create a sustainable business which, over time, will encompass farm forestry, carbon credits, education and training in sustainability, and eco-tourism services.
Whilst developing and investing in this project Matt has continued to pursue his career at the cutting edge of marketing communications. He is a Director with bellamyhayden, a communications strategy agency, since 2004 where he has developed their media neutral communications product ‘realconnections’. Since developing ‘realconnections’ Matt has helped the agency win clients including Sony Electronics, Electrolux, Microsoft, National Foods & Pepsi (Thailand).
In 2006 he and his family moved to Melbourne to establish and run the local bellamyhayden office. In Melbourne Matt discovered a robust sustainability movement within the business community and made the decision to get actively involved. This led to his acceptance on the CSL program.
Matt has been an active contributor to marketing industry conferences, he lectured on marketing in London and teaches Ad School in Melbourne. He has co-written a book entitled ‘Marketing Your Creativity’. Through the CSL programme he plans to become much more active in applying his professional skills and personal interests to the sustainability challenges facing business today.
Update 2008: What Matt has been doing since graduating
Anna Gould
Anna Gould is an inspiring woman dedicated to living with purpose and building a better world. Her life is a demonstration of what is possible when one puts their mind to achieving goals and aspirations that seem intangible.
Anna’s professional career includes experience in sustainable business development, community engagement, education, and international development.
After graduating with an English Major in 2003, Anna traveled and studied in the U.S.A developing her career as a professional writer. In 2005, along with her brothers, she opened an environmentally friendly launderette, E Wash, in Prahran. In 2006 Anna worked with Australia’s only chemical free dry cleaner, Daisy H20, to further develop their business and reach the community. Anna currently works as a consultant at Context, a firm specializing in community, environment and heritage projects.
In 2006 Anna participated in the Oxfam Australia Change Initiative, a program which trained small groups across the country in campaigning skills. In this group she contributed to designing a campaign around Australian Foreign Aid Policy and the federal government’s commitment to international giving.
In 2007 she was invited to and attended the Brightest Young Minds summit where, over five days, eight initiatives were developed and presented to federal government and corporate sponsors that addressed social responsibility and corporate philanthropy.
By participating in the Future Sustainability Leaders Program Anna hopes to further build her skills and ability to communicate and raise consciousness with regard to global environmental challenges and their solutions. In addition, her interest is currently nestled within the interface of global warming and international poverty eradication, and the link between these two challenges. Throughout her career she hopes to facilitate major opportunities for the regeneration of life on Earth.
Anna holds close to her heart the desire to build a more conscious and responsible world, where people work together to meet the challenges of our times, and celebrate the joys of life.
Anna Lohse
Growing up on the south coast of NSW surrounded by bushland and beach established Anna’s interest and affection for the world around her. After finishing high school, Anna moved to Wollongong to study a Bachelor of Arts, Resource and Environmental Studies at the University of Wollongong. Not satisfied with simply developing a theoretical base, Anna deferred uni for a year and applied to become an Environmental Trainee with Green Corps and spent 6 months getting practical, hands on experience, meeting inspiring community leaders and making lasting friendships.
These 6 months shaped the future for Anna, who then finished her degree and has since worked with state government agencies responsible for waste management and Conservation Volunteers Australia in a number of roles, most recently managing their national corporate partnerships. Alongside this Anna has volunteered for various local environmental projects including an Environment Show on a local community radio station.
Anna has always been very active and has been very involved in soccer, playing with the Wollongong University Womens Team for many years. Anna also played bass guitar in a band with her brother for many years, has been practising permaculture since studying it in Wollongong and loves cycling, gardening and cooking.
Anna has lived in Ballarat for the last 4 years and currently works as Sustainability Officer at the University of Ballarat. In this role Anna works to improve the environmental performance of the University, including preparing the annual Sustainability Report and policies and procedures to support sustainability initiatives. She hopes to expand her knowledge and networks through the Future Sustainability Leaders 2007 program and is really open to any opportunities this may then present.
Anna brings experience with community engagement, volunteer management, environmental management, community business partnerships and organisational sustainability to FSL 2007 as well as a unique regional perspective.
Anna is looking forward to developing her current knowledge and skills for sustainability leadership and forming a strong, positive and productive network with like minds.
Update 2008: What Anna has been doing since graduating
Jack Fuller
Jack is once again implicated in neuroscience and anthropology after extricating himself from most information, words and news to work in Timor last year. Now, however, back home he has participated in such recent large words as “HALT CLIMATE CHANGE NOW” – the human sign on Sandringham beach, where he contributed successfully to the apex of the “m”.
In East Timor Jack worked in sustainable agriculture, setting up community gardens, irrigation systems, a small business and programs for making organic fertilizer. For some months he worked in an orphanage, occasionally skating round with kids like Pippi Longstocking, mostly learning how central the military and economics are to development.
Jack is passionate about science, sustainability, and growing a global ethic. He’s currently working to use classical music to raise money for old growth forests, touring with climate change educators, treeplanting, lobbying for green power, and organising community political forums.
Jack plans to be a lecturer in “big history” (our modern creation myth – from the big bang to today), and a prolific and politically engaged public intellectual and institutional leader. He is driven particularly by public education: the issue of what global stories are needed for a global democracy and a sense of consequences in geological time spans. He is fascinated by a central question: can a culture be more or less healthy?
In FSL Jack hopes to meet other dedicated young leaders, expand on his contacts in sustainable design, learn extensively about Australia’s environment and international policy, and explore just how many things we can do at once with life. He can contribute project management and public speaking skills, a sense of seriousness and joy, and perennially relevant
garden knowledge.
Broadly, he’s rapt to be part of the neo-hippies, who shun soap with twigs in it but still care deeply about our home.
Update 2008: What Jack has been doing since graduating
Steph Smith
As a full-time undergraduate student, it is entirely possible that Steph offers nothing meaningful to society. Needless to say that, if true, this status quo does not impress her in the slightest, and she is trying to make herself somewhat useful. In theory the Melbourne University Arts/Law degree for which she is studying will also be somewhat useful. However, given her wide range of interests and obsession with “learning stuff” regardless of its subject, where she ends up is a matter of speculation.
Steph has done a few interesting things such as living in France for eight months on exchange, taking a 12-day trek in central Australia and another in south-western WA, and volunteering on a scientific research project on frogs in NSW, but does not pretend that these make her even a vaguely interesting person. She has a long background in organising school- and uni-based initiatives for social and environmental causes, but nothing as yet significant enough for her to be even close to satisfied. In particular, Steph is heavily involved with Vision Generation – World Vision’s youth movement – and is passionate about the sustainability of development in any context.
While the source of Steph’s love of the outdoors is uncertain, she has held a strong sense of justice and interest in the environment for as long as she can remember. Her ultimate aspiration is for both a perceptual and practical shift towards a sustainable society.
Update 2008: What Steph has been doing since graduating
Ragnar J Haabjoern
Ragnar Haabjoern has made a deep commitment to the environment and more specifically the area of environmental education. His time as a science teacher in the rural city of Mildura shaped a lot of his passion for unlocking potential and connecting youth to the planet. He successfully started an eco-club at the school that participated in regional, state and national events, spreading environmental awareness to the populace.
This first hand experience with environmental education inspired him to get a greater understanding of this subject and pursue postgraduate studies in the field. He is currently a PhD candidate at RMIT University designing a Framework for Sustainability Education modeled from a plant cell. His inspiration is the realm of environmentalism, coined ‘Deep ecology’ that has morphosed his love for the environment to action.
Most recently Ragnar has been a Sustainability education officer for an environmental consultant business. Here he learnt much about the corporate world of sustainability, and honed his skills in being able to enthuse corporations and small to medium businesses to take on more environmentally sound practices.
From youth to suits, Ragnar has demonstrated how a sustainable lifestyle can be achieved and how it is the way for the survival of the planet and humanity. His action in the aforementioned areas has put him in the flow of his next stream, the turbulent waters of activism and politics.
Update 2008: What Ragnar has been doing since graduating
Michael Chew
Michael has a long standing passion for the environment and for deepening our relationship to it. He grew up in the country as child with the lucky companionship of his family and a variety of beautiful animals and plants, and held on to this appreciation of nature after moving to Melbourne.
During studying his BA(Environmental Studies)/BSc(Physics) degrees at Melbourne University he was actively involved in the Student Union Environment Collective; campaigning for paper recycling, forest issues, and sustainable transport. Great inspiration also came from participating in six annual ‘Students of Sustainability’ environment conferences around Australia.
After completing these degrees he entered the Victorian College of the Arts to follow a long standing passion for ecological photography. Being elected as Environment Officer in the VCA Student Union, he formed an environment collective to tackle on-campus environmental issues. He believes passionately in the power of art to communicate the importance of sustainability today, and co-founded in 2004 the annual Melbourne Environmental Arts Festival, a multi-venue community art festival aimed at bringing environmentalists and artists together in creative dialogue. Michael strongly feels that environmental sustainability is ultimately not possible in a world of international inequality, and has twice volunteered in India to teach disadvantaged children in Kolkata, being a co-founder of Friends of Kolkata, a volunteer-based NGO which facilitates Australians working on volunteer projects in India.
After a stressful last year working full time as VCA Student Union President in the struggle for survival post-VSU, Michael is now settling back down to finishing his final year in art photography. He is continually fascinated by the challenge of reviving humanity’s connection with nature in our 21st century lives, and in the future he would like to focus his passions in this area, being guided and buttressed by his favourite three A’s; Art, Activism, and Academia.
Michael brings art/design, imaging, video and organisational skills to the group, and is particularly excited by the social marketing and mentorship aspects of FSL.
Update 2008: What Michael has been doing since graduating
Emily Blyth
Getting itchy feet at 16, Emily moved to Thailand to study her VCE by distance education and within months was offered a job as a full time kindergarten teacher. Working by day, studying by night, Emily developed a fascination with education and with the intent of completing a bachelor degree in teaching she returned to Australia in 2003.
One of her biggest passions is being involved in Earthsharing Australia where as part of a small team she helped develop an interactive camp for teens. The camp brings to life those fundamental ideas of ‘learn by doing’ and getting young people involved in the educational process. The camp takes students on an environmental reality tour through significant areas in Victoria. Leaders teach students film and documentary techniques so that they can record their experiences and the final DVD can go back to schools to be used as an educational tool. As interest in the camps has grown, the Earthsharing Team have begun running workshops across Victoria on fundamental economic and sustainability issues.
Emily also has a strong interest in overseas aid issues. Having spent many years living in Thailand and years volunteer teaching and working with rural Thai children, Emily and a friend decided to begin a fundraising organisation for rural Thai schools (The Ripple Effect). Working with up to ten schools, The Ripple Effect helps provide quality, safe education for students through access to clean water, literacy materials and vocation and further education opportunities.
Having this passion for education and the environment has seen Emily develop her goals toward assisting in the improvement of sustainability education across Victoria. She would love to see young people have more access to decision making and educational processes.
Being involved in the Future Sustainability Leaders Program, Emily intends to share her passion for education and build and develop ideas for getting the importance of sustainability education into schools. She is eager to learn new strategies and approaches for involving young people in their world.
Update 2008: What Emily has been doing since graduating
Curtis Riddington
Curtis is into the concept of ecosystem service marketsà which gives monetary value to services provided by natural systemsà as a way to increase the viability of conservation and revegetation in Australia. He has worked in Eastern Africa attempting to set up such a system with an added emphasis on alleviating poverty. He is now exploring how this concept could be applied in Australia, and particularly how to involve different groups such as indigenous communities, farmers, government and the private sector.
He has arrived at this point in time by firstly studying environmental sociology at RMIT which laid out a broad range of sustainability issues. To focus this knowledge he then went on to complete a Masters in Environmental Resource Management in Amsterdam, which provided a grounding in environmental economics. He now works as a natural resource management consultant.
Curtis views the FSL program as a unique opportunity to propel his visions towards reality, by being exposed to different people and view points, by being challenged to articulate his ideals, and because of the leadership focus of the program.
The main strength Curtis brings to the program is an ability to bridge the gap between different disciplines such as science and policy. This can be helpful in finding practical solutions to complex problems, and is a skill which can be often overlooked in an age of specialisation.
Update 2008: What Curtis has been doing since graduating
Daniel Epstein
An interested participant in Life, Daniel was born in 1972 in a city called Rochester, NY. He moved to Australia with his Australian Parents in the summer of 1973, and grew up in the bay suburbs of Melbourne. Daniel’s passion for the environment began at an early age, picking up rubbish from his local beach when all his mates were throwing it.
Daniel loves to travel, and has spent a decade out of Melbourne since he finished high school. He has lived, worked and travelled in the US for 5 years. And spent several years travelling through Cuba, , Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Canada, Costa Rica, France, Italy, Turkey, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Hungary, Check Republic, Belgium, Netherlands, Laos, Thailand, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Samoa, Fiji. A recent trip to India a favourite, along with a great drive around Canada, USA and Mexico in an old Datsun ute when he was 21. This North American driving trip Daniel spent a lot of time in the mountains, deserts and oceans of North America. This developed a deep connection to the land, a force he carried on when he returned home, beginning an ongoing and active role in environmentalism and social justice.
Daniel enjoyed an Arts Degree from Melbourne University in the mid 90s, and after working for several years completed a law degree in the early 2000’s. Throughout his life Daniel has done many short courses, and has an active ongoing interest in adult education.
In June 2007, after returning from a 4 month Asia trip, Daniel opened Melbourne’s First Biofuels Service Station; Conservo. Daniel has always felt activism needs to occur in the boardrooms as well the streets, forests and oceans.
So as a business, Conservo is saying our time is now to show how respectfully we can conduct ourselves as the lucky ones to be here and now on this land. Conservo is a place where we can make change, in what and how we drive, and continue the progress we as a community have been making, in our schools, homes, businesses, in our uses of energy, water and the reduction of waste creation in our community.
Daniel is currently enjoying pursuing the ongoing creation of Conservo, and its associated products and services. While quietly planning a US /Middle East trip for later 2008.
Daniel has enjoyed the FSL course very much, gained great insight into the workings of other people through the course, and made many lovely and varied connections. It is a spectacular learning and connecting tool for young environmental leaders of today.
Update 2008: What Daniel has been doing since graduating
Gemma Harbutt
Gemma’s vision is to help make it easy for everyone to contribute to a more positive future. She believes that a combination of clear communication, positive messages and encouragement is the key to creating a more sustainable Australia.
Working as a Marketing Coordinator and also holding the title of “Sustainability Officer” for an environmentally responsible company, Gemma has driven Environmental initiatives such as annual company tree planting days, the formulation of an Environmental Committee and has also steered the company through formal Environmental Certification.
Gemma is a relentless optimist and her passion for sustainability shines through in her enthusiastic demeanour. Gemma gained her appreciation for nature during her childhood years in Tasmania and believes any amount of stress can be conquered by a walk on a beach or a breath of fresh air. Her personal interestsinclude travelling, music and creative design.
As a result of her participation within the Future Sustainability Leaders Program, Gemma has met some of the most incredible and inspirational people she has encountered in her life. Along with two fellow participants, Gemma has founded a company specialising in sustainability translation. This company has emerged as the result of three very passionate participants who created a “project” and decided to make their idea bigger and encourage and empower others to help create positive change.