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Media Release

May 9, 2005

The search for sustainability:
Balancing environmental, economic and social needs

With growing concerns about the impact of development and industry on the environment, sustainability is now a popular buzz word. And under environmental protection laws, sustainability is now an explicit objective. So how do governments, industry, community and environmental groups balance often-competing economic, social and environmental goals?

In the first lecture in UniSA’s Working Links seminar series, to be held at 5.30pm this Tuesday May 10 (at the Rockford Hotel), national authority in environmental law, Professor Rob Fowler, will address this critical question. Drawing on a recent consultancy report, undertaken for the South Australian Environment Protection Authority (EPA), Prof Fowler will look at what sustainability means, how the EPA is promoting it and how industry is meeting objectives.

“Sustainability is a concept that has many different meanings. It is still evolving and the lack of consensus raises some real difficulties,” Prof Fowler says.

“There are some who think you can balance the economic needs of the community with the environmental and social needs and others who believe that due to ecological limits, we’re going to have to make some major changes – that it will be too late if we don’t make them soon.”

In trying to find common ground, Prof Fowler suggests practical ways the issues can be addressed, looking at three main areas – ‘law and order’, ‘jobs and the environment’, and ‘people power’.

“There needs to be more emphasis on law and order. We need to strengthen regulation and how it’s administered, develop smart regulation – looking at using economic instruments, market mechanisms, and voluntary methods industry might adopt – as well as alternatives to conventional regulation that might work better for everyone,” Prof Fowler says.

“When we look at jobs and the environment, the legal and policy framework is inadequate in helping the EPA to do their job. There isn’t enough clear guidance and there’s a need to develop criteria for weighing up economic and environmental values. For example, if you’re going to trade off a wetland for a project that would deliver a whole lot of jobs – in what circumstances are you willing to do that? We need to go to the next level of detail in defining what sustainability means when these sorts of decisions are being made.”

And Prof Fowler also advocates a greater level of public involvement in all levels of the decision making process.

“There is a need for more people power, to revamp the Environment Protection Act and the way in which the EPA operates to provide greater community involvement in its decisions. Currently there is a closed loop in terms of access to information, public participation in decision making and access to appeal to the courts. These are some significant deficiencies in the South Australian system at the moment.”

While Prof Fowler says there are no simple answers, he says the opportunity to assist the EPA in developing an approach for sustainability of the future has been worthwhile.

“The EPA has already taken some of the recommendations on board, and is currently developing a sustainability charter. We are working together to find a balance between everyone’s needs.”

About Professor Rob Fowler

Prof Fowler holds the Chair in Environment Law in the School of Commerce at UniSA. Before joining UniSA in 2001, he was at the Adelaide University Law School, where he helped establish the Australian Centre for Environmental Law. Prof Fowler is one of Australia’s foremost experts in the areas of environmental and natural resources law, both within Australia and internationally. He has served on numerous State and Federal government committees and has had an ongoing involvement with Australia’s NGO movement. These contributions have earned him considerable recognition, including a Fulbright Scholarship and the National Environmental Law Association Most Significant Contribution Award. In 1995, Rob was appointed as a member of the Environmental Law Commission of the IUCN (World Conservation Union).

Working Links seminar – The search for sustainability: What roles for the industry and the EPA?

When: Tuesday May 9, 2005 – 5.30pm for a 5.45 start
Where: The Rockford Hotel, Corner Hindley and Morphett Streets, Adelaide
Register: To register for the Working Links seminar call (08) 8302 0179 or register online UniSA Working Links website

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