Chapter
23 (Part 3) - Building a network around a project:
The Natural Edge Project
Karlons
'Charlie' Hargroves, Michael H. Smith, Cheryl Paten
and Nick Palousis
(Left
to Right: Cheryl, Charlie, Nick and Mike)
There
are many important issues and challenges that have
not been covered in this book. Will AIDS undermine
what progress has been made in Asia, Africa and
other countries like India? Will farming subsidies
in the North and other barriers to trade continue,
and how do institutions involved with global trade
address environmental issues? Can we make significant
progress to achieve the millennium goals and halve
world poverty by 2015? The ageing population is
already a significant issue in OECD countries, but
there is also a lack of opportunity in many developing
countries for their youth. Growing up, anyone who
reads or watches the media will be left to think
that such problems in this world are inevitable.
This book, and those upon which it has consciously
been built, has shown that this is not the case.
Rather the choices we make influence the future
we build; another world is possible.
There are there numerous win–win opportunities
when problems are addressed in a holistic integrated
way. In fact, if our solutions do not deliver multiple
benefits we need to go back to the drawing board.
This book and online companion seeks to show what
can be achieved by people both ‘thinking outside
the box’ and looking for the synergies that
may in turn provide additional solutions. For instance,
one company’s waste could be another company’s
resource. These synergies are often there if we
look. But if they are not, we need to ensure that
in future designs there is this capacity for synergies
to evolve. More and more the challenge and problems
we are faced with are long-term problems that need
an integrated approach. However, politics is increasingly
becoming about winning the daily media battle, the
latest poll and the next election in a year’s
time.
The take-home message is that we can solve many
of the current problems if we take holistic approaches
and set up inclusive processes to involve the key
stakeholders. We can solve these ‘problems’
if we can see that they are all integrated and seek
to develop long-term whole of society approaches.
So often governments, businesses and educators say
we cannot do everything; we have to choose one problem,
one project and address that. But we argue that
misses the point completely. As this book has shown,
there is now a wealth of case studies, living models
like Curitiba in Brazil, showing what can be achieved
through taking holistic approaches and looking for
synergies. But taking integrated approaches will
not always be easy. Involving the stakeholders in
MSPs can be complicated, time consuming and hard
to control. We live in a world where many economists
do not know ecology, and many ecologists do not
know economics, many business leaders do not know
science and engineering and vice versa. We live
in a world where, despite air travel, we still know
so little about other cultures, other religions
and ways of living. Therefore, one of the barriers
to taking integrated approaches is there are few
people who can communicate effectively across the
disciplines, across what, in Australia, we call
the ‘silos’.
These are some of the main reasons for creating
The Natural Edge Project (TNEP). In 2002 TNEP was
formed by Karlson ‘Charlie’ Hargroves,
Mike Smith and James Moody, a group of young engineers
and scientists seeking to make a difference and
influence the future. This attitude has led us to
work with a wide range of groups within society
on a number of progressive projects. Later in the
project, James Moody resigned and two young engineers,
Cheryl Paten (formerly Desha) and Nick Palousis
joined the core group of TNEP, known as the secretariat.
This book and companion website, our flagship initiative
of the project, seek to provide a multi-disciplinary
resource to compliment current largely discipline-based
university courses. There is a need for people to
have the opportunity to be skilled in one profession,
one discipline, but we also need more books and
websites that help people to learn quickly at least
the essence and language of other fields and a snapshot
of what other fields of knowledge are seeking to
understand. Amory Lovins has said that we need to
learn a new discipline every six months. With this
book and companion website, we have sought to make
this as easy as possible for readers to do so. But
above all, the message of The Natural Edge Project
is one of hope. We have tried from day one, and
each step of the way, to do what we knew was ethical
and to act with integrity. We have asked ourselves
what would be the most appropriate way forward at
each point and at each step of the way our partners
and collaborators have appreciated this approach.
For instance, the project is set up as a not-for-profit
organization with all royalties, grants and revenue
used to support further initiatives. It is the right
way to honour the generosity of our co-authors,
endorsees and partners, many of whom have dedicated
their lives to making the world a better place,
bestowing upon our team their lifelong work in order
to reach new audiences.
This book project and website provided a catalyst
for researchers and professionals, government public
servants, activists and business people to engage
and contribute their thoughts, and papers. We knew
that if we were serious about building a platform
for wise and constructive change we needed to involve
as many leading stakeholders as possible in this
project through a whole of society approach to sustainability.
We decided that the most appropriate way to seek
sponsorship to develop the project was to identify
the main groups and bodies in society (arbitrarily
grouped into eight fields as shown in Table 23.1)
that would need to be involved to truly give the
project the best opportunity to succeed, and we
approached them in turn for support. Our goal was
to seek both financial and in-kind support, with
no group asked to contribute more than an eighth
of the total budget to ensure that no one sector
would be unevenly represented. Many groups who were
unable to provide direct support volunteered hours
of peer review and mentoring time to the project.
Table 23.1 Whole of society approach:
sectors identified to approach
| |
|
| Sector |
Examples
of supporting bodies in Australia
|
| Business |
Environment
Business Australia, The Barton Group, Chambers
of Commerce, Triple Bottom Line Australia,
Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Hatch
Associates, Arup Sustainability, Design Inc. |
Professional
bodies |
Institution of Engineers Australia, Environmental
Engineering Society, Environment Institute
of Australia, Royal Australian Institute of
Architects, Young Engineers Australia, [Institute
of Professional Engineers of New Zealand,
Environment Institute Australia and New Zealand
(EIANZ)] |
| Educational
bodies |
RMIT
Global Sustainability Institute, ANU’s
National Institute for Environment, National
Environmental Education Council, Australian
Association of Environmental Educators, Australian
Virtual Engineering Library, Monash University
Centre for Green Chemistry, Institute for
Sustainability and Technology Policy –
Murdoch University. [University Leaders for
a Sustainable Future] |
| Events,
festivals, media |
Australian
Innovation Festival, National Engineering
Week, National Science Week, Australian
Broadcasting Company Science Unit (ABC),
Science and Engineering Challenge
|
|
Governments and agencies |
Environment
Australia, Australian Greenhouse Office, Department
of Industry Tourism & Resources, State
Offices for Sustainability and EPAs, Environs
Australia, International Council for Local
Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI)]
|
| NGOs,
charities, foundations |
Australian
Green Development Forum, Australian Conservation
Foundation (Blueprint for a Sustainable Australia),
Nature and Society Forum, The Centre for the
Encouragement of Philanthropy (CEPA) Trust
|
| Research
institutions |
The Commonwealth Science Industry Research
Organisation,
Cooperative Research Centres, The National
Academies. [UNEP International Environment
Technology Centre, Rocky Mountain Institute,
Forum for the Future (UK)] |
| Community
advocates
|
Australian
Collaboration (for a Just and Sustainable
Australia), The Western Australian Collaboration,
Our Community |
As our team was made up of young engineers and scientists
with Charlie, Cheryl, Nick and James having previously
been volunteer Presidents of state chapters of Young
Engineers Australia, a group of Engineers Australia,
and Mike being active in the science community,
the logical place to start was the engineering professional
body, the Institution of Engineers Australia, and
the leading science research body, the Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO). The team approached both the Engineers
Australia Director for Engineering Practice, Martin
Dwyer and the Director for Marketing and Communication,
Steve Williamson, with the proposal for the publication
and the response was amazing! Within a very short
period of time it was agreed that the Institution
would become the administrative host for the project
as a form of in-kind support, providing strong accountability
as to the use of funds and also making the first
financial contribution to the project becoming the
first Foundation Partner. Since this time, the members
of the project have received a great deal of mentoring
and support from many of the Institution’s
leaders, such as Dr Peter Greenwood and Doug Jones
(Presidents), John Boshier (CEO) and a number of
staff members. During the formation of the project,
our team received a great deal of
mentoring from both Geoff McAlpine and Elizabeth
Heij of the CSIRO and when we were ready to present
the publication proposal, Geoff McAlpine arranged
a meeting with Geoff Clarke, on behalf of Geoff
Garrett, CEO of CSIRO and it was decided that CSIRO
would also become a Foundation Partner along with
Engineers Australia and make a strong financial
contribution to the project.
A relationship with such bodies provided unique
leverage points for change, such as that in education,
given that the Engineering professional body in
Australia accredits university courses and is looked
to by practising engineers to provide leadership
in the emerging fields of engineering. In addition
to these groups, our team approached Ron Clarke,
a world-record holding Olympic athlete, at the Centre
for the Encouragement of Philanthropy in Australia
(CEPA), as they had shown strong support for environmental
education activities in the past. In this group
we found a very receptive partner and together with
a personal contribution from the projects co-founder,
James Moody, we achieved the seed funding needed
to allow the team to literally ‘quit our day
jobs’ and focus on the development of the
project. Without the initial support from Engineers
Australia, CSIRO and CEPA Trust our team would not
have been able to build a strong platform to develop
our project, not only through the financial support
but, equally as important, through the access to
leading research and peer review. Building on from
this, the team gained significant support from partners
such as the RMIT Global Sustainability Unit, Queensland
EPA Sustainable Industries Division, Environment
Business Australia, Barton Group and, through the
donation of our website, by Australian web developer
Izilla.
With this support, the team was able to undertake
an extensive programme to meet with a range of leaders
in the field, both in Australia and internationally,
to discuss the various issues and through discussion,
many times one on one, learn from a wealth of experience
and knowledge to create the thesis for this publication.[13]
Following this, our team developed a précis
of the argument we intended to develop in the publication
and invited peer review and comments from our newly
formed network. Realizing that we needed to ensure
that the work built on from the best in the field,
we approached the likes of Amory Lovins, Hunter
Lovins, Bill McDonough, Alan AtKisson, Michael Fairbanks
and David Suzuki and were given strong support in
each case, which heavily influenced the development
of the publication.
The project is supported by a number of structures
to enhance communication channels and engagement
from partners and supporters. The team approached
a number of leaders in the field to join the projects
Advisory Board to provide high level advice and
mentoring. Additionally each of the organizations
involved were invited to nominate an operational
representative to the projects Steering Committee
to provide a clear point of contact and input on
operational issues such as peer review, the contribution
of case studies and media related material. Finally,
a Working Group was formed to engage other young
professionals and researchers in sustainable development
related activities.[14]
The project is driven by the Secretariat who are
accountable and responsible for all the day to day
activities of TNEP. The TNEP Secretariat is currently
made up of project founders Charlie Hargroves and
Mike Smith along with Cheryl Paten and Nick Palousis.
Communication to the supporting network is achieved
mainly through a quarterly update from the secretariat
that can be subscribed to and downloaded from the
project’s website. TNEP does this to ensure
that at each point project goals are clearly communicated,
so that potential synergies are not missed and collaborations
can be enhanced to reduce the resources and funding
needed to deliver initiatives. To supplement the
project updates, the secretariat issues periodic
announcements of special events, partner information
and achievements and developments of the project.
TNEP is in a position to report on a range of exciting
project opportunities over the coming years, including
education material, additional publications, design
guides, training materials and active partnerships
within industry ranging from data collection and
interpretation to development and post conflict
reconstruction activities internationally. Your
purchase of this book will help the project to develop
a range of initiatives into the future.
Our team is grateful for the amazing level of support
received in developing this project. In hindsight
we set ourselves a difficult task of building a
network around the development of the project and
doing our best to ensure that the key groups, peak
bodies and individuals were involved. This called
for many hours of conversation, emails, proposal
writing and research, adding significantly to our
cost and time to deliver the publication. However,
the genuine level of engagement achieved throughout
the project by undertaking such a task truly highlights
the saying that ‘the process is as important
as the product’.
With the generosity of TNEP’s partners and
the spirit of genuine partnerships we are confident
that TNEP has now built up the start of a significant
network that can help to achieve an ecologically
sustainable future. We hope that this story of how
TNEP formed and why it is built on a partnership
model will inspire other young engineers and scientists
to do the same in their respective countries. We
hope that peak bodies globally support the genuine
initiative of its young scientists and engineers,
as CSIRO and Engineers Australia have done here
in Australia through supporting our project. If
you would like to know more about TNEP or follow
its progress, please visit our website (www.naturaledgeproject.net).
Charlie Hargroves, TNEP Coordinator, is the point
of contact for further information on partnering
with TNEP, collaborations, training, speaking and
education material based on the material presented,
and can be contacted at charlie@naturaledgeproject.net.
For further enquiries about the content and research
of this book and other TNEP projects please contact
Mike Smith, TNEP Content Coordinator at mike@naturaledgeproject.net.