professor peter newman
Fulbright Senior Scholar Award
Media Profile
“Australia and the U.S. do not use a sustainability policy framework at the Federal level. Yet there are sustainable innovations happening in cities, regions and states. My project will document the sustainability innovations that have occurred in Australia and the opportunities that are becoming evident in the U.S. This project will assist in the establishment of the global Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development.”
Professor Peter Newman, the Director of the Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy at Murdoch University, has received a 2006 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award. Through his Fulbright Award he will undertake research with Professor Tim Beatley in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville examining U.S. sustainability innovations in cities, regions and states.
Professor Newman is widely acclaimed as a distinguished author for his research and papers on sustainable cities and urban form, especially for his ground breaking analysis of urban transportation problems and innovative solutions in his book; “Sustainable Cities: Overcoming Car Dependance”.
He was the first Sustainability Commissioner selected by former Premier Bob Carr in 2004 and authored “Hope for the Future: the Western Australian State Sustainability Strategy” for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, WA Government in 2003. Most recently he has been seconded to the WA Premier’s office to head the writing of the Western Australia’s State Sustainability Strategy, the first of its kind in the world.
“Australia and the US have similar cities, regions and states. We share a history of Federal Governments that wax and wane in their commitment to leadership on issues to do with the environment and urban and regional planning. However on a global level, many countries have created a new approach to issues based on sustainability. I will explore how cities, regions and states are filling the Federal vacuum in sustainability innovations in the U.S. and Australia.”
Peter will work with Professor Beatley to produce material for a book, ‘Sustainability Down Under’, based on Australian innovations in the most policy relevant way for a U.S. audience. He will also profile the innovations gathered from the U.S. and from around the world in the updating of his book, ‘Sustainability and Cities’, first published in 1999. Both books will be manuals for policy development to assist cities, regions, and states in sustainable living on a global level.
“I will be sharing practices of sustainability initiatives created in Australia and Europe, and advocating for the U.S. to join the global Network for Regional Governments on Sustainable Development (nrg4sd). Australia is a major player in the nrg4sd and hence the on-going connections between states in the U.S. and Australia, both for policy makers and academics involved in sustainability, can be considerably enhanced.”