By Pat Armstrong
If you are arriving in Melbourne ahead of RICON, you will not want to miss this ESRAG Environmental Actions Summit on Thursday, 25 May. To be held in in the historic Melbourne Town Hall, this Summit will feature leading environmental keynote speakers and showcase a number of outstanding Rotary environmental projects. After this inspiring introduction, delegates will work in breakout groups to develop practical ideas for Rotary club and district environmental projects. These ideas for projects will then be collated and produced into environmental action guides and made available to Rotary clubs and districts worldwide.
This Summit will be the chance for you to share some of the innovative projects of your club and district and to also learn from speakers and other delegates.
You will hear from you two outstanding keynote speakers:
Professor David Karoly
David Karoly is an honorary Professor in the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and an honorary Senior Research Fellow in Melbourne Climate Futures, having retired from CSIRO at the end of January 2022. He is an internationally recognised expert on climate change and climate variability.
Patrick McCafferty
Patrick McCafferty is Managing Director at Yarra Valley Water and Chair of the Thriving Communities Partnership. Yarra Valley Water was the first water utility to join the UN Global Compact – a global organization with a strong sustainability focus. Aligning its operations to this Compact, Yarra Valley Water uses anaerobic digestion for sewage management and treatment and to convert food waste to renewable energy. It also recycles water from sewage for use in homes, parks and sports grounds.
Provisional Showcase project speakers and topics include:
- Salvador Rico: Rivers of the World
- Christopher Puttock: Mangroves Restoration
- Rob Anderson: Rotarians for Climate website
- Clari Nolet: Lithium Ion Battery Recycling (A Program of Impact)
- David Brawn: Environmental Envoys to Engage Rotary Clubs
- Colin Scobie: Oyster Shell Reef Restoration
- Trees for Survival
- Pat Armstrong: Light up Timor Through Enterprise