Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Saturday 12 June
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Location
The Edge, Fed Square
The Atrium Flinders Street Federation Square Melbourne Victoria 3000
Get directions
If the climate problem is going to be addressed successfully, the high emissions energy and transport systems on which the provision of electricity and mobility depend must change. The bulk of these changes must happen where most of us live: it is cities that must change. For it is cities where more than 50% of humanity now lives, 75% of the world’s energy is used, and around 70% of our greenhouse gases are emitted.
But how far can prevailing assumptions regarding the city and what a sustainable city is, take us? What are the challenges of overcoming our assumptions regarding suburbia, ‘green spaces’ and pursuing development that promotes lively, attractive and sustainable places where we can live and work. Is this a brave new world, or are we returning to the practices of the past where development was mixed with high quality public amenity and given time to mature and grow?
1:30 – 2:15pm- Keynote Lecture
2:15 – 2:30pm- Interval
2:30 – 3:30pm- Panel Discussion
Featuring
David Owen
Keynote Speaker: David Owen has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1991. He is the author of more than a dozen books, most recently *Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer,
and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability*.
Rob Adams
Professor Rob Adams is currently the Director City Design and Projects at the City of Melbourne and a member of the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization. With over 46 years' experience as an Architect and Urban Designer and 35 years at the City of Melbourne, Rob has made a significant contribution to the rejuvenation of central Melbourne. His recent focus has been on how cities could be used to accommodate and mitigate rapid population growth and the onset of climate change.
Melinda Dodson
Panel Member: Melinda Dodson is a Principal Architect with multi-disciplinary international practice GHD.
She has worked as design architect on many award winning projects and in 2009 she was elected National President of the Australian Institute of Architects. Her primary focus is on sustainable cities and architecture.
Sue Holliday
Panel Member: Sue Holliday is Managing Director of Strategies for Change, a small strategic consultancy specialising in urban and regional planning.
As former Director General of Planning in NSW, she was responsible for leading, managing and reforming
the planning system.
Bruce Taper
Panel Member: Bruce is a Director of Kinesis.
He led the Climate and Environment policy development of the City of Sydney’s Sustainable Sydney 2030 project; was commissioned by the Capital City’s Lord Mayors to examine the greenhouse abatement potential of Australia’s capital cities; has developed PRECINX - a groundbreaking rating tool which enables the development industry to measure environmental performance at subdivision and neighbourhood level, and is Lead Consultant on the decentralised energy master plan for the City of Sydney.