Environmental Education Summit promotes collaboration

An environmental education summit at Murdoch University in December drew together business leaders, university senior management and government representatives to discuss how tertiary institutions can contribute to meeting industry’s environmental needs.

The summit, hosted by the Chair of the National Environmental Education Council (NEEC) and ABC Science Show host Robyn Williams, was part of an Environment Australia program of industry environment forums in universities across Australia.

The first summit was held at the Australian National University in Canberra last May.

The format of the summit included presentations by industry and university representatives including Mr Bernard Bowen (Chair of the Environmental Protection Authority, WA), Ms Jane Aberdeen (Tiwest Joint Venture), Mr Brian Wills-Johnson (Alcoa World Alumina), Mr Bernie Reigler (Motor Trade Association of Western Australia) and Murdoch University academics.

The summits are an initiative of the NEEC, an advisory body established by the Federal Government in July 2000 to advise the Federal Minister for the Environment and Heritage on priority environmental education needs.

The summit was aimed at helping universities address new and emerging issues in the environmental arena, such as triple-bottom-line accounting.

The Murdoch host for the event, Professor Richard Hobbs from the School of Environmental Science, said: “The summit provided an excellent opportunity to hear from industry and the broader community about what they are looking for in environmental education and to showcase what we are already doing. It was pleasing to see that our current and planned approaches are on the right track.