Prof. Peter Newman (Perth's Future: Sustainability and Creativity)

Week 1 Speaker Bio:

Peter Newman is the Professor of City Policy and Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, at Murdoch University. In 2006/7 he was in the US as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Virginia Charlottesville, examining innovations in sustainability in US cities, regions and states. This is based on comparative work he did in Western Australia at the political level when he worked with the Premier of WA from 2001 to 2004 to develop the State Sustainability Strategy; this was the first state in the world with such a strategy, covering 42 areas of government.

In 2004-5 Peter was the NSW Sustainability Commissioner assisting with the production of the Metropolitan Strategy. He is well known in Perth for his work in rebuilding Perth’s rail system which is now seen as a model for modern cities. Peter’s academic work includes his book with Jeff Kenworthy 'Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence' which was launched in the White House in 1999 and his 2001 co-authored book is called ‘Back on Track: Rethinking Australian and New Zealand Transport.’ Peter is the author of the chapter on Greening Urban Transportation in Worldwatch Institute’s ‘State of the World, 2007’.