Peter Binney, P.E. is Black & Veatch’s Director of Sustainable Planning. He has corporate responsibility for the development and management of sustainable practices for water and wastewater services provided to local, state and federal government agencies as well as private and non-governmental clients.

Under his guidance, B&V offers public and private clients a range of services in the fields of water resources management, infrastructure planning, geographic based information systems, environmental permitting and regulatory compliance as well as implementation strategies including financial feasibility and capital programs planning.

Prior to this assignment, Mr. Binney was the Director of Aurora Water and was responsible for all water and wastewater services. Under his leadership, that community is now constructing a $750 million addition to the water supply system to improve drought resilience and to provide for projected growth in the Denver region.

Mr. Binney was recognized by ACEC- Colorado Section as the Outstanding Engineer in Industry in 2008.He has over 35 years of experience in the public and private sector and holds postgraduate degrees in civil engineering and water resources engineering. He is a member of AWWA, WEF, ASCE and SAME.

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A member of the Board of Directors and president of CDM’s Public Services Group, Mr. Brown is responsible for consulting, engineering, construction, and operations services to the firm’s municipal, regional, and state government clients throughout North America. 

He has over 30 years experience in project development, project finance, and the planning and management of public utilities and environmental facilities.  He has also been involved in a number of water resources planning projects heavily emphasizing public stakeholder participation, process facilitation, and multi-objective decision making for clients that include the states of California and Colorado; the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD); the Santa Clara Valley Water District; the Orange County (CA) Sanitation District; and the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle.

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Ben has a background in industry reform, economic regulation, business planning and performance improvement. As General Manager Strategic Planning, Ben has a focus on future water and wastewater resource options, climate change, sustainability, innovation and technology, pricing and corporate planning. Ben has an honours degree in economics and a Masters of Business Administration.

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Paul is an independent advisor, writer and speaker on sustainability and climate change.

He has spent over 30 years on sustainability issues as a corporate advisor, activist, businessman and thought leader. This long, frontline experience gives Paul deep insights into the challenges and opportunities that environmental and social trends present for society, companies and investors.

From 1975 to 1995, Paul worked as an activist on a range of social and environmental issues, becoming the International Executive Director of Greenpeace in 1992.

In 1995, Paul established Ecos Corporation (www.ecoscorporation.com) , advising leading corporations on sustainability strategy, including DuPont, Ford, Anglo American, Diageo, ANZ and IAG and led that company until it was sold in 2008.  Paul has developed close working relationships with a large number of CEO’s and executives around the world, helping them to deepen their understanding of sustainability issues, particularly the relationship to business value and strategy and how to drive change in response. He has also maintained close links with the NGO community and helping to develop stronger partnerships, understanding and relationships with business

From late 2005 to Nov 2007, Paul was also CEO of Ecos Corporation owned “Easy Being Green” which used carbon trading to drive mass consumer action on energy efficiency. Working with a team of over 200 staff, Easy Being Green delivered energy efficient lighting into over 600,000 NSW households. In doing so it traded the 4,300,000 tonnes of CO2 reductions it achieved and established domestic energy efficiency as a mainstream consumer opportunity in Australia. Easy Being Green’s operations were suspended in Nov 2007 when the NSW carbon price collapsed and the company was sold to listed Australian green energy company Jackgreen.

Paul is an established global thought leader in sustainability.  He is one of only four external members of the Global Core Faculty of the Prince of Wales’s Business and the Environment Program run by Cambridge University (www.cpi.cam.ac.uk/bep) and is Chairman of the Australian program. He regularly publishes and has written several thought pieces that have been credited with substantially shifting the global debate. These have including co-authoring “Single Bottom Line Sustainability” (2001), which advocated a focus on shareholder value in developing corporate sustainability strategy and “Scream Crash Boom” (2005) which predicted the world would soon face a major ecological breakdown, a tipping point on climate change and a dramatic clean tech boom in response. His latest major thought piece “Scream Crash Boom 2 – The Great Disruption” on the economic impacts of an ecological crash was published in 2008. He is a regular speaker at business conferences and corporate events around the world.

He is a Founding Director of the internet based youth charity The Inspire Foundation (www.inspire.org.au), a Founding Director of the Australian Business Community Network and is member of the Foundation Council of the Australian Davos Connection (www.ausdavos.org). He is married with 5 children.

In 1992 the World Economic Forum (WEF) appointed Paul as a Global Leader for Tomorrow, followed in 1993 with an Australia Day Award for Outstanding Achievement for services to the environment. In 1994, he was listed by Time International in its “Time’s Global 100 Young Leaders for the New Millennium” and in 1997, he received the prestigious Tomorrow Magazine Environmental Leadership Award.

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Anne Howe was appointed to the position of Chief Executive of the South Australian government owned Water Utility in March 2001. Prior to the South Australian Water Corporation (SA Water), Ms Howe held a number of Chief and Senior Executive positions in the South Australian Public Service, served on several Boards including as Chair of the State Supply Board, the National Public Works Council, and the Australian Procurement and Construction Council.

Ms Howe’s career covers management in human service agencies, policy, planning and public sector reform and over the last decade she has had leadership responsibilities for the delivery of efficient and effective government services in partnership with the private sector.

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Tim is a 42 year old adventurer, environmental scientist/ consultant, author, and speaker with Masters qualifications in both Environmental Science and Environmental Law.

He has undertaken expeditions to some of the world’s most remote regions, including Antarctica and the Arctic, and holds the world record for the fastest unsupported journey to the South Pole.

As an environmental scientist Tim provides environmental advice to both the public and private sectors. Specialist areas include environmental auditing, site assessment of industrial and agricultural systems, EMS design and implementation, and provision of sustainability advice to aid/development projects.

Tim is author of several books including the bestseller ‘The Unforgiving Minute’ (publ. Random House) about his 3 polar expeditions to date.

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Dr. Kim is currently a full professor in the Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science & Technology (GIST), Korea.  He is also currently the Executive Director of the Centre for Seawater Desalination Plant (CSDP).

Prof. Kim authored three books and published about 370 papers in peer-reviewed international & domestic Journals and conference proceedings.

He has been working as a Program Committee member of IWA World Water Congress and as a Management Committee of Anaerobic Digestion.  He is serving at the moment as Chairman of the IWA Water Reuse Specialist Group (approximately 2000 members).

His specialty area is thin biofilm effect on the Membrane Bio-Reactor (MBR), bio-granule formation, and bio-hydrogen production using anaerobic fermentation (hybrid microbial fuel cell). He is actively working recently in the area of biomimetic - bioelectrochemical hydrogen production, and rapid pathogene biosensor using  nano particle, so called Environmental Nanobiotechnology.

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Robert C. Renner, P.E., is the Executive Director of the Awwa Research Foundation.  Prior to assuming this duty in August 2005, Rob was Executive Director of ISA, and, prior to that, Deputy Executive Director of the American Water Works Association.  Rob has over twenty years of consulting experience in water treatment plant performance and related administrative and managerial issues. 

Mr. Renner is an alumnus of South Dakota State University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and an M.S. in Sanitary Engineering.  He is a Registered Professional Engineer in both Colorado and Minnesota. 

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Theo Schmitz is CEO of Vewin, the Association of Dutch Water Companies. He studied Economics at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam and he is an expert in economic policy and planning, especially in the fields of public private partnerships and transition management.

Before his current position he was I.A. CEO of the Netherlands Bureau of Tourism and Congresses. In that position he was also President of the European Travel Committee in Brussels (1999-2000).

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Maureen A. Stapleton is the General Manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, the regional water agency that provides up to 90 percent of all the water used in San Diego County supporting a $150 billion economy and the quality of life for over 3 million residents. Stapleton assumed her duties in January 1996.

As General Manager, Stapleton oversees a dynamic agency that is aggressively pursuing a comprehensive array of water supply and infrastructure programs designed to diversify and improve the reliability of San Diego County's water supply.

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Mike Young is Executive Director of the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and Professor of Water Economics and Management at the University of Adelaide.  

A Member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, Mike Young has played a key role in the development of water policy in Australia.

In 2008, he was named South Australian of the Year in the Environment category.  Earlier in the same year, the Sunday Mail identified Mike as one of the 50 most influential people in South Australia and the person most likely to change the place South Australians live in.

In 2007, the Canberra Times identified Mike as one of the 10 most influential people in water policy reform. In 2006 has was awarded the Land and Water Australia Eureka Award for Water Research and in 2001 a Centenary Medal for his contribution to environmental economics.

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