“The price of saving the planet is not that high compared with other expenses.” – there are so many ways of creating more quality of life and creative engineers can contribute a lot.

Alan Pears, Director Sustainable Solutions and Adjunct Professor RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

Talking to Alan, a very humble, calm and satisfied looking person was one of these experiences when you ask yourself: Is it possible that one person could have done all these things? With a background in mechanical engineering, Alan not only helped to engineer products and houses with better energy efficiency, but he also taught at schools and universities, wrote books on environment and sustainability, helped to create environmental computer games and CO2 calculators, and supported governments to create environmental labeling systems and other regulations.
Alan is very excited about the potential of new technologies to not only create more environmental friendly products but also to teach environmental classes in a more fun and entertaining way. He demonstrated to us “Planet Slayer” (www.planetslayer.com.au), a shocking and at the same time amusing website with an environmental game and a scary greenhouse calculator, as well as another calculator that he developed, the highly sophisticated “Tree Totaller” (http://www.greenfleet.com.au). “To show in an entertaining way what our impact on the environment is and could be, can lead to more change than most people think. Taking care of the environment does not have to be boring scientific stuff, but can enable us to live enjoyable lives”, Alan explained, while making us aware of the building we were sitting in (www.60lgreenbuilding.com). It is a renovated office building in central Melbourne, made of less, recycled or sustainable building materials; it uses natural ventilation, rainwater, a green energy provider, as well as a solar array on the roof. People working in the building can individually regulate the temperature and light, and they all agreed to keep up the building’s environmental performance. In addition to all this the design of the building makes financial sense, it was possible to create it from a “normal” city building, and the quality of air and working environment in it is massively better compared with office buildings we are used to.

Enjoy reading selected thoughts and statements of our discussion with Alan Pears in the quotations below. You may be able to read more about him in our book “MyImpact”.

Alan Pears’ selected quotations:
"To be an engineer used to be a very painful experience; organisations would ignore engineering advice and when things went wrong, you had to fix them."

"One of the greatest projects I was involved in evolved from the first solar car race from Darwin to Adelaide. We used the momentum to develop and launch a model solar car competition for school children and that has worked wonderfully and is still running."

"The idea behind founding my consulting firm was to do good things and hopefully make a living."

"It's great to see how creative ideas in sustainability can be; I helped develop a computer game, a quite sophisticated CO2 calculator, and many others. More and more people with various backgrounds get involved."

"After promoting "cheap" energy (coal) for years, Australian policy people recently realized that alternative energy can actually make sense if you count all costs in."

“Taking all costs of the current energy system into account would demonstrate how inexpensive a sustainable economy actually would be.”

"The university work gives me a lot of satisfaction; it is very rewarding when you can match a person with an opportunity or synthesize solutions."

"When we are born, we have something special about us, some talents. It's wise to use those.”

"I have always had an interest in serving humanity. Some of my moral values have certainly been formed during the young years of questioning, and I basically have a positive attitude towards humans and their potential."

"Also the fact of being a father of two daughters brings in a strong moral perspective in terms of a role model function and responsibility for the future my children will live in."

"Change only happens when we go outside boundaries. If we stay rationally bounded and spend a lot of time justifying past actions, we are not going to get very far."

"By bringing people together who normally don't work together you redefine reality. This is a great part in my consulting work."

"Once you become ultra efficient, the impossible becomes possible."

"The nineties were the decade we had to control the climate change, but we threw away this opportunity to prevent a lot of damage. So, today we are more in a damage control mode, and that with a sense of urgency to drive change as fast as we can. We are accelerating but are we fast enough?"

"There are possibilities of win-win-win solutions. My job with enterprises is to demonstrate and open these options."

Some background on Alan Pears:
Alan Pears studied mechanical engineering in Melbourne during the 70ies. He was strongly engaged in environmental activist groups during the oil crises.
When he could not deal with the engineering culture, he decided to become a teacher. He did that for a couple of years and then left to write a book on the environmental performance of Melbourne in 1978. Subsequently, Alan got involved with the government of Victoria where he played a central role in several environmental initiatives, e.g. in public education, environmental home audit programs, sustainable building regulations and appliance energy labelling.
Since 1991, Alan has been co-director of an environmental consultancy, Sustainable Solutions. He has worked extensively on global warming issues, including co-writing a review of Australia's national greenhouse response strategy, analyzing the potential for cost-effective greenhouse emission reduction in a number of industries, and co-writing a workbook for participants in the Cities for Climate Protection program. Alan is the author of a number of educational resources, including the "Home Greenhouse Saver" for the Victorian Environment Protection Act and "Global Warming - Cool It!" for Environment Australia, and the educational computer kit "Australian Home Greenhouse Scorecard". Alan is also involved in the development of energy efficient products, and helped develop an energy- and water-efficient dishwasher and drink vending machine.

Some background on Sustainable Solutions:
Sustainable Solutions is an environmental consultancy co-founded by Alan Pears and Bro Sheffield-Brotherton. It is based in Melbourne and provides consulting services in the various areas that Alan Pears gained experience in during his successful career.

If you would like to engage with the work of Alan Pears or get to know more about his consulting company please contact
joanna.stefanska@myimpact.ch or wolfgang.hafenmayer@myimpact.ch.