Keynote Speakers
Mathis Wackernagel PhD
Is a founder and Executive Director of Global Footprint Network, a charitable research organization with headquarters in California. This organization supports the creation of a sustainable economy by advancing the policy-utility of the Ecological Footprint. The goal is to make ecological limits central to decision-making everywhere. Mathis has worked on sustainability issues and lectured at more than 100 universities on all continents (minus Antarctica). Mathis created with Professor William Rees the "Ecological Footprint" concept, now a widely used sustainability measure. Mathis is also an adjunct faculty at SAGE of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and scientific advisor of the Centre for Sustainability Studies in Mexico.
Professor Tim Jackson
Tim Jackson is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Surrey and Director of the newly-awarded ESRC Research Group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment (RESOLVE). Funded under the TSEC (Towards a Sustainable Energy Economy) programme, the aim of RESOLVE is to develop a robust understanding of the links between lifestyle, societal values and the environment. In particular, RESOLVE aims to provide evidence-based advice to policy-makers in the UK and elsewhere who are seeking to understand and to influence people’s energy-related behaviours and practices.
Tim sits on the UK Sustainable Development Commission and chairs their Economics Steering Group. In addition to his academic work he is a professional playwright with numerous radio-writing credits for the BBC.
Professor William Rees
William Rees received his PhD in population ecology from the University of Toronto and has taught at the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP) since 1969-70. He founded SCARP’s ‘Environment and Resources Planning’ concentration and from 1994 to 1999 served as director of the School. Prof Rees’ teaching and research focus on the public policy and planning implications of global environmental trends and the necessary ecological conditions for sustainable socioeconomic development. Much of this work is in the realm of human ecology and ecological economics where Prof Rees is best known for originating ‘ecological footprint analysis.
’ Dr Rees’ and Mathis Wackernagel’s co-authored book on the concept, Our Ecological Footprint, was published in 1996 and is now available in English, Chinese, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian and Spanish. Prof Rees is a founding member and past-President of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics. He is also a co-investigator in the ‘Global Integrity Project,’ aimed at defining the ecological and political requirements for biodiversity preservation. Prof Rees’ current research asks: "Is Humanity Inherently Unsustainable?"— his answer(s) are being drawn from several seemingly unrelated disciplines.
A dynamic speaker, Prof Rees has been invited to lecture on areas of his expertise across Canada and US as well as in two dozen other countries in Europe, Asia and elsewhere around the world. In 1997, UBC awarded William Rees a Senior Killam Research Prize in acknowledgment of his research achievements and in 2000 The Vancouver Sun recognized him as one of British Columbia’s top "public intellectuals. Prof Rees was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 2006.
Professor David Pimentel
David Pimentel is a professor of ecology and agricultural sciences at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-0901. His Ph.D. is from Cornell University.
His research spans the fields of energy, ecological and economic aspects of pest control, biological control, biotechnology, sustainable agriculture, land and water conservation, and environmental policy.
Pimentel has published more than 600 scientific papers and 23 books and has served on many national and government committees including the National Academy of Sciences; President’s Science Advisory Council; U.S Department of Agriculture; U.S. Department of Energy; U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare; Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress; and the U.S. State Department.
David Stubbs
David Stubbs is Head of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Organising Committee of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a role he has continued directly from the winning London 2012 Bid team.
He is an internationally renowned specialist in the field of sport and environment. During the 1990s he was Director of the European Golf Association Ecology Unit and he established the Committed to Green environmental management programme for golf courses. Since 1998 he has been the Environment Advisor to the British Olympic Association. In 2000 he worked with the Environment Team at the Sydney Olympics.
He is a full member of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and a Chartered Environmentalist.
