Japanese designer Fumi Masuda, is the director of the EcoDesign Institute, a professor at the Design Department at Tokyo Zokei University, President of Open House Inc., a member of the Japan Design Consultant Association and founder of the O2 Global Network in Japan. Fumi says: Sustainable design is not design to sustain our society – because our society is not sustainable anymore. So we have to re-think and start again, to build something new. We should come back to learn from nature. The concept of waste is something that mankind has created. There is no waste in nature. Everything just goes in circles, everything is recycled, including us. So, it is our responsibility to reuse products again and again until they can not be used like a product anymore, but as a material. It is not necessary to excavate natural resources anymore, there is enough material available to us already.
Professor Rebekah Brown has a vision of creating a new socio-technical discipline that directly enables society to advance sustainable futures, Rebekah has developed a unique framework for policy-makers and strategists to design and implement institutional capacity building programs to expedite the transition towards more sustainable outcomes more effectively. She established Monash University’s National Urban Water Governance Program in 2005, and secured funding and active research partnerships with 12 Australian water management organisations, the Victorian Water Trust, the Australian Research Council and Dow Chemicals. This is the first Australian research program focusing on the interrelationships between the social and technical realms for advancing more sustainable urban water futures. Rebekah currently provides strategic advice on urban water governance to Local, State and Federal government agencies and continues engaging these organisations in facilitating rapid uptake of research insights from the National Urban Water Governance Program.
Dr Phillip Daffara is an Architect and lifelong scholar of urban futures with 21 years experience in place making, public participation and policy development for quality urbanism. Motivated to empower people to be the architects of their own cities and futures his expertise includes urban design policy; community/stakeholder consultation for the creation of quality built environments for private and public benefit that reflect the community’s cultural aspirations; master planning; and the design, project and contract management of buildings, landscapes and urban improvements.
Dr Cheryl Desha graduated in 1999 from Environmental Engineering at Griffith University (First Class Honours), receiving a University Medal and Environmental Engineering medal. She worked for consulting engineering firm Arup for four years, also undertaking work placement within the Queensland government. From 2004 Cheryl worked for Griffith University in formal collaboration with TNEP, as a lecturer in the School of Engineering and member of the Urban Research Program. In 2005 Cheryl was selected as the Engineers Australia Young Professional Engineer of the Year. In the same year, she was a member of the TNEP team which was announced winner of the prestigious Banksia Award for Environmental Leadership, Education and Training for The Natural Advantage of Nations, and the Engineering Sustainable Solutions Program. In 2010 she was awarded the university teaching medal for the Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology Group. In 2011 she moved to QUT as part of TNEP’s transition to a new hosting arrangement.
Sara Parkin OBE is a Founder Director of Forum for the Future (1995-). She is also a Trustee of the St Andrews Prize (1998-), sits on the board of the European Training Foundation (2009-) and and advises on science in society for the Living With Environmental Change research programme (2009-). Recently she has completed terms on the boards of the Natural Environment Research Council (2003-2009) and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education (2003-2009). She sits on the Advisory Committee of the Finance South East Community Generation Fund (2011-).
After starting her working life as a nurse, in various roles she has campaigned for the environment and sustainable development for over 40 years, including playing leading roles in the UK Green Party and international green politics during the 1970s and 1980s. She has served terms on the boards of New Economics Foundation (1994-1995), Groundwork (1997-1999) and Friends of the Earth (1996-2002) and written several books, the latest being The Positive Deviant: Leadership for sustainability in a perverse worldpublished by Earthscan in July 2010.
Sara is an honorary companion of the Institution of Civil Engineers and of the Institute of Energy, and became a Founding Fellow of the Engineering Council in 2009. In 2001 she was awarded an OBE for services to education and sustainability.
Contact details:
Forum for the Future
19-23 Ironmonger Row
London EC1V 3 QN
Tel: 020 7324 3676
E: saraparkinoffice@forumforthefuture.org.uk
W www.forumforthefuture.org
She was awarded an OBE in 2001 for services to education and sustainable development.
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