People profile

Corey Peterson

Corey has worked at the University of Tasmania since 2010 advancing from Sustainability Officer to the inaugural Chief Sustainability Officer charged with advancing a holistic organisational sustainability agenda.  He was on the University of Tasmania Governing Council from 2012-2020 and is the President of Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS).

Big Idea(s) for Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education

What does the world need most right now?

I think what the world needs most right now are informed and passionate leaders and changemakers who understand the complexity of wicked problems and can find a way forward to deliver a more inclusive and regenerated world.  This need only just surpasses the need to empower the next generation of informed and passionate leaders and changemakers and, by acting in our capacities as leaders now to the best of our abilities, give them living examples of hope and a shared belief that the future can be good, just, and sustainable, and well worth striving for.

Leadership and Inspiration

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Never give up, positive change is often a long game and sometimes to get through the tough times it is best to view the situation as literally a bit of a game.  This allows you to disassociate a bit, not take things personally, think both tactically and strategically to achieve the goal(s) you have for yourself, team, or organisation.  So, although a game perspective is useful, try and think of a way to play that is not necessarily winner-takes-all.

Tenacity and Perseverance

What would you tell others who are facing obstacles in their work?

The other bit of advice is to know you are in for the long-haul for regeneration and sustainability work (after all it took generations to get us into this collective predicament) so be ready to get into a perseverance mode.  This should involve you knowing when and how to expend your energy (as well as care and compassion) and ensuring you regularly do what brings you solace and joy to re-energise.  Part of this requires you to know yourself more objectively, which is where personality assessments and team role understandings are useful to understand how you think, react, and your own world view as well as the many ways others are in the world.  I have found the Enneagram to be the most useful tool as you get a good feel for how you might (re-)act when things get stressful.  Self-awareness is a very powerful tool.

Fun Fact

What is a job that you have had that would surprise your colleagues?

I supported a PhD project on penguin chick development in Antarctica that changed the course of my life (think Shirley Valentine!).  The project involved activities like collecting adult regurgitate from their foraging before the chick got it (noting we minimised this obviously) to identify what constituted the diet and in what quantities.  I also collected what came out of the chicks to get data on the feeding to growth rates (over-simplification!).  There was some ‘tension’ with the pure scientists just wanting to know this and my more applied approach – how much krill and silverfish is required for Adelie penguins to maintain their population and how much does that mean humans could harvest sustainably. Reflective of my resource management background and being only one data point among that needed for such modeling, but it illustrates my thinking – that is how can we live within planetary limits without deleterious impacts on ecosystems.

by Jen Crothers

Pato Gonzalez-Marquez

Patricio (Pato) Gonzalez-Marquez is an ISCN Intern, currently completing a Master of Arts in Climate Action Leadership at Royal Roads University. Pato was born in Mexico City and immigrated to Canada at the age of 15 years old. Now, based in Victoria, British Columbia, Pato is a self-proclaimed climate nerd with a deep passion for communications and environmental psychology.

Big Idea(s) for Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education

What does the world need most right now?

The world is in desperate need of empathy and connection. The increasing polarization of ideas regarding climate change has made it difficult to understand one another. Policies, actions, or ideas supported by some are heavily opposed by others, sometimes creating rivalries more divisive than a football match. However, a clear image may not be as clear when seen from a different perspective.

I believe our lack of understanding for others’ perspectives has created an environment where we look for those we agree with and alienate those who don’t. Finding common ground, as difficult as it may be, is crucial for solving a common problem. Perhaps learning from those with opposing perspective is the best way to understand and address everyone’s needs in the face of an uncertain future. Empathy and connection for one another and our shared planet is a must.

Leadership and Inspiration

What does excellent leadership look like to you?

Excellent leadership can take many forms. I believe excellent leadership is primarily characterized by the ability to influence others to achieve a common goal. It is the ability to help others achieve a common objective, regardless of the obstacles in the way. However, in a world with overwhelming uncertainty, leadership becomes increasingly difficult. The skills of a good leader will be different depending on the task at hand, but a good leader will always guide others towards a common goal, especially in the face of uncertainty. Therefore, excellent leadership is to navigate unpredictable challenges and master uncertainty to achieve a common goal.

Tenacity and Perseverance

The Climate Emergency we face feels like the greatest challenge of our lifetime – what keeps you inspired?

In the face of imminent climate disruption what keeps me inspired are the people close to me. Spending time with friends and family, especially outdoors, takes my mind off the hardships of enduring climate action. Caring for others and enjoying our shared interests helps me cope with the difficulties of the climate emergency and keeps me inspired to continue striving towards actionable solutions.

Fun Fact

Favorite activity in your spare time?

In my spare time, my favourite activity is training my dog Olly and going on long hikes with him. I love teaching Olly new tricks and seeing how excited he gets when exploring new places.

by Jen Crothers

Kristy Faccer

Kristy Faccer is the first Director of the University of Toronto’s Presidential Advisory Committee on Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability (CECCS).

The CECCS has the ambitious mandate of transforming how the university and its partnerships contribute to sustainability. In some ways, this position is a bit of a homecoming for me as I started my career near Toronto and recently returned to Canada after living and working internationally for many years. I enjoy exploring new places, being outside and spending time with my colorful little pugs.

Big Idea(s) for Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education

Is there one thing you know now that you wish you had realized five years ago related to your work?

That the turn in universities towards institutional sustainability and leadership on climate could translate to ‘hybrid’ roles like the one I’m currently in. Most of my career has involved navigating the liminal waters between knowledge and action so that I could stay close to both. More and more, I find that universities are investing in people, partnerships and processes that benefit from experience in both research and practice, including on issues like climate change and sustainability. This is a promising development for universities and for their students who are looking for meaningful jobs that don’t limit their future career choices.

Leadership and Inspiration

What does excellent leadership look like to you?

I admire leaders that listen, are open to learning, and that lift the people up around them. I appreciate leaders that express humility and humanity and that have a good sense of humor.

Tenacity and Perseverance

The Climate Emergency we face feels like the greatest challenge of our lifetime – what keeps you inspired?

I’m inspired by the leaders and the everyday heroes that are fighting for climate at the coal face, despite so many other challenges in society and in their own lives. I’m inspired by those that chip away (and sometimes blast through!) that which seems impenetrable. I’m inspired by those that mobilize for change and find renewed motivation in examples and developments that seemed impossible at earlier points in my career.

Fun Fact

What is a job that you have had that would surprise your colleagues?

For a few years, I worked for  the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)  as a Global Advisor on a project being delivered in over twenty countries and triple that number of regional business, government, and community partners around the world. My task was to work with fit-for-purpose local and global team members on what are now called nature-based solutions.  The project was very much ahead of its time in connecting decision-makers to climate and biodiversity solutions that also contributed to local resilience and social and economic wellbeing. More than ten years on, I still find many of the lessons and experiences that came from that project relevant to the challenges we continue to grapple with today.

by Shannon Lambie

Michael Bossert

Michael Bossert is the Manager of Research Innovation and Business Development at the Next-Generation Cities Institute at Concordia University in Montréal.

Big Idea(s) for Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education

We have all had to adjust to how we are working over the last two years – any insights that are game changers for you?

The last two years were a challenge for many reasons. In addition to the existing grand challenges and crises, a little virus managed to turn our world upside down. Overnight many habits got questioned, and it was/ is shocking how badly the crisis was managed internationally, nationally, and locally. Trustful information and knowledge based on scientifically approved facts were the main points for orientation. This fact and the role of being drivers in local innovation ecosystems and part of urban communities should play an important role in how we collaborate as universities with our ecosystems. It was possible to change our way of working and collaborating in a few hours. The pandemic has shown us how quickly we can adapt and the risks and limits. We should use this knowledge to develop tailored local adaptation pathways to deal with the climate and biodiversity crises. “The ability to innovate determines our destiny!” as Roman Herzog, a former German President, said. I am convinced that Institutions of Higher Education must play a key role in this transformation process.

Leadership and Inspiration

What does excellent leadership look like to you?

For me, good leadership is based on trust. This means it needs some time to grow and be nurtured continuously, as trust is hard to earn but easy to lose. A good recipe for leadership includes the following ingredients for me:

• Ability to listen
• Ability and willingness to change perspectives to understand problems and challenges better
• Ability to form a strong core team in which each member can play their strength and aligns with the purpose, and has the possibility to grow
• Transparent decision-making
• Capability of telling good stories and motivate others
• Finding quickly alternative solutions
• Being capable of giving credit and appreciation to others
• Staying excited and curious to be able to inspire others and be open to innovative ideas
• A pinch of self-irony

Tenacity and Perseverance

What is the biggest implementation barrier you see, what would you need to overcome it?

Let’s call the barriers challenges. The biggest challenge is our own comfort zone. We are used to habits, cultural and historical grown or just somehow developed routines that make us feel comfortable in our everyday life. It requires some kind of motivation to make a change and to get out of this comfort zone, try new things or habits and to evaluate them if they are better or worse than the business as usual. The key is to create a tailored motivation to convince people to engage and participate in the urgently required transformation process. I doubt that national plans with no possibility to have a buy in will drive the change. But the locally co-developed plans that will directly influence our neighborhood and city will be a game changer. Said so, the biggest implementation barrier is the lack of tailored motivation solutions in the right scale to influence our behavior.

Fun Fact

What is your favourite activity in your spare time?

I have loved snowboarding since my teenager years. However, the weak point of this pleasure is that it is only possible a few weeks a year, even while living in Montréal. At the beginning of the pandemic, I discovered the summer version of this pleasure in form of an electric skateboard. Since then, I ride my Boosted Board each free minute, use it to commute to work, going shopping, meeting friends, and discovering the Montréal Island. As Montréal is pretty ambitious concerning the transformation of the transportation infrastructure there is an extensively growing network of bike paths that are in a great shape, a perfect condition to discover and cross the city and the Mont Royal.

by Jen Crothers

Manfred Braune

I love the outdoors, nature and the ocean, where I find myself a lot. This combined with a love for science and creativity led me to a career in engineering and green building design. In my role as Director: Environmental Sustainability I now have the ability to combine my love for the environment, science, creativity and the built environment, where I oversee the delivery of the University of Cape Town's overarching environmental sustainability strategy in all spheres of the university.

Big Idea(s) for Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education

What does the world need most right now?

The world needs action. There is unfortunately still way too much talking going on about solving critical environmental issues and too little action, in all sectors but especially in higher education (at least that is my view of the situation in South Africa). The world doesn't need another committee or conference, but rather the world needs higher education institutions to dedicate some of their time and resources towards tackling critical environmental issues, directly through the campus facilities and the campus community (this is obviously besides the research and teaching that goes on).

The world also needs more sharing to enable some of the action where resources are constrained. Some countries and universities have a lot more than others. Are there ways that universities that are well-resourced can establish green campus partner programmes that can provide support for periods of time? For example, a 6-month programme to share a senior resource at another university to support their green campus initiatives.

Leadership and Inspiration

What does excellent leadership look like to you?

Here are a few of the qualities of excellent leadership that stand out to me:

1. Creativity: excellent leaders are creative and don't simply follow somebody else's plan, but they creatively come up with solutions that can tackle the problems that nobody else has been able to overcome.
2. Courage: excellent leaders have the courage to go against the grain/mainstream, when everyone says do this, they are prepared to step up and do something different or question the mainstream if they know it will produce a better result.
3. Humility: excellent leaders are humble and quick to acknowledge all their team members and the incredible work that everyone does to contribute to a project's success, and respects and welcomes contributions from all kinds of diverse backgrounds.
4. Honesty: excellent leaders are honest with themselves and with others about who they are and what they are capable of, including setting boundaries where appropriate and acknowledging failures/mistakes.

Tenacity and Perseverance

What would you tell others who are facing obstacles in their work?

We all typically face some kinds of obstacles in our work and life. I like to face them head on, but with plenty of preparation and planning beforehand, and, if you are a person of faith in God, like me, some prayer. So, collect as much information about the obstacle and gather ideas from others, and come up with a plan to tackle the obstacle. If the plan fails, try again. If the plan fails again, try another plan. Sometimes it helps to step away from the obstacle for a while and come back in future to tackle it, and for some reason then it can be overcome. The key is to not let the obstacle overcome you or to defeat you, but to keep trying or to shift your focus onto something else (if possible) and come back later.

Fun Fact

What is your favourite activity in your spare time?

One of my favourite things to do is surfing or swimming on a wave in the ocean, preferably without a wetsuit, even if it's cold - I love the feeling of gliding over or through beautiful waves with the beach and the mountains next to me, celebrating God's beautiful creation. If I can't do that, then I'll grab my skateboard and try to get as close to that as possible on the pavement! :-) Besides that, I love hanging out with my wife and two daughters, as well as with friends, and playing soccer and field hockey.

by Jen Crothers

Tore Betten

Tore Betten is a senior advisor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, in the Division for Governance and Management Systems. His role is to coordinate the measures NTNU use to reduce their collective carbon footprint.

Big Idea(s) for Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education

Is there one thing you know now that you wish you had realized 5 years ago related to your work?

I wish I had understood earlier how serious the climate crisis was and is. I had been fairly environmentally conscious in my private life, while having jobs that required a lot of air travel. My climate concerns slowly started impacting my career plans. At some point, I realized I was spending so much time on trivial assignments and commuting by plane an embarrassing amount - I’ll never be able to compensate for the amount of flights I’ve taken, although I will try! I wish I had realized this earlier in my career. But like other things, a certain amount of life experience and maturity was needed.

Leadership and Inspiration

What does excellent leadership look like to you?

I see excellent leadership as a combination of three dimensions. First and foremost, the ability to inspire. This is incredibly important in our field, because reality isn’t always accepted by those around us. A leader has to communicate messages, paint pictures, and plant seeds, and do all of this in heterogeneous contexts. Second, the ability to lift people up and give them the freedom to find their own way forward, while being willing to step out of the spotlight as a leader themself. Third, as a former health and safety professional, I think the ability to create a positive and healthy work environment is the alpha and omega. Being able to make work into a place that people want to go to every day will help teams grow, prosper, and reach their creative potential.

Tenacity and Perseverance

What is the biggest implementation barrier you see, and what would you need to overcome it?

It goes without saying that the climate crisis is complex. Yet I do see a few key challenges, the first being consumption - and more specifically, over-consumption. In my corner of the world, this is absolutely our biggest challenge. If everyone on earth consumed like the average Norwegian, we would need three to four earths to resource us, per year. “Earth Overshoot Day” arrives earlier and earlier each year, and we consume more and more. Culture is really the main barrier here, as well as the accepted idea that economic growth is a key (positive) indicator, and a measure of success. I really think we can get far through developing policies that encourage a longer life of products - both from the production side and the consumption side. This will really require politicians and policymakers to, and for people like me to show that it is possible.

Fun Fact

What is your favourite activity in your spare time?

During the pandemic a lot of people rediscovered their own city and country, and the same went for me. I went on so many great bike trips with those in my bubble and went to places in Norway that I had never been. In year 2 of the pandemic, I biked every day for more than half of the year. One of my favorite trips was a 520 km trip through the Lofoten islands. Admittedly, “white nights” during the summer definitely facilitate being outside! But I am thinking about winter tires this year…

by Jen Crothers

Ana Margarida Costa

Ana Margarida Costa is the Head of Sustainability at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). She is Portuguese and has lived in Saudi Arabia since 2016. 

Big Idea(s) for Advancing Sustainability in Higher Education

What does the world need most right now? 

Science has undoubtedly shown us that we need immediate and pragmatic action to prevent the overshooting of Earth's planetary boundaries. The world needs bold leadership to challenge the status quo and drive transformative change to tackle the climate, social and economic crises. The triple planetary crisis of climate emergency, pollution and biodiversity loss will most likely exacerbate the already existing pressures on society and the economy. The world needs to be united in one voice to turn the challenges into opportunities and drive real and effective action. Prioritizing nature and investing in research and innovation are key to this pivotal transformation.

Leadership and Inspiration

What is the best advice you have ever been given?

In the face of adversity and probably insuperable challenges, never give up. There is always an unthinkable solution ready to be discovered.

This is a piece of advice from my mentor and PhD advisor that helped me endure complex challenges and build resilience during my academic and research journey, and which I've kept in the last 20 years in my role to advance sustainability in the different organizations that I've worked with. Exercising creativity is inherent to the path to sustainability. There is no one-size-fits-all solution; We need to adapt the approach and solutions for sustainability to each organization and country's local circumstances and reality to be able to progress and succeed.

Tenacity and Perseverance

The Climate Emergency we face feels like the greatest challenge of our lifetime – what keeps you inspired?

The energy and courage of the young generations in advocating and leading the needed transformational change of our society for a more sustainable planet. Every day, I see the passion and the commitment to building a better world by the group of graduate students at KAUST that I'm mentoring. They are trailblazers and true change makers and a real inspiration to believe that there is hope for a global net-zero future.

Fun Fact

What is your favourite activity in your spare time?

I'm passionate about martial arts. I started karate when I was 14 years old and in the last few years, I've been practising kickboxing and Muay Thai. It helps me improve my mental strength, sharpen focus, and increase concentration. When I finish my training, I always feel re-energized and ready for the next challenge.

by Jen Crothers