What are you doing this Sunday? Come along to the University of the Sunshine Coast between 9am - 3pm and join in the World Environment Day celebrations.  Say hello to the folks in the Noosa Biosphere tent and learn more about your Noosa Biosphere!

Further information from the organisers below:

On the 5th of June the University of the Sunshine Coast will host the 31st annual Sunshine Coast World Environment Day Festival. The festival is a celebration of the beauty and diversity of the natural environment in our region and a platform for the promotion of sustainable technologies, industries and lifestyles.

A key component of the festival is the speaker forum which this year will focus on ‘The Green Economy’. The global economy is running into environmental constraints that are threatening the very underpinning of our current economic model. We are using renewable resources at a rate which requires 1.6 planets to reproduce (4 planets for the OECD). Our carbon emissions are threatening to dramatically alter our climate in a way that has never previously occurred. Mineral resource scarcity is becoming an ever greater threat with global supplies of some rare earth set to run out in the next twenty years and other key resources (such as phosphorous and oil) set to peak well before 2050. At the same time energy companies and the IEA are predicting that global demand for energy will outstrip global supply by 400EJ in 2050 (the equivalent of global production in 2000).

The commission for sustainable development in the UK has calculated that in order for economic growth to continue as it has over the past 50 odd years in the OECD and as it has for the past 20 odd years in South East Asia and the Sub-Continent we will need to increase the carbon efficiency of our economy (the amount of CO2 emitted per $ produced) by between 65 and 100 times. How do we respond to these challenges? What technologies will be required to feed 9 billion people when we can no longer rely on fertiliser to boost crop yields? How will we go about cycling minerals such as platinum once global ore deposits have been exhausted?

Festival organisers believe that the current economic model is heading towards catastrophic disruption resulting from the impacts of climate change, loss of biodiversity, water shortage and resource depletion. We also firmly hold the view that we have the technology to transform our economy into one that generates enough wealth to support our lifestyles without jeopardising the health of our planet or the social and economic systems that live on it.

Five speakers from industry and academia will share their views on the question: ‘What are the economic and environmental challenges and opportunities for moving towards a green economy?’

Ms. Cate Colling, Head of Sustainability for LendLease Australia, will speak about the opportunities for delivering sustainable urban development and her experience with the redevelopment of the Barangaroo South precinct in Sydney.

Assoc. Prof. Michelle Rosano, Curtin University, will speak about the potential for waste reduction and maximising energy efficiencies by creating industrial synergies in industrial ecology precincts such as the at Kwinana in Western Australia.

Mr. Robert Pekin, Founder and Director of FoodConnect, will share his experience in setting up a nationally successful and internationally acclaimed business model linking primary producers and consumers.

Dr. Haley Jones, Australian National University, will address the issue of how smarter engineering at the design stage of a product can reduce waste at the end of a products lifecycle and facilitate a cradle to cradle model of mineral resource use (as well as reduce production costs).

Mr. Garrie Lette, Catholic Super Funds, will speak about the investment risks associated with investing in renewable and cleantech industries and those associated with investing in established climate sensitive industries (he recently contributed to a Mercer report on this topic).

The forum will be facilitated by Dr. Richard Cassells archaeologist and expert in human adaptation as well as founder and director of Climate Leadership.