Helen Weston

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“There are periods in history which are formative and turning points. The recovery period after World War 2 was one which set up an ethos and period of consumerism on a large scale as a means to improve standards of living. At that historic point the value of natural capital was taken out of the economic equation and we have been surfing on a wave of seeming success based on an assumption of infinite resource capacity. What is our measure of success and over what timeframe? An incomplete equation is now showing us that there are substantial costs in taking a wrong assumption. We have been myopic or dismissive as to the potential consequences of ignoring and resistant or blind to the opportunities of sustainability. The turning point is this decade and there are many structural changes ahead not the least is in our individual frameworks and notions.”

Background & Experience

Helen is a barrister and physiotherapist and has 25 years leading professional services and projects in risk management and occupational health and safety with direct experience in numerous classes of industry.

She is currently completing a Masters Environmental Science at Macquarie University and is applying the depth of her business experience to the development of methods of reducing the cost and optimising the business opportunities of carbon reduction strategies and sustainability practices.

It was her initiative to populate a web based business improvement tool now being used by EcoSTEPS applying the Government's carbon pollution reduction framework, sustainability and environmental compliance against ISO14001:2004, ISO9001:2004 for Quality and AS/NZS 4360:1999 Risk Management standards. Her legal experience as a Workers Compensation Commission Arbitrator, company director and executive manager qualifies her well to assist in the assessment of definitions of operational control and materiality important to carbon measurement. She has attended high level business consultation processes on the subject such as a roundtable of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board., She is well acquainted with the National and International literature on the subject of carbon economy.

EcoSTEPS Team