Archive for February, 2008

We hope that by giving as much advance notice as possible, there will be adequate opportunity for people to start saving to attend this gathering, or else to form an approach to their employer for assistance. In addition, we are seeking event sponsorship and a small percentage of the conference fee from those who are able to pay the full amount will be put towards a scholarship fund - a limited number of bursaries will be made available to help allay the costs of attendance. Obviously, we will prioritise applications based on merit, not the order of their submission.Inevitably, there will only be limited funds available to assist but please rest assured that we will work hard to accommodate where we can and we will endeavour to keep the participation costs as low as possible once you have arrived in Australia. We kindly ask you to think hard and be responsible about submitting an application for assistance, doing so only if you really need it and have exhausted all other avenues of funding. Please check back regularly for details on available scholarships.

Australia was selected as a location for this gathering for a number of reasons:

• the initiative for organising this conference has come from alumni who are Australian, or else who have an interest in supporting the event there
• this gathering has to be held somewhere - if held in Australia this time (which may be an expensive and/or long way to come for some), it will be held somewhere different next time (when the ’shoe will be on the other foot’)!
• we believe it is important to expand the experience and reach of the program beyond Karlskrona & Sweden (much as we love it)
• as so many alumni are North American and have regular opportunity to connect with each other simply due to proximity, we wanted to bring you guys out here so we can be part of that exchange too
• whilst Australia’s new Prime Minister, the Hon. Kevin Rudd, has ratified Kyoto (yay!) we’d like to benefit from the work the rest of you are doing in your home countries - we still have a long way to go!
• we want to show off this great country but also show you first-hand how climate change and sustainability is experienced ‘on the ground’
• we think it is interesting to get a southern hemisphere perspective - the climatic patterns, landscape and night sky are completely different to the north ; )
• the weather is great in Australia in February
• we have an amazing indigenous culture - the oldest in the world, in fact..and arguably the ones who have managed to sustain themselves the longest!!

It is clear that assembling people from all around the world will generate significant travel related carbon emissions, as may the associated life-cycle impact of the conference itself, however there are several responses to this concern:

• part of expanding our influence inevitably means getting together periodically to exchange our experiences and enhance our learning. Whilst much of this can occur remotely (hence the proposal to make this an event held only once every 4 yrs), there are certain instances where this cannot be substituted - think of the Masters program itself or indeed any other high profile conference or event you may have attended in the past. The key is to be judicious about which events you choose to attend - help us, help you by making this an event truly worth making a sacrifice for!
• many of us feel considerable guilt about emissions however this, in limited circumstances, is a necessary ‘trade-off’ in order to gain something valuable that will help accelerate the overall drive towards sustainability
• carbon offsets, while contentious, do provide a short term management of this problem and whilst not a ’solution’, offer a practical and tangible way to negotiate this aspect of the gathering

Please note that an accredited carbon offset scheme will be selected to offset all travel and other activity related to this gathering and presented to the group as part of the conference - details to come later.