Sustainability Working Group
Macquarie University has established a Sustainability Working Group (SWG) comprising 17 staff and students representing different levels of employment across all aspects of the University, including learning and teaching, research, operations and administration.
The SWG is responsible for working with the Sustainability Office to establish a sustainability culture at Macquarie University. It will provide advice to the Sustainability Office regarding plans, programs, activities and communications that seek to improve the sustainability performance of Macquarie.
SWG Terms of Reference
SWG Members
Paul Bowler
Paul joined Macquarie University in December 2006 as Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer. Formerly of London, he has held senior positions in the USA and UK, and holds qualifications from Cranfield (MBA), Loughborough and Leicester Universities. Paul's position at Macquarie University includes responsibility for sustainability, facilities, information technology, finance, capital development and management, business development, spin-offs, licenses, intellectual property, investment strategy, the science park, security, admissions, enrolments, records and student services.
Deidre Anderson
Dee is the CEO and a driving force of U@MQ. The U@MQ vision is to "Provide more than an academic experience". The mission is to "Create a vibrant, fun and healthy University campus environment; Develop partnerships that will add value to Macquarie University; and Focus all services and facility requirements on the customers needs". A culture will be encouraged through U@MQ that will strive to create the healthiest University Campus in Australia by 2015. It will aim to achieve this by focusing on the physical, mental, environmental, ethical and social issues that influence the health of our campus community.
Mary Davies
Mary is the AMIS Student Finance Support Manager. Mary has designed and built her own passive solar design house as part of the Aldinga Arts-Eco Village (34ha, half housing, half farm), and is now building her second eco-townhouse in the village with a smaller ecological footprint. The Village ethos maintains that community is an integral part of village management. For further information refer to the official Village website and the evolving community website.
Richard de Dear
Over the last 27 years, Professor Richard de Dear has built a career in the area of human thermal comfort in low-energy buildings. He has published 60 research papers in peer-reviewed international journals, 14 Chapters in books, 14 books and monographs. In that published body of work it is his "adaptive model of thermal comfort" that has had the greatest impact, receiving several hundred citations from other researchers and authors around the world. Richard currently lectures within the Division of Environmental and Life Sciences.
Leanne Denby
Leanne's background is quite diverse, having spent eleven years as a medic in the Australian Army. After completing a degree with Honours at the University of Sydney, Leanne worked there as a casual teacher, helping to deliver the Sustainable Cities course. In December 2006, Leanne joined the ARIES team, beginning work immediately on a report for submission to the VC on why MQ should take on the sustainability challenge. Leanne now works full time for Macquarie University as the Director of Sustainability.
Wendy Goldstein
Lecturer in sustainable development and education for sustainable development in the Graduate School of the Environment. Wendy is standing in for Ros Taplin for a few months while Ros is on study leave. Wendy's interest is in how we generate interest throughout the university to become more sustainable in our teaching and engage people in more sustainable operations from the office, to the building, to the campus and the community around us.
Megan Kessler
Megan is currently undertaking a PhD through the Department of Environmental and Life Sciences looking at the interaction between migrating humpback whales and the whale watching industry. Prior to this, Megan has worked in environmental management on issues ranging from threatened species management, fisheries management and marine conservation, landcare and coastcare and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Kevin McCracken
Kevin wears many hats including Macquarie Academic Director, The Scholar Ship Project; Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning), Division of Environmental and Life Sciences; and Associate Professor in Human Geography. Kevin's interest lies in developing sustainability themes into Macquarie's curricula. This is something Kevin currently does in his basic undergraduate teaching (in population and health studies). He also played a role in developing a "learning circle" on sustainable development for The Scholar Ship project in which Macquarie is involved with several overseas universities (e.g. Berkeley, Fudan, Cardiff, etc.).
Richard Miller
Richard Miller is the Computer Systems Manager within the Division of ICS. He completed his B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science from Macquarie University in 1987 and has since worked for CSIRO, the Electronics Department at Macquarie University and at Hewlett Packard Roseville Network Division in California.
Ian Solomonidies
Former charter-boat skipper and builder, Ian later worked in the School of Architecture, Design and Built Environment at Nottingham Trent University (UK) where he developed an extra-curricula interest in educational research. Combined with an understanding of sustainability from the product design point of view, this research has led to finding ways in which we can include education of and for sustainability into our practice. Since moving to Australia and Macquarie in 2006 he has become more interested in sustainability and the opportunity to refer to it in graduate outcome statements.
Tim Sprague
Tim is the Director of Human Resources for the University and has had an interest in the environment from the time he began his Science degree. Tim believes it is important for Macquarie to have a reputation for being an ethical employer, which includes acting ethically in the environment not just in industrial relations terms.
Peter Stewart
Peter Stewart joined MGSM in 1994 and has been involved in the development of both their Campus at Nth Ryde and MGSM's CBD Campus in Pitt Street Sydney. He Has Masters degrees from Macquarie and from UWS. He carries responsibility at MGSM for Facilities at and the Hotel & conference centre operations as well as in the areas of sustainability, security and emergency coordination, capital planning and management and technology. He has developed an interest in sustainability through being global President of the International Association of Conference Centres and is driving a sustainability process globally for that organisation's membership as they attempt to design "green meeting environments." He has visited universities around the world and has gained an insight into the role that university's conference and meeting facilities play within the campus, and the impact those operations have not only on alternative revenue streams, but their resource consumption.
"Be the change you want to see in the world" - Mahatma Ghandi
Ruth Tregale
Ruth is Sustainability Manager at U@MQ, the new entity set up to research, create, deliver and collaborate a range of innovative services and programs to ensure a sustainable campus environment for both students and staff at Macquarie University. She holds a Masters in Sustainable Development and Postgraduate Certificate in Community Work, and in addition to promoting environmental sustainability on campus is responsible for facilitating formal and informal student engagement in the university.
SWG Minutes of Meetings
2008
2007