I graduated from the LUMES programme in 2010, with a Master's in Environmental Sudies and Sustainability Science. My thesis was A Study of Sustainable Social Progress in the Kingdom of Tonga (follow link for further details).

As well as this research in Tonga, I also conducted research into barriers facing sustainable enterprises with 6 weeks of fieldwork in Kenya. Another project on the role of cooperation in rural development included a small field study in Morocco. These papers are available under publications.

I was supported by the Hume Fellowship, for civil engineers to study overseas. An honour, and a valuable link between two phases of my career.

Below is a small piece decribing my original motivations for taking the LUMES programme

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- James Lovelock, The Revenge of Gaia 2007

Of course the planet will look after itself, but we are biting the hand that feeds us. Humans are rapidly weakening the natural systems that support human existence. At the same time human soceties are becoming increasingly inequiable. The result is an increasingly unsustainable and vulnerable global human system.

We have to make some significant, but achievable, changes in our societies to pursue equitable and sustainable wellbeing for mankind.   We already have many solutions ready to make this happen, but not yet the motivation and the coordination to implement them.   On the Lund University International Master's Programme in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science - LUMES, I was learning how to help to change this paradigm.

Similar motivations brought 39 other people to Lund, from 24 other countries, to study the new transdisciplinary field of sustainability science.  

The LUMES programme aims at preparing the students to contribute to a long-term sustainable development through a critical and system thinking approach.

It is designed ...with the intention of producing graduates having the capacity to become leading actors, locally as well as globally.

- LUMES Website Programme Aims

The course is transdisciplinary in terms of student backgrounds, teachers' expertise, and subjects.   Sustainability science means not just thinking about ecological sustainability, but connecting research to real-world global problems and socially based solutions.  

...our efforts today will determine the state of the world in which the current generation of children and young adults live out their middle and late years

The good news is that despite the lack of progress towards sustainability to date across the world, the tide is turning.   The inevitably unpleasant conclusions of continuing business-as-usual are becoming clear. Change is a challenge, but the opportunity is still there for the taking.  

These unprecedented [environmental] changes are due to human activities in an increasingly globalized, industrialized and interconnected world.

The transition towards sustainable development needs to be pursued more intensively by nations and the international community

New Zealand has the potential to punch above its weight and lead the world to prove that this future is possible.   How that future might look and how it might be achieved remains to be seen, but I look forward to being part of the project to make it happen.

Why shouldn't New Zealand aim to be the first country which is truly sustainable - not by sacrificing our living standards, but by being smart and determined?