Good afternoon

A renewal letter and application form has been emailed to your institutional primary and secondary contact with a reminder that all access to the membership area of the ACTS website will automatically deactivate on the 31st March if your membership is not renewed. Application forms can also be found on the website in the membership section. If you have any questions regarding your membership, please do not hesitate to contact me. On behalf of the ACTS Executive Board, I would like to thank you for your continued support and look forward to your participation in 2010. Cheers Delwyn.

Good afternoon all

I thought I would ‘plant the seed’ and give you ‘the heads up’ by letting you know that all ACTS memberships will expire on the 31st March 2010. This will mean after the 31st March all accounts that haven’t been renewed will not have access to the membership area of the website, nor will they receive information on what is happening in the area of sustainability in the higher education sector. We will be sending out the renewal letters by mid February. These will go to the contact person on the 2009 membership forms. If this person has changed please let me know. We anticipate 2010 will be a very busy year for ACTS and look forward to the continuted development of ACTS for our members. Cheers Delwyn.

The ACTS Executive Board would like to wish you and your families a fabulous and safe Christmas and New Year. We look forward to working with our members in all that is sustainable in the higher education sector in 2010.

Cheers, Lania, Delwyn, Rhiannon, Leanne, Belinda, John, Rob, Clem, Darren, Lesley (ACTS Executive Board)

“Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.”¹     

So what is being done to prepare for a sustainable future in the educational realm? This is just the question that the 9th Annual ACTS Conference has been addressing.

To read the full article please click here.

http://www.greentimes.com.au/climate-change/passport-to-the-future.html

The article by Lisa Tarry is from the online publication, The Fifth State.  To read in full click here.

It’s the million-dollar question: what are green skills? And it was the opening question at the Green Steps’ session of the Australasian Campuses Towards Sustainability (ACTS) conference at Macquarie University in Sydney recently. But are green jobs just political rhetoric or the actual creation of new jobs for new sectors? …….

Starting this Wednesday is the 2009 ACTS Conference. It is being held at Macquarie University, Sydney. As well as an excellent program of keynotes, presentations and activities we will be addressing the direction of ACTS and how we can continue to move forward and represent our members. This will help provide the assocation with an understanding of what our members are expecting from ACTS. New this year we will have media present at the conference. It will be reported on by Green Times with articles being posted on the ACTS website in the weeks after the conference. We look forward to seeing those attending in Sydney.

Have you registered to attend the 2009 ACTS Conference?

We are counting down the days till we all meet in Sydney. With an exciting program and internationally renowned keynote speakers, this years conference is shaping up to be a fantastic event. Some hightlights are:

• Keynote Speakers: Professor Tim Flannery, Leith Sharp, Professor Ian Lowe, Professor Steven Schwartz and Adam Spencer.
• Great varity of program sessions
• Private showing of the film ”The Age of Stupid’
• Fun conference dinner planned to finish a great 3 days
• Lots of networking opportunites
• Only $640 for a full conference regsitration

For more information please visit the conference website.

We hope to see you there.

Greetings Environmental Officers!

As part of a broad review of water management products and practices, L.E.K. Consulting is hoping to learn a little more about the water management systems in place at Australian universities.

In particular, we would very much appreciate it if you could help us by answering these 5 quick questions:

1. Do you currently irrigate your sports fields?

2. If so, what is the approximate area under irrigation and what means of irrigation is used?

3. If not, are there plans in place to irrigate?  If no plans are in place, what would need to change for this to come under consideration?

4. Do you currently have installed facilities to treat and store rain water, storm water, grey water, or black water?

5. If not, are there plans in place to install such a system?  If no plans are in place, what would need to change for this to come under consideration?

Please email responses to the above and any related correspondence to Martin Kennedy - m.kennedy@lek.com

Kind regards,

Martin Kennedy | L.E.K. Consulting

E m.kennedy@lek.com | www.lek.com

It’s only 3 weeks till the 2009 ACTS Conference, hosted by Macquarie University, Sydney (30 September - 2 October). Come and meet fellow sustainability colleagues, learn how sustainability is being integrated into the tertiary sector and take ideas back to your institution. There are still places available - visit conference website to register, it’s only $640 for full registration and this includes the welcome function and dinner. Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity - hope to see you there!

http://www.mq.edu.au/sustainability/actsconference/

Lania Lynch - ACTS President