14. NZ Calling?

I have travelled to many parts of the world, but for some reason never to New Zealand or NZ even though it really is so close to Australia. Well, I am off to windy Wellington to visit an old mate who now lives there. I don't know much about NZ except that it has an extrodinary natural environment, the people love sport, especially rugby, and NZ was one of the first nations to implement an Emissions Trading Scheme or ETS. In fact, a Masters student at my work recently did her research on the ETS in NZ to better understand how it came into force, and what others can learn from the experiences, not to mention Australia, who has recently joined the club with its own ETS. My friend in NZ is in fact an economist, so I am sure he has some thoughts on the ETS in both countries. I look forward to some friendly debates, and getting to see some of NZ :)

13. Creative Spaces

I was recently interviewed by a university student exploring how to design and develop "creative spaces" in the realm of sustainability. Essentially such spaces need to stimulate interaction between people with different disciplinary backgrounds and promote collaboration between academia, government and industry. Both the IIIEE in Lund and VEIL in Melbourne are certainly creative spaces, but I can see at least 2 major persistent challenges in Sweden and Australia (and probably other parts of the world too). First, the academic "system" really does not reward or recognise very well the outputs of creative spaces, particularly related to sustainability. Instead, universities are focused along disciplinary lines of work. Second, it seems to me, people are just so busy these days ... this leaves little time for the coffee breaks and spontaneous conversations that are the foundations of creative ideas. All this thinking reminded me of an interesting report entitled "Review of Interdisciplinary Environmental Science Centres of Excellence". This report provides some important insights into how to establish and maintain creative spaces. Check it out!

12. Sustainable tourism?

I just spent the last 2 weeks in sunny Queensland, in north-east Australia on Hamilton Island and Airlie Beach. It is a beautiful and great part of Australia with tropical weather and warm oceans. I traveled on planes, boats, buses and cars, and stayed in hotels, resorts and caravan parks. Everywhere I went I saw logos and certification for eco-friendly tourism. Clearly, the tourism industry is trying to reduce its impacts and incorporate sustainability criteria into processes and activities. At the same time, there are some inherent challenges in all the "traveling" involved in "traveling", the direct impacts on "natural" environments when large numbers of people descend on places of interest, and the immense waste associated with hotels and resorts. In all the accommodation, a lot of emphasis was put on saving water and energy by not changing towels and bed linen every day. Here we can see a win-win for the environment and economic side of tourist accommodation. There is also perhaps a great educational side to travel. There was so much information about the natural environment and sustainability in the tours and tourist activities! Still, sustainable tourism is a constant challenge and demands that tourism operators continuously innovate, adapt and aim high.