Professor Stuart White Member of the Order of Australia (AM)

Descriptive transcript

I was pretty pleased to win this award, particularly because it provides such recognition of the work of the Institute for Sustainable Futures and the change creation work that we do.

I think what I'm most proud of in terms of my professional life is probably the work at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, and the way that the Institute has been able to do its work in a university environment but still create change and impact. That's quite unusual, and it's been quite unusual in the higher education system.

In terms of the work that I've done personally and the projects that I've been involved with, a lot of the work during the millennium drought in Australia was probably the work that I think had the most impact, which is introducing the concept of integrated supply-demand planning and water efficiency to water utilities and agencies around Australia. So that had quite a significant impact.

Of course, a lot of that gets lost when it rains and the policy landscape moves on, but I think it has impacted in a permanent way. And also the work we've done in energy and climate change—these are significant. And also perhaps the work on container deposit legislation, the deposit and refund system for containers.

I think in the current context, the current times are very challenging for sustainability and for climate change and the related issues. And the Institute therefore needs to step up to make sure that we make the most of what we can do, to prioritise what we do, to extend our reach both nationally but also internationally, and to help provide solutions that can be acted on.

Because if we don't, we're essentially in a race against time with a lot of key variables, and it's really important that we keep our focus on solutions in a time of difficulty and with the strong headwinds that we have, and that we are really prioritising the areas where we can make the most impact.