NCS 2010 News Archieves
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
3 Pillars Active Learning Program Starts in 2011
Are you managing a behaviour change for sustainability program?
Would you like to join a community of program managers from around the country to share knowledge and ideas?
The NCS is delighted to be a founding member of the Action Learning Program being organised by the 3 Pillars Network
Join our Founding Members in a series of facilitated peer exchange meetings, presentations, webinars and online discussion throughout the year.
Please click here to view full program details
Dr Carmen Lawrence will start the program with a webinar presentation on March 1st to get ideas and creativity flowing. Then, at our first meeting in Melbourne on March 4th, Chris Riedy and Blair Nancarrow will set the scene for an 'Action Learning Cafe' around the design of programs, facilitated by Geoff Brown
For more info on presentations and speakers, please click here. Geoff Grown, one of the key facilitators at the Show Me the Change conference will be putting his facilitator hat on again in the Action Learning Program.
Please Click here to enroll or contact Anne Cameron on 02 9810 2164 or anne@3pillarsnetwork.com.au for more details.
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Businesses to forego significant opportunities due to lack of appropriate sustainability skills and qualifications
A recent article in Eco Magazine highlights a lack of appropriate skills and qualifications in the professions over the next decade may see Australian businesses forego significant opportunities in the global shift to sustainable development. What is the extent of the broader capacity building challenge facing our education sector, and how quickly will we need to respond?
Examples given highlight how short and long-term strategies will require different capacity building responses. The message is that, to achieve sustainable development in the decades to come, Australia as a nation must begin building the capacity now to create a pool of future professionals and decision makers who can help us build a low carbon economy where pollution levels continue to fall while the population’s well-being is maintained or improved.
Desha, C. Hargroves, C.Reeve, A, "Skilling up for a low carbon future", ECOS Magazine, 2010, http://www.ecosmagazine.com/paper/EC10049.htm
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
NCS launches YouTube channel
The NCS is now on YouTube
Visit the NCS YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/ncsswinburne and subscribe to keep updated as we upload new videos.
Wednesday, 05 December 2010
Swinburne's sustainability focus acclaimed
Swinburne University of Technology (TAFE) has won the ‘Skills for Sustainability - Educational Institution Award' category of the Australian Training Awards.
The award recognises Swinburne's sustainable educational practices and the university's commitment to transforming the way people live, work and learn.
A few examples of Swinburne's sustainability achievements include:
* The development of a university-wide Sustainability Strategy, which includes a commitment that by 2015, 100 per cent of programs will have sustainability embedded in the learning objectives.
* The development and delivery of a number of sustainability education and training programs mostly through the university's National Centre for Sustainability. These include programs in carbon accounting, carbon management, sustainable energy technologies and sustainable landscape design.
* The signing of the Talloires Declaration, committing the university to raising awareness of the need to move toward an environmentally sustainable future.
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Swinburne Sustainability Alumni Function
On November 4, 2010 Swinburne Sustainability alumni and current NCS students gathered at the Hawthorn campus to network and to hear guest speakers Julian Donlen, City of Port Phillip, Claudio Senese, AECOM Consultancy and Jon Ward, Toyota Motor Corporation offer their experienced perspectives on "Sustainability Employment - Directions and Opportunities". They covered the issues of sustainability changes in current jobs and also sustainability job opportunities that are arising. The evening ended with a lively panel discussion.
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Swinburne support non-profit to go greener
Students and staff from Swinburne University’s Carbon Accounting course, housed within the National Centre for Sustainability, have generously donated their time and resources to assist Victoria’s largest food relief charity to significantly reduce its environmental footprint.
VicRelief Foodbank annually rescues and redistributes millions of kilograms of food to Victorians experiencing hardship, a function which not only aids the Victorian welfare sector, but also has a substantial environmental impact, as the charity prevents food from ending up in landfill.
Carbon Accounting Course Teacher, Tony Hodgson and his students recently assisted the organisation to create an Eco Report for 2010, measuring their eco footprint and ultimately enabling them to become more environmentally conscious.
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Diploma of Sustainability Project Wins City of Hobsons Bay Business Excellence Award
The Newport Organic Collective (NOC) Inc., formed by graduates from the Living Green in Hobsons Bay Ambassador Program, have won a Business Excellence Award from the City of Hobsons Bay.
NOC is a community organisation dedicated to the wholesale purchase and distribution of organic food to its members.
The Ambassador program seeks to build the knowledge and skills of community members to become effective change agents within their local communities. The program has been run in Hobsons Bay and City of Whitehorse and constitutes the community-based delivery of an accredited unit on behaviour change from the Diploma of Sustainability.
The NCS acknowledges and applauds to ongoing commitment of NOC foundation members and other Sustainable Ambassadors that are bringing about community change.
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Swinburne Wins Victorian 'Skills for Sustainability' Training Award
Swinburne University of Technology (TAFE) has won the inaugural ‘Skills for Sustainability’ category of the Victorian Training Awards.
The award recognises Swinburne’s sustainable educational practices and its commitment to transforming the way people live, work and learn.
Examples of Swinburne’s sustainability achievements include:
- The development of a university-wide Sustainability Strategy, which includes a commitment that by 2015, 100% of programs will have sustainability embedded in the learning objectives
- The development and delivery of a number of sustainability education and training programs mostly through the university’s National Centre for Sustainability. These include programs in carbon accounting, carbon management, sustainable energy technologies and sustainable landscape design.
- Implementation of the Business Transformers Program, which has helped 35 businesses save more than 4000 tonnes of greenhouse gases
- The signing of the Talloires Declaration, committing the university to raising awareness of the need to move toward an environmentally sustainable future
“This is a fabulous award which further confirms Swinburne’s educational leadership role in sustainability, meeting the emerging demands of industry and community," said Dr Garry McDonald, Director of Swinburne’s National Centre for Sustainability.
“We are really proud of our diverse and practical approaches to ensuring our students are prepared for a climate constrained future.”
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
NCS supports new bicycle ramp
A bicycle ramp connecting the Blind Creek Trail to Knox City Shopping Centre was unveiled last week by Eastern Metropolitan MP Shaun Leane, Swinburne University project manager Beth Akister, Knox Council officer Ron Crawford, Knox mayor Joe Cossari and council engineer Sylvester Ng. The $132,000 project was funded by the council and the state government, with the support of the shopping centre and university. Picture: Rob Carew
Reference:http://www.knoxweekly.com.au/news/local/news/general/fast-track/1928307.aspxWednesday, 8 September 2010
Swinburne NCS offers a new workshop
Swinburne University and the National Centre for Sustainability are proud to offer Swinburne educators a unique opportunity to attend a workshop run by internationally renowned speaker Dr Debra Rowe.
Dr Rowe runs professional development workshops in the US with higher education associations and institutions to integrate sustainability into mission, curricula, research, student life, purchasing and investments, facilities and operations, and community partnerships.
Click here for more informationWednesday, 1 September 2010
NCS supports Knox Council campaign for better public transport services
Knox Council has just released their Who’s On Board campaign to push for better public transport in the City of Knox. High on their list is to have an extension of an existing tram line to reach Knox City. Additionally, the long promised and yet to be delivered Rowville Rail project is on their list.
The National Centre for Sustainability support both proposals acknowledging that the provision of improved public transport services is essential to creating low carbon sustainable cities. Download the Who’s On board brochure for more details or visit the campaign website
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
BHERT seminar presentation
The "Sustainability at Work: Embedding and mainstreaming sustainability" business and higher education roundtable seminar was held at Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Wednesday 4th August 2010. The conference was organised by the National Centre for Sustainability and B-HERT (Business and Higher Education Roundtable).
The purpose and objectives of seminar was:
- To conduct a forum that explores the role of education in effectively embedding sustainability into mainstream education, business and community practice.
- To reinforce the position that sustainability requires the broad acceptance and application by a variety of significant stakeholders.
- To demonstrate the central role of the tertiary education sector in embedding sustainability throughout business, government and the community.
- To showcase current best practice examples of what is happening in education and how it impacts on business and community sustainability, and to foreshadow future innovative developments.
- To stimulate debate.
You can view or download the seminar presentations below on the NCS website.
Wednesday, 4 August 2010
Behaviour Change for Sustainability National Congress – Sydney, 11th & 12th Oct
Building on your valuable experiences at Show Me The Change, we invite you to continue in your exploration of behaviour change.
Addressing the considerable divide between sustainable intention and action is perhaps the biggest opportunity for progressing global sustainability today.
Everything we do as professionals and as human beings to advance sustainability means very little if we don’t actually affect change – in the behaviour of consumers, companies, communities and governments.
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Educators poised to pass on green skills
A new program run by the National Centre for Sustainability (NCS) at Swinburne University is leading the way in equipping Victorian educators with skills for sustainability.
Funded by Skills Victoria, the TAFE Development Centre and the NCS recently ran a series of workshops for 450 Victorian TAFE teachers on incorporating sustainability into teaching practice
In anticipation of the demands emerging from the Commonwealth's Green Skills Agreement, 20 full day workshops were delivered over 10 weeks to ensure every TAFE in Victoria had the opportunity to build the capacity of their educators.
Friday, 17 July 2010
Is your business carbon ready?
Heralding a new benchmark in industry training, Australia’s first Diploma of Carbon Management is now being offered at Swinburne University of Technology’s Wantirna campus.
Developed and delivered by the university's National Centre for Sustainability (NCS), the 12 month part time course builds on the nationally recognised three day carbon accounting course introduced at Swinburne in 2008.
It is designed for business owners, consultants, and individuals in the workforce who wish to gain a comprehensive understanding of the risks and opportunities of carbon management.
Thursday, 24 June 2010
National Centre for Sustainability tackles the gaps in green skills
Severe industry skill gaps in sustainability and a lack of sustainability trainers with current industry experience are being tackled by more than a dozen courses, including a new vocational Graduate Certificate in Education and Training for Sustainability, at Swinburne TAFE.
Read more on page 6 of the Building Skills - a Sustainable Workforce paper.
Friday, 20 June 2010
Sustainability Design Competition
The National Centre for Sustainability is supporting a competition to design the Swinburne University “SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY” The design will actively promote the strategy document and will utilise the sustainable principles contained in it.
Read more here.. .Wednesday, 26 May 2010
NCS research featured in CSIRO's ECOS
The Rudd Government’s postponed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) would not have significantly impacted most Australian businesses, according to a research report released by the National Centre for Sustainability (NCS).
The Swinburne University based centre recently completed an industry study to model the potential financial impact a carbon price would have on businesses with fewer than 200 staff.
Read more here.. .Thursday, 13 May 2010
NCS works with Zoos Victoria
Zoos Victoria have been funded by Skills Victoria to develop Zoos Victoria as leaders in conservation and ‘skills for sustainability.’ The initiative has been titled “Skill up Green”.
Part of the process is to commence a pilot of their ‘Green Team’ staff applying for RPL via the Skills Store to gain recognition of their skills and knowledge towards two accredited units of competency:
Read more here.. .Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Accounting for the cost of carbon: Price for small and medium business not sky high
The Rudd Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) would not significantly impact most Australian businesses, according to this research report.
The Swinburne University-based centre recently completed an industry study to model the potential financial impact a carbon price would have on businesses with fewer than 200 staff.
The authors found that under the scheme, the likely cost increase for these small-to-medium enterprises (SME)s would be minor, flying in the face of the Opposition’s claims that it would be a ‘big new tax’.
According to study leader Scott McKenry, the price signal would in fact, be lost against a background ‘noise’ of other cost increases.
Read more here.. .Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Final report launched for green skills research
The National Centre for Sustainability (NCS), in conjunction with the Transport and Logistics Industry Skills Council (TLISC), were funded by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) to research the development and implementation of additional environmental and sustainability units of competency to the Transport & Logistics (Road Transport and Warehousing) Training Package – Cert 1 to Cert IV. Extensive industry consultation and desktop research was utilised to refine a key list of recommendations for Training Package development. Download the report here.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
NCS GRI Certified Training Partner in Australia and NZ
It's official. Swinburne’s National Centre of Sustainability (NCS) is now a GRI Certified Training Partner in Australia and New Zealand. The Certified Training Program developed by the Amsterdam based Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) aims to disseminate knowledge on sustainability reporting around the world. It has been developed especially to help report makers and users to more effectively use the GRI Framework and GRI reports.
The NCS will be delivering the Certified Training Program in partnership with the Net Balance Foundation (leading think tank that seeks to improve business sustainability). The Training Program consists of a minimum of 16 hours and will be delivered nationally commencing early 2010. For further information, contact Gitanjali Bedi.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
NCS responds to the release of the National Carbon Offset Standard
The NCS responds to the release of the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) and amendments to the CPRS announced on 24th November! In our letter to the Federal Government, the NCS urgers the Department of Climate Change to redress the NCOS to include a standard methodology for the treatment of GreenPower in an emission inventory and/or offsetting strategy. Read our letter to the Minster for Climate Change here.
