The Natural Edge Project

Yesterday evening, I took part in a tongue in cheek debate sponsored by Engineers Australia. The subject was "Engineers created Global Warming". I was second speaker for the affirmative and we won! I'm sure it was my dazzling rhetoric which made the difference. Or was it my use of the phrase "Society's Master Integrators" when referering to Engineering. I even got a nice bottle of Semillon out of the deal.

The really interesting part though was the opportunity to meet and discuss with Cheryl Paten. This incredible woman is a member of The Natural Edge Project, a think tank that deals with sustainability issues in Australia and abroad. She is the Education coordinator of this group which I gather means she travels around and talks to organisations about sustainability (rough job, eh?). What is really interesting about this group is that they are all young(ish) professionals who come up with alternatives to the way things are running now. They have a volunteer 6-month internship program which performs all sorts of research. I've put my hand up and I may just be doing a bit of work for them next year.

For such a new and young group, they have an amazing reach and audience. They are remarkably well respected and received everywhere from government, technical bodies to industry and political movements. I think the secret to their success is that they tell the truth while backing it with cold, hard facts. Also, they propose solutions which are practical, realistic and more importantly allow people to make money. Being largely comprised of engineers they are very much interested in innovation and re-design of processes rather than band aid solutions which don't really work. One of the things she said last night which really struck me was that as engineers, it is our role to innovate humanity out of the pending crisis (or is it here already) related to GW.

If you're interested in this type of stuff, you can also visit Treehugger, a webzine which deals with new products which are aesthetically pleasing, innovative and environnementally conscious.