I enjoy meeting people from such diverse backgrounds in business, government and in consulting. I am often working on my own and it is great to meet the others working on other pieces of the climate change puzzle and there is a great exchange of ideas and information at Carbon Innovators Network events.

I was in high school in 1990 when the first reports of global warming made it into prime time special reports on commercial TV. I was so alarmed I turned off all the lights in the house, and my school friends had done the same. Around the same time we had the usual high school careers counselling and I set my course to work on climate change. In 1996, I did an exchange year to the University of Amsterdam to study environmental politics and this experience made me more persistent in pursuing sustainability as a career path, when it was not a popular choice in Australia.

In the last 18 months I have completed a number of projects that get into the nitty gritty of how sustainable precincts can be built, and how the barriers to zero carbon or solar cities can be overcome. It was challenging, cross-disciplinary work and it was immensely rewarding because it was innovative, and it directly contributed to the solutions needed to reduce greenhouse emissions.

In the next year, I'd like to develop a greater awareness amongst businesses and local governments of the role of carbon offsets in reducing emissions, and to advocate for changes to the National Carbon Offsetting Standard through my work at the Voluntary Carbon Markets Association. We need to ensure that organisations showing leadership by voluntarily reducing greenhouse emissions are able to do so with confidence. Currently there are many policy gaps due to the delay of the CPRS, and this means only international carbon offsets will be accredited unless changes are introduced to allow better transition from the Greenhouse Friendly program. I'm also starting to do more work in climate change adaptation, as it will be a huge challenge for local governments and we need to start planning for it to avoid future social, environmental and economic impacts.

Sustainability is the core business of Green Spark Consulting and the Voluntary Carbon Markets Association and our activities are largely office based. While we offset the emissions from our conferences, we could probably do more to influence the operations of the venues we hire, and the transport emissions of conference delegates.

The rise of the climate change denialist debate, and the impact it has had on Australian politics has been disconcerting. I believe our challenge is to stick to the science and not to get bogged down in trying to convince the naysayers.

I would like to see the implementation of an emissions trading scheme in the next two years, one which is strengthened and influenced by a vibrant and rigorous voluntary carbon market. A carbon price would support investment in the renewable energy infrastructure needed for sustainable cities and precincts.

I have a special place for the champions in the local community and local governments doing the grunt work of environmental change – those attending community meetings on a weeknight, writing submissions on bureaucratic policy changes, pushing for change up through the hierarchy of their organisation – it takes incredible determination in my view.

I have a small car which I use to get to work, if I head into town then I will use trains and trams.  Around my home, I use a pushbike to do small errands.

I bought a shiny new Toyota hybrid last year and just because it uses half the petrol does not mean you can drive twice as much! To remedy this, I have signed up to the Darebin City Council Going Places program where I have to log on each week and commit to replacing vehicle trips with walking and public transport. I never thought I would be their target market, but there you go.

Any eucalypt smelling sclerophyll forest, or in the ocean surrounded by beautiful tropical fish.