Philip Sutton:
 
I've been working on ecological sustainability issues since about 1971.
 
My original training was in Vet Science. When I was in primary school I
thought I'd like to work in a zoo!
 
I spent the 1970s involved in youth environment education and activism and
working with state level environment groups in first Sydney then after
1974 in Melbourne. I use to do all the usual activist greenies things.
Gave talks everywhere, campained on forests, bush protection, nuclear
power, energy policy, you name it. Protested, got arrested.
 
In 1973 I got very interested in the relationship between oil depletion
and the economy.
 
From 1976-78 I worked on an alternative energy strategy (in a technical
and social context) for Melbourne (as a voluntary project). It was a life
changing experience. We published the results as a book in 1978 - "Seeds
for Change".
 
After a while I got sick of just being a critic. I wanted to make some
things really happen. So I went to work at the Victorian State Government
level during the 1980s. I worked on the State Energy Strategy, the State
Convervation Strategy. Later I developed the Flora and Fauna Guarantee
Act (from original policy to final Act and then working on
implementation). I was also on the Steering Committee for the Timber
Industry Strategy.
 
Working on 'Seeds for Change' made me very interested in the interplay
between the environment and the economy. And my experience working on the
Flora and Fauna Guarantee also reinforced my interest in the economy - the
nature conservation legislation was supported by political parties because
it got them votes but the powers that be also saw nature conservation as a
threat to the economy so they didn't want the implementation to ever be
effective.
 
When the Vic Labor Government looked like it would lose office I took a
package and left the public service - 1991. Ever since then I've been
working for a very small not for profit association trying to figure out
how to create an ecologically-sustainable economy (and trying to relate
this increasingly with social sustainability). I'm very interested in the
social change processes that can lead to rapid creation of an
environmentally and socially preferred future. I've also put a lot of
time and thought into how private sector organisations (and all other
organisations) can build a commitment to sustainability into their management
systems.