Posts Tagged ‘governance’
Walk Against Warming Sunday August 15
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on August 10th, 2010
Walk Against Warming 2010: The Great Suburban Walk
There’s a federal election on its way, yet our political leaders continue to backflip, delay and deny on climate change. With so much at stake, it’s time for the community to put climate action back on the election agenda.
On Sunday 15 August Environment Victoria, our national partners and the Victorian climate movement is holding the 2010 Walk Against Warming to demand that our political leaders face up to their responsibility on climate change. We’ll remind them that to secure our votes, they must ‘Walk with the People, Not the Big Polluters’.
This election be part of the call for climate action. Please register for The Walk Against Warming at www.walkagainstwarming.org.au
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New Projects: Climate Conversations
Posted in Movements, Seeking by Kate Archdeacon on August 5th, 2010
Source: Locals Into Victoria’s Environment (LIVE)
The next City of Port Phillip Climate Conversations session will be held on Saturday 7 August – this session will be for those proposing New Project ideas.
Since March this year 163 people have attended Climate Conversations sessions. 14 project ideas have been proposed by participants to adapt our city to climate change. More ideas are needed, so why not come along to the New Projects session? Climate Conversation sessions, and the projects that arise out of them, are community-led and driven projects. Their purpose is to green up local streets, activity centres and homes. The City of Port Phillip Council is acting as a catalyst, providing resources, and expertise, to get projects started, and help out along the way. Council has many climate action projects and hopes that Climate Conversation sessions will empower local people to implement more.
Find out more about the Climate Conversations.
10 am – 1 pm, Saturday 7 August 2010
South Port Uniting Church, 319 Dorcas Street, South Melbourne Melway Map 2K, B3. Take Tram 96 to Stop 127, then walk 100m up the path to Dorcas Street. The church hall is across the road to the left of the bluestone church.
Please RSVP (http://www.live.org.au/community-events/rsvp-form) if you are coming as it helps with catering. Make sure you mention any special dietary, hearing, access or interpretation requirements you may have.
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Join the commuter revolution: Register for Ride To Work Day
Posted in Events, Movements by Elysia on July 20th, 2010
More and more Australians are joining the commuter revolution, and they want the world to know about it. Record numbers are registering for Ride to Work Day on 13 October, and are proud to proclaim their commitment to a healthier and congestion-free way to get to work. Ride to Work Day, the only nationally recognised event of it kind, provides a day in the workplace calendar for those thinking about commuting by bike to start or re-energise cycling habits deterred by the winter months.
Ride to Work Day registrations are crucial in ensuring the continuous improvement of bike facilities across Australia. Ride to Work Day spokesperson, Mr Max Goonan, said the biggest barrier to riding to work was poor facilities. “Registering for Ride to Work Day is a sure way for bike riders to make their ride count,” Mr Goonan said. “Registering your support is a critical means of capturing valuable data on bike commuting.” “We use this data to convince Governments and business that there is massive support for riding to work amongst Australians, and that it is time to get investment rolling to meet the burgeoning demand.” Bicycle Network’s Ride to Work twelve month behavior change program has been a strong influence in the dramatic increase of people choosing to ride to work. Ride to Work Day post-event surveys revealed that over 50% of those who weren’t riding to work in 2009 are now riding to work in 2010.
Register online for Ride to Work Day 2010 at https://ride2work.com.au/register/
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Knowledge Cities World Summit: Melbourne 2010
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on July 16th, 2010
Registration is now open for Melbourne 2010 – Knowledge Cities World Summit being held from 16 – 19 November 2010 at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, Victoria, Australia
Knowledge is a resource, which relies on the past for a better future. In the 21st century, more than ever before, cities around the world rely on the knowledge of their citizens, their institutions and their firms and enterprises. Integrating knowledge-based development in urban strategies and policies, beyond the provision of schools and locations for higher education, has become a new ambitious arena of city politics. Coming from theory to practice, and bringing together the knowledge stakeholders in a city and preparing joint visions for the knowledge city is a new challenge for city managers. It requires visionary power, creativity, holistic thinking, the willingness to cooperate with all groups of the local civil society, and the capability to moderate communication processes to overcome conflicts and to develop joint action for a sustainable future. This timely summit makes an important reminder that ‘knowledge’ is the key notion in the 21st Century development.
Summit themes include:
- Knowledge-based (urban) development
- Knowledge-based economy and value generation
- Knowledge cities, regions and societies
- Knowledge cluster, enterprise and organisations
- Knowledge-intensive service activities
- Knowledge assets and capital systems
- Knowledge workers and creative class
- Creativity, innovation, technology and learning communities
- Sustainable (urban) development
Early bird registration closes: 10 August 2010
Early bird full time registration fee AUD900, and full time students* pay only AUD400 (* students will be asked to show their full time student ID cards upon registration at the venue)
Visit the website www.melbourneknowledgesummit.com for more information.
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Bike Futures 2010 Conference: Call for Papers
Posted in Seeking by Kate Archdeacon on July 15th, 2010
Source: Friends of the Earth Melbourne
The 2010 Bike Futures conference is a once a year opportunity for national and local leaders, planners, designers and builders to come together around the opportunities and challenges we all face in meeting the ever rising demand for bicycle transportation. The 2010 Conference will tackle issues specific to bike transportation such as:
• Separating riders from traffic and tuning traffic signals
• Designing effective shared paths and developing shared use
• Applying the new AustRoads guidelines
• Links to workplaces and public transport and end of trip facilities
• Bikes plans, land use and high return investments
The Conference will bring you up to date with the latest and best solutions. The practical presentations will enable you to unlock the solutions to the problems you face and take advantage of the many benefits that bike riding brings to your community. If you feel that you are struggling on your own with bike issues the conference will put you in the network. Participants last year said things like ‘From a professional perspective it puts us in touch with a whole lot of people who we would normally not meet’. Bike Futures is a Bicycle Network project that supports people who are working in, with or alongside Local Government in Australasia.
Etihad Stadium, Melbourne: Thursday 14th – Friday 15th October 2010
The Call for Papers is open until August 31st.
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Australian Stationary Energy Plan: 100% Renewable Energy in 10 Years
Posted in Events, Research by Mark Ogge on July 9th, 2010
Please join us for the launch of the Stationary Energy Plan, the culmination of over 12 months and thousands of hours of pro bono work by engineers, scientists and postgraduate students. The plan is a collaboration between the climate solutions think tank Beyond Zero Emissions, and the University of Melbourne Energy Institute. This plan is unique in Australia. It has been put together in a collaborative way involving over 50 technical experts.
It is a detailed and costed blueprint for transitioning our stationary energy sector to 100% renewable energy in ten years. The technologies utilised in this plan are commercially available now.
This free public lecture will cover the details of the plan as well as the state of renewable energy in Australia more broadly. A panel discussion will follow the presentations.
Wednesday 14 July, 6-8pm
Basement Theatre, The Spot
198 Berkeley St, Carlton
Speakers:
John Daley (CEO, Grattan Institute)
Keith Lovegrove (Solar Thermal Group Leader, ANU)
Lane Crockett (General Manager, Pacific Hydro)
Matthew Wright (Director Beyond Zero Emissions)
The full report will be made available for the first time on 14 July, free to download from the Beyond Zero Emissions website or hard copy for purchase. A flyer for the lecture is available here.
For further information contact the Melbourne Energy Institute:
T: +61 3 8344 3519
F: +61 3 8344 7761
E: mei-info@unimelb.edu.au
W: www.energy.unimelb.edu.au
We hope you can join us for this important event. No RSVP required.
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The Cities We Need: Report
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on June 30th, 2010
The Grattan Institute has released their report, “The Cities We Need”. This is the first report from the Cities Program, and aims to set an agenda for thinking about the future of Australia’s cities.
The report asks how our cities meet the individual needs of their residents, both material and psychological, and identifies emerging challenges to meeting these needs. One conclusion that emerges is that while social interaction is critical for human thriving, it has not been a focus of analysis about cities in the past.
The report also describes cities as systems with complex interdependencies. As a result, attempts to meet one need may have unintended consequences for other needs. The governance and management of our cities has not always taken these interdependencies – and resultant trade-offs – into account.
The report does not conclude with solutions or prescriptions, but rather lays out ten questions about our urban future that we must get serious about.
As we manage growth and change in Australian cities, how bold are we prepared to be to get the cities we really need?
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Managing Victoria’s Electricity Demand: Seminar
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on June 22nd, 2010
Source: Climate Action Calendar
Sustainability and Organisational Strategy
Posted in Events by Natasha Malinda on June 15th, 2010
Embedding sustainability into organisational strategy requires more than a clear vision and road-map. It needs organisational capacity to deliver its strategic goals. Capacity building is an ongoing systematic process of changing managerial mindsets and developing effective organisational structure and capabilities to foster and support a common vision that drives sustainable change. Capacity provides an organisation the ability to anticipate and overcome internal and external barriers to implementing sustainability strategies and practices.
Led by international organisational change expert, Dr Sanjay Sharma, this two-day workshop is designed to help practitioners develop plans for catalysing change and building sustainability strategies.
What: Integrating Sustainability into Strategy
When: 21-22 July 2010
Where: Melbourne Business School
For more information and to register, visit the ACCSR Learning website, email workshop@accsr.com.au or phone 03 98261767.
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The Climate Change Act in Scotland: What are the lessons for Victoria?
Posted in Events by Mark Ogge on May 31st, 2010
A monthly discussion group hosted by Beyond Zero Emissions focusing on energy solutions to climate change, held on the first Monday of every month.
A discussion with Sally Moxham, who has long worked in the sustainability field, and who has just spent a year heading up the Energy Efficiency and Microgeneration Policy Unit in the Scottish Government. While in Scotland she worked on the Scottish Climate Change Act – which sets out greenhouse emissions reduction targets of 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. Sally will speak about her experiences, namely her work on the Scottish Government’s ambition on energy efficiency and microgeneration front as they relate to the built environment.
Please note: We are back at Kindness House this month.
Event location: 2nd Floor, Kindness House, 288 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Time: 6.30 – 8 pm, Monday 7th June 2010
http://www.beyondzeroemissions.org/events/discussion-group
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