Banksia Environmental Foundation

Banksia has been very fortunate in attracting dedicated and committed board members during its 21 years, particularly now that sustainability and protecting the environment is fast becoming an important focus for all Australians.
 
As the issue of sustainability establishes a stronger hold on mainstream Australia, recognition of excellence in this area will become more pertinent and will always remain a key tool of encouragement for further innovation. 

The Annual General Meeting is held every year in October.

Joanne Cain

Appointed to the Banksia Foundation Board 2006

Jo Cain specialises in sustainability strategy and has worked extensively in the UK and Australia. She has eighteen years experience in the sustainability field, which has been recognised in her appointment as the Sustainability Reporting Award Co-ordinator for the Australian Reporting Awards (ARA). She is excited to become a Banksia Board Member, as she has been involved with Banksia for many years. Jo was a nominated judge for Banksia for five years and was integral in establishing and delivering the Banksia 'Maximising Your Entry Workshops'.

Jo works for Beca, an engineering consultuancy in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.  Jo also established the Melbourne Glass Ceiling in her previous role, a highly successful networking group attended by approximately 100 women every quarter.

Jo's expertise includes the development and assurance/verification of public sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports (covering social, economic, environmental and H&S reporting), with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and AA1000 forming the basis of her work. She also specialises in strategic greenhouse work including auditing, establishment of sustainable development indicators, development and implementation of management systems (health & safety (H&S) and environmental), systems audits and systems training design and delivery.

Her experience includes global projects, with extensive international experience in Australia and the UK, as well as Indonesia, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and New Zealand. She has worked in a wide range of sectors, including mining, energy, automotive, telecommunications, finance, paper, transport, public sector and consumer products.

Deborah Spring

Chair
Appointed to the Banksia Foundation Board 2010.

Principal  Todd, Spring & Associates

Rick Finlay

Treasurer
Appointed to the Banksia Foundation Board 1998. 

Rick has been involved with the Banksia Environmental Foundation since its very inception as part of the original 44. He has been a board member of the foundation at various times during the past eleven years and currently holds the position of Treasurer with the Board of Banksia.

Rick has been involved in other 'Not for Profit' organisations, including sitting as a board member with 'Skill Share' for 6 years and held different positions in the executive of Alfred Toast Masters club over the last 9 years. His professional career has consisted of 22 years in the IT industry, with a wide range of occupations most focusing on business Development and customer support.

Professor John Cole

Appointed to the Banksia Foundation Board 2010.

Professor Cole is a leading strategic thinker and adviser in sustainable development.  An early proponent of triple bottom line thinking and business sustainability for competitive advantage, since 1989 he has been involved in industry, environment and community and development – variously as a company manager, industry lobbyist, government official and occasional university teacher.

Professor Cole is the founding Director of the Australian Centre for Sustainable Business and Development at The University of Southern Queensland.  Previously he held roles in the Queensland Government as head of the Office of Clean Energy (2008-09), head of the Office of Multicultural Affairs (2007) Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s non-regulatory divisions, Sustainable Industries and EPA Marketing (1998-2008).  He has been an Adjunct Professor in industry, organisational and community sustainability at three leading Queensland universities.

Penny Gray

Appointed to the Banksia Foundation Board 2010.

Retail Executive, Customer Engagement, Origin

Richard Evans

Appointed to the Banksia Foundation Board 2011. 

Richard is a Director of EnviroSearchGlobal, a specialist search and recruitment firm with a core focus on Environment, Sustainability, Energy and Engineering. EnviroSearchGlobal partners with clients in corporate, government and consulting organisations to source senior technical and management professionals for key appointments.

Since starting his career in forestry, Richard has since worked within the engineering, finance and recruitment sectors. He commenced his career in project management, before moving to the UK and developing the Civil Engineering & Water division within the Central London office of one of the UK's leading recruitment companies. Since moving to Melbourne he worked for several years in human capital management before joining EnviroSearchGlobal to lead the business.

Richard is an active supporter of a number of sustainability initiatives, including 1millionwomen and LandCare Australia, and has jointly established a sustainability forum where many of the country's leading sustainability thinkers meet. He is a contributor to carbon and environment course curricula, and publishes an annual HSE (Health, Safety & Environment) remuneration survey that is used by corporate Australia as a benchmark for salary advice.

Richard holds an MBA from Melbourne Business School, a Master of Engineering in Management, and a Bachelor of Forestry Science from the University of Canterbury.

Peter Ottesen

Appointed to the Banksia Foundation Board 1999. 

Peter Ottesen has more than 20 years senior level policy and management experience in the public and private sectors within the environment, protected areas, commercial fisheries, agricultural, transport, waste management, biotechnology, sport and event management industries, within Australia and Canada. He has been an adviser to a senior cabinet minister in the Australian Government and held positions with the Commonwealth Department of Primary Industry, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and Environment Canada.

A personal career highlight was his five years with the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) where he established and led its Environment Program. The United Nations Environment Program elected SOCOG to its Global 500 Roll of Honour in recognition of this effort. He was also an adviser to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Bid team on environmental matters.

He has spoken in many forums, including national and international conferences and workshops and has published on a broad range of conservation, natural resource management and event management subjects. He is currently General Manager, Crops, Horticulture, Wine and Irrigation Branch, the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.

Professor Chris Ryan

Deputy Chair

Appointed to the Banksia Foundation Board 2005. 

Chris Ryan has worked for over 30 years across various areas of science, technology and environment policy. He was foundation professor of Design and Sustainability at RMIT University, in Melbourne Australia, until his retirement in mid 2004. He is now Professor and Co-Director of the Australian Centre for Science Innovation and Society at the University of Melbourne.

Between 1989-1997 Professor Ryan was Director of the National Centre for Environmental Design at RMIT. In this position he directed the Australian EcoReDesign program, working with 20 Australian companies to develop new greener products for the market and a new eco-design methodology.  Professor Ryan left Australia in 1998 to take up a position of Professor, and subsequently Director, of the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) in Lund, Sweden. That Institute, which focuses on new sustainable systems of production and consumption, is attached to Lund University. Its research program is closely linked to the formation of government policy and industry strategy. He returned to work in Australia in 2002.

Professor Ryan has collaborated with many eco-design related research groups in Europe, including the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands and the UK Design Council. He has worked with the UN Environment Program (Division of Technology, Industry and Economics) in Paris on various programs related to sustainable consumption and eco-design. He was the author of the UNEP Global Status Report on Sustainable Consumption for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002.

He is currently joint editor of a forthcoming UNEP Global Guide to Ecodesign.

Professor Ryan is also Director of Ecodesign Australia, a consultancy providing environmental research, analysis, design concepts and strategies for government and industry, with a range of private and public sector clients in Australia and Europe.  He holds the position of Adjunct Professor in Design Architecture and Building at the University of Technology Sydney and Visiting Professor at the IIIEE at Lund University.  He is a member of the Editorial Board of the MIT/Yale Journal of Industrial Ecology and of the International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development.

His most recent published work is 'Digital Eco-Sense: Sustainability and ICT - A New Terrain for Innovation', published by Lab 3000 in Australia.  That work includes examples from the international program 'Eco-Sense' which is a distributed set of design studios in various Universities around the world, focusing on innovative new concepts for products, services and systems for a sustainable future.

Peter Woods

Appointed to the Banksia Foundation Board 2010.

CIO and General Manager information Management and Technology Services, ACCC

Graz van Egmond

Appointed to the Banksia Foundation Board 2003.

Executive Director, Banksia Environmental Foundation

Executive Director of the Banksia Environmental Foundation since 1998, previously Graz was at Telstra where she managed a number of programs including the Telstra Small Business Awards, and she inaugurated the Telstra Business Women’s Awards.

She spent a number of years in the tourism industry, creating the Australasian Incentives Meetings Expo for the Melbourne Visitors and Convention Bureau and previously to that enjoyed eight’s years with the Australian Tourist Commission in Public Relations. Originally started her working life in the Biochemistry Laboratories of St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne.