Adrian Glamorgan

Adrian Glamorgan is a mix of writer, facilitator, educator and thinker. He’s campaigned for rivers, forests, for GM-free ecosystems and against uranium mining and nuclear proliferation. He’s worked beside refugees, wants right relationship with Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples, and solutions to global inequalities. Adrian has taught sustainability, creative writing and management at university, and administered and taught at Steiner schools. Through Quaker practice, Adrian aspires to simplicity, integrity, peace, equality, and inclusive change that harmonises having, being and doing. He says he acts locally, but isn’t ready to give up on wider social and political processes that have ended conscription, outlawed land mines, protected the ozone layer, and given people with disabilities rights and protection.

Adrian Whitehead

Adrian has been campaigning on environmental issues for over 25 years and was instrumental in creating the Greater Otway National Park and stopping the Naas Valley Dam in the ACT. In 2003 Adrian began campaigning on climate change issues calling for zero emissions. In 2006 he co-founded and established the group, Beyond Zero Emissions. Adrian currently lectures on climate change, teaches permaculture, is preparing a co-housing project in Tasmania, and setting up a new climate-focused political party.

Adrian’s talk will focus on the threat of climate change and why he believes we are faced with two clear choices: succeed in implementing a global “green tech” future in order to return safe levels of greenhouse gases, or prepare for social collapse, and whether we might consider doing a bit of both.

Ben Pennings

A lifelong sustainability activist, Ben Pennings is the founder of a 30,000 strong international social media network for the environment movement. Generation Alpha has a big picture critique on the possibilities of systemic sustainability, and advocates radical strategies for systemic change. Generation Alpha’s tagline is ‘Honesty – Courage – Action’.

 Ben will outline how radical honesty, courage and action, mixed with more than a dash of humour, can challenge a system of living that is inherently unsustainable and violent.

Professor Bernard King

Cassie MacMahon

Cassie McMahon calls Ipswich her home town and has been passionately focused on sustainability for over 15 years.  Her passion developed after realizing the social disharmony created from unsustainable policies / practices.  Working with communities throughout Australia, Cassie enjoys empowering the people to create a lifestyle that is harmonious and sustainable. “We are living in exciting times and I am constantly delighted in supporting communities to protect what they value, whilst building strong and resilient communities and a healthy environment.”

Cassie has a background in Community and Human Services and Community Organizing and is constantly seen on the frontline of various environmental campaigns.  She engages with communities by walking and riding to Canberra, doing theatre, education programs, facilitating events and forums and she is even willing to put her neck on the line for issues that are important to her.  Currently Cassie is working as Outreach Co-ordinator for Australia’s fastest social movement, Lock the Gate Alliance.  In her spare time, she volunteers for Friends of the Earth, Transition Ipswich, Generation Alpha, Beyond Zero Emissions and the Pachamama Alliance.

Associate Professor David Paton

David Paton is an Associate Professor in ecology at the University of Adelaide. He has contributed to the understanding and management of Australia’s natural environment for over three decades, and has a commitment to long-term studies that help understand and manage the natural environment for future generations. He frequently provides informed comment on wildlife and environmental issues to politicians, the general public and the media.

David has received numerous awards for his ecological and conservation work including the Serventy Medal from BirdLife Australia (2011); membership of the General Division of the Order of Australia for services to conservation, education and the environment (2008); a National Carrick Citation for environmental education (2006); the Premier’s Science Excellence Award for Excellence in Research for Public Good Outcomes (2006); and the SA Great Award for the Environment (1999). His book At the end of the river: the Coorong and Lower Lakes (2010) also received a Whitely award.

Deborah Farrell

Deborah Farrell was raised in Ipswich and inherited a deep love of the natural environment. She was introduced to political and conservation activism at an early age and once served as Ipswich’s Junior Mayor. As a film maker, actor and activist she explored youth arts and cultural development, as well as social justice and environmental campaigns across South East Queensland for nearly two decades. A six-year sojourn in Southern Tasmania saw her transformed into a slow food advocate, permaculturalist and epicurean for sustainability.

Deborah returned with her young family to Ipswich and in 2012 founded the Ipswich Good Food Group, a not-for-profit co-operative showcasing local and/or organic produce, building community resilience and raising awareness of food sovereignty issues. After only 6 months, membership is approaching 100 households. She sees opportunity for fundamental, restorative, positive change in the crises we all face and has been overwhelmed by the support for her project and the philosophies behind it from the local community. Her vision for an eco/arts centre and urban community farm in the city is gaining momentum. Deborah describes herself as an Agtivist, a Bioneer and an Apocoloptomist.

Elisabetta Faenza

Elisabetta Faenza – General Manager, The Mulloon Institute

BA, MIR, MEd, Dip. Clinical Hypnotherapy, Dip Eco-village Design, Master Trainer

As the General Manager of The Mulloon Institute, Elisabetta’s mission is to advocate for change and promote research into sustainable methods of landscape rehydration, and nutritious food production amongst other subjects.

In this era of uncertainty and unprecedented change, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and powerless.  Elisabetta’s 60-minute presentation will provide you with the science behind living sustainably, and the simple things you can do make a difference. With Masters in International Relations and Education, and a Diploma of Ecological Design, Elisabetta is passionate about helping individuals maximise their potential and do more with less.

In this thought-provoking 45 minute presentation Elisabetta will challenge you to go ‘beyond green,’ and ‘be the revolution’ you want to see in the world.

Geoff Mosley

Geoff Mosley is Australian Director of the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy. He has been involved in research, advocacy and teaching in the field of conservation for over 60 years. He has taught at all levels from university to primary school and is currently a lecturer for World Wide Learning. From 1973 to 1986 Geoff was CEO of the ACF. Geoff believes that the most important task for the conservation movement is to gather support for the Steady State alternative to our present endless economic growth system.

Geoff will present reasons for why we need to all put our backs into the development of a steady-state economy, and evidence for how conflicting efforts are making things worse.

Dr Graeme Taylor

Dr Graeme Taylor is the coordinator of BEST Futures and an Adjunct Research Fellow with the Griffith Environmental Futures Centre. His research explores how whole-systems design can be proactively used to solve complex global issues and develop sustainable solutions. A lecturer, writer and speaker, Graeme’s current work focuses on understanding critical trends, timelines and tipping points.  He is the author of Evolution’s Edge: The Coming Collapse and Transformation of Our World, which won the 2009 IPPY Gold Medal for the book “most likely to save the planet”.

Graeme will speak on Critical global trends, timelines and tipping points: why we must, can and will create a better world.

Dr Haydn Washington

Dr Haydn Washington has a thirty five year history in environmental science, working as an Investigations Scientist for CSIRO, and Director of the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, among other credits. He has also worked extensively within environmental non-government organisations, being a councillor on the Australian Conservation Foundation for four terms, the secretary of the Colo Committee (which led the campaign to create Wollemi National Park), and media officer for the Wilderness Society. Haydn is credited as having written the first Sustainability Charter of any Council in Australia.

Dr Washington is also an environmental writer, being the author of many articles, and five books on the environment - ‘Ecosolutions: environmental solutions for the world and Australia’ (1991), ‘A sense of Wonder’ (2002), ‘The Wilderness Knot’ (2009), ‘Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand’ (2011) and ‘Human Dependence on Nature’ (2013).

Haydn is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Environmental Studies, UNSW, and teaches the course ‘Frameworks for Environmental Management’ in the Masters of Environmental Management. He is also currently writing a book about sustainability.

Jeremy Miller

Jeremy Miller is an Urban Planner working at the construction end of the planning process with Sustainability House. His professional focus is working with builders and developers in improving their energy efficiency, understanding legislative and statutory requirements, and developing understanding of the factors that contribute to the thermal performance of buildings. Jeremy is the current Chairperson of The Bicycle Institute of SA, an organisation focused on the planning and provision of bicycles for transport. He has a long term love affair with two wheeled travel and owns more bicycles than shoes! He is also a tutor at the University of SA in Planning and Professional Ethics, and delivers the Transport Studies lecture on Cycle Planning.

Kari McGregor

Kari McGregor founded Sustainability Showcase (SS) as a platform for collaboration whose motto is “catalyzing a confluence for sustainability”. SS provides an interface between the worlds of academia and activism, generating platforms and opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration for sustainability strategies. A hybrid academic with a long history of activism, Kari is committed to pulling the system up by the roots, critically examining its flaws, and applying corrective measures for a sustainable future.

Kari will tell the story of systemic change, inviting all to place themselves in the role of hero in the stories we will co-create for a sustainable future.

Kristy Walters

Kristy Walters lives on Jaggera people’s country south of the Brisbane River. She is an environmental organiser with Friends of the Earth Brisbane and was one of the founding members of the coal, csg and climate change collective, Six Degrees. Kristy dedicates her time to permaculture education at Northey Street City Farm, research into social enterprise and innovation at QUT, and building activist education and participatory social change anywhere she has the time.

Kristy has a keen interest in food politics and is currently supporting the growth of food co-operatives in SEQ through an action-based workshop day, Foodies Unite.

Mark Diesendorf

Dr Mark Diesendorf is Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of New South Wales. Previously, at various times, he was a Principal Research Scientist in CSIRO, Professor of Environmental Science at University of Technology Sydney, and the Director of Sustainability Centre Pty Ltd. His books are “Human Ecology, Human Economy: Ideas for an Ecologically Sustainable Future” (co-edited), “Greenhouse Solutions with Sustainable Energy” and “Climate Action: A Campaign Manual for Greenhouse Solutions”. Mark is an advocate for a steady-state economy as a sub-system that can guide us into a sustainable economic paradigm.

Mark will introduce the concept of an ecologically sustainable economy, motivating it and outlining some of its likely characteristics.

Michael Croft

Michael nurtures an award winning, vertically integrated and value adding field to fork farm. Passionate about biological farming, permaculture, diversity and resilient food systems, he walks the talk of quadruple bottom line, promoting eating as an ecological act.  Michael is also a director of several socio-ecopreneurial businesses and organisations, a leader in Slow Food 2.0, and president of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance. Michael was instrumental in the development of the People’s Food Plan, a grass-roots response to the government’s green paper on national food security.

The why and how of the People’s Food Plan, Australia’s first crowd sourced national policy document offering a planet and people focused approach for a localised and resilient food system.

Murray Lane

Murrray Lane teaches architecture at QUT, focusing on sustainability and design and recently completed his PhD on human carrying capacity. His research brings a practical application to the population debate with the development of an online tool – the Carrying Capacity Dashboard. This innovative application allows users to test the self-sufficiency of any region in Australia. His recent presentations on this topic have been to various local environmental organizations such as Friends of Southeast Queensland and at the Woodford Folk Festival. He has also been engaged as a consultant to the Redland City and Sunshine Coast Councils on population matters.

Murray will address the uncomfortable, but necessary, question of whether a sustainable population is possible.

Nicole Foss

Nicole Foss runs the Agri-Energy Producers’ Association of Ontario, focusing on localized solutions for renewable energy needs. Nicole is also co-editor of The Automatic Earth, where she chronicles and interprets the cascading crises of converging economic and ecological emergencies, pinpointing the ongoing credit crunch as the most pressing aspect of our current multi-faceted global predicament.

The Automatic Earth site integrates finance, energy, environment, psychology, population and realpolitik in order to explain why we find ourselves in a state of crisis and what we can do about it. Prior to the establishment of The Automatic Earth, Nicole was editor of The Oil Drum, a Canadian periodical, where she wrote on peak oil and finance.

While living in the UK Nicole was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, specializing in nuclear safety in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and conducting research into electricity policy at the EU level. Her long list of credentials include a BSc in biology from Carleton University in Canada, a post-graduate diploma in air and water pollution control, the common professional examination in law and an LLM in international law in development from the University of Warwick in the UK. She was granted the University Medal for the top science graduate in 1988 and the law school prize for the top law school graduate in 1997.

Nicole will present the collision course of converging economic and ecological crises, pointing out the need for proactive resilience-building at community level. Nicole will elucidate why we cannot expect governments to intervene on our behalf, and how we can prepare ourselves and our communities for the changes that will shape our future systems.

Pennie Scott

Pennie Scott is an entrepreneur, communications specialist, writer, scholar, strategist, community facilitator, educator, farmer and social scientist. Coming from generations of farming families she has spent the majority of her life living and working in rural and regional communities, appreciating and understanding the dynamics of these special places and possessing intimate knowledge of the issues, challenges and opportunities they face – individually and collectively. Food security and rural economic revival are hand-in-hand when our Local Food Economy is applied, enabling self-reliance by providing alternatives to the present retail food systems. Food culture can take its rightful place again in families and communities collaborating together to create their own food futures.

Pennie will present on Our Local Food Economy as a model which can be applied in any size country town, and focus on creating new possibilities when using food as the vehicle for local enterprise development.

Peter Newman

‘Peak oil, peak car and the future: Global Trends and Some Implications for Perth’

Peter Newman is Professor of Sustainability at CUSP. He has been speaking and writing about peak oil since the early 70′s, is a Lead Author for the next IPCC report on Transport and has been actively involved in many campaigns for a sustainable transport system in Perth based on electric rail and local walk/bike opportunities. He will examine the global myth that fracking will stop peak oil, that peak car use is setting in to the world’s cities and how we can accelerate the use of more sustainable transport in Perth based on his latest plan available on www.sustainability.curtin.edu.au

Professor Philip Lawn

Philip Lawn is an Associate Professor at the Flinders Business School, Flinders University, Adelaide. Over the past decade Philip has written and edited a number of books and articles on the principles, indicators, and policy aspects of sustainable development. Some of his books include: Sustainable Development Indicators in Ecological Economics (2006, Edward Elgar), Frontier Issues in Ecological Economics (2007, Edward Elgar), Sustainable Welfare in the Asia-Pacific (2008, co-edited with Matthew Clarke, Edward Elgar), and Environment and Employment: A Reconciliation (2009, Routledge). Philip is currently working on a climate change book and has just completed editing a volume on how nations can best make the transition to a sustainable, just, and efficient economy.

Philip will present indicators to guide, and policies to facilitate, the transition to a steady-state economy.

Dr. Richard Mochelle

Richard’s multifaceted background in architecture, environmental design, and futures education later developed into a passion for moral and political philosophy, global ethics, deliberative democracy and whole systems design.  His theoretical work on global responsibility and world constitutionalism is applied practically with the engagement of lay groups in future-visioning, invoking the responsibility to undertake highest priority design projects in response to global problems. Richard’s current system design projects include a democratic platform for citizen engagement in world constitutional deliberation; an omni-functional, honorary world service; and a carrying capacity-based, integrated rurban planning system for the post-carbon future.

Richard will address the question of whether fundamental system change is needed for global sustainability and justice, and what learning steps we must all take.

Richard Sanders

Richard Sanders is an ecological economist (the economics of sustainability), futurist, environmental scientist and community activist, and has actively contributed to the cause of achieving a sustainable society through academia, government and the community sector for over 20 years. A big picture systems thinker, Richard’s achievements as an activist include initiating and coordinating the national Stop MAI campaign that succeeded in reversing the Howard government’s position on the MAI – a pernicious global ‘free trade’ agreement antithetical to sustainability – which in turn led directly to the collapse of the MAI internationally. Richard’s passion is to contribute to the rapid transition to a sustainable society that is required if human civilization is to survive the convergence of global warming, peak oil (and peak water, food, etc), the 6th major planetary extinction event and the liquidation of nature’s capital.

Richard will present a vision of a sustainable society based on what is biophysically possible, and a strategy for getting there rapidly.

Adjunct Professor Rob Fowler

Rob Fowler is an Adjunct Professor in the Law School at the University of South Australia, having retired in 2008 after over thirty years of teaching, research and consulting in the field of environmental law. He is now engaged in environmental advocacy through various avenues, including:

As a Councillor of the Australian Conservation Foundation since 2004, a member of its  Governing Board (since 2010) and Vice President (since 2012); President of the Conservation Council of South Australia, the peak group representing environmental interests in the State of South Australia (since October 2010); member of the Board of the SA Environment Protection Authority (since July 2011); regional representative for Oceania on the Governing Board of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law since 2008 (the Academy is an international network of over 150 Law Schools committed to teaching and research in environmental law).

Rob recently completed a 5 year term as Chair of the IUCN Academy of Environmental Law, and also served from 2001-2009 as Chair of the South Australian Environmental Defender’s Office, a public interest environmental law firm. In November 2011, he was recognized by the Law Council of Australia with a special award for his “exceptional contribution to the development of environmental law”.

Theo Kitchener

Theo Kitchener has a background in activism and community building, is founder of neighbourhood sharing website thesharehood.org, and more recently has been working to raise awareness of peak oil and financial collapse through the Melbourne based volunteer group, Doing It Ourselves. Influenced by Nicole Foss, Theo created the popular Youtube animation ‘What the Economic Crisis Really Means and What We Can Do About It’ and has presented on the topic around Australia. Self-described apocaloptimist, Theo is positive about the future, focusing on community, permaculture, appropriate technology, participatory democracy, alternative economics and our potential transformation.

The combined crises mean systemic change is coming, for better or for worse, so Theo will be talking about some of the tools we can use to encourage a positive societal and environmental transformation.

Tony Coote

Antony Coote AM – Founder of The Mulloon Institute

Tony is the founder of The Mulloon Institute. Both sides of his ancestry combined farming and grazing with entrepreneurial business. Tony has continued that tradition of building business that create surplus and capital for the benefit of all stakeholders as well as building natural capital that restores the function of the landscape such that it is resilient and capable of delivering surplus to current and future generations.

Tony started his working career as a “jackaroo” on farms, then completed a BSc in Boston USA, and later an MBA at the University of NSW in Sydney. He had a long career in the publicly listed Angus & Coote (Holdings) Ltd.

The Mulloon Institute will ensure that the restorative work that is being carried out on Mulloon Creek Natural Farms goes on, to be of benefit to future generations.

With 35 years experience on the land, Tony Coote AM, will share how Natural Sequence Farming and Biodynamic techniques can assist in flood, fire and drought management of the landscape.