Dick Clarke

Director & Building Designer, Envirotecture

Dick Clarke is principal of Envirotecture, with over 35 years’ experience focusing exclusively on ecologically sustainable and culturally appropriate buildings, as well as sustainable design in vehicles and vessels.

He is Director of Sustainability for Building Designers Australia (BDA) and is a member of the Association of Building Sustainability Assessors (ABSA) and the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC).

This is Clarke’s 12^th year on the panel and is the Jury Chair.

Jeremy Spencer

Director & Builder, Positive Footprints

Jeremy Spencer is a Director and Builder at Positive Footprints, a multi award-winning design and construction company that is working to show that energy efficient sustainable design and high-performance construction is a cost-effective option and can be a mainstream reality.

Jeremy is passionate about spreading the message of environmentally sustainable design, and to help bring about chance in the way we build homes. To this end, he gives lectures, sustainable house tours, and teaches other builders green construction in the Master Builders Greenliving program.

Mahalath Halperin

Director, Mahalath Halperin Architects

Mahalath Halperin, FRAIA, is an architect and environmental consultant living and working in regional NSW.

As well as running an architectural practice since the 1990s, addressing everything from domestic renovations through to large commercial buildings, resorts and education facilities, she also conducts energy and environmental audits and assessments, and has always tried to tie the scientific with the aesthetic to achieve highly sustainable but liveable works where possible.

Mahalath has also developed and delivered courses on environmental and architectural issues, and is also a published author, including assorted children’s books, including one about her cat building a house.

Mahalath Halperin Architects won the Single Dwelling, New category for Drumkerin at Sustainability Awards 2018.

Michael Faine

Registered Architect, Faine Group Architects

Michael Faine has been a registered architect since 1980 and to date, has worked on a multitude of building types, designs, construction and procurement methods.

His diverse career led him to a teaching position at the University of Western Sydney in the Bachelor of Building/Construction Management degree, and saw him acting as the Head of School for a time.

After 17 years as an academic, and juror positions on both the Building Designers Association of Australia and the HIA Awards, Michael is attuned to analysing the work of builders and designers, and understanding the price in the work they are carrying out.

Nermine Zahran

Senior Architect & Sustainability Manager, Koichi Takada Architects

RAIA, GSAP, LEED AP BD+C

Nermine is a senior architect and sustainability manager at Koichi Takada Architects. She has worked in Australia and internationally on a number of large and small scale projects covering a wide range of architectural typologies. She brings to every new opportunity a contagious passion for sustainable design as well as a comprehensive understanding of industry best practices.

Nermine also believes that it is vital to continually learn – and to educate others in the industry and in the general public – about ways to minimise the impact of the built environment on the planet. Beyond her aim to positively influence materials selection, construction methods, and ongoing energy-efficient operations strategies, she also seeks to ensure that the buildings and spaces we create are human-centred and improve human health and well-being. She believes that every project, no matter how large or small, is an opportunity to make our communities, and ultimately our world, more liveable and resilient.

Sandra Furtado

Director, Furtado Sullivan

Sandra is the co-founder of Furtado Sullivan, an architecture studio based in Sydney. The practice enjoys the challenge of translating a project’s complexity into a design that works with its environment, combining large-scale efficiency and sophistication with a bespoke design approach.

In the past, she has been intrinsically involved in notable large-scale projects including 8 Chifley, Barangaroo Masterplan and International Towers, and One Circular Quay hotel in Circular Quay.

Sandra has an extraordinary ability to understand urban complexity. Through holistic design thinking, she seeks synergies with multidisciplinary practices, harnessing collective knowledge in order to achieve goals creatively and drive the sustainability agenda.

Suzanne Toumbourou

Executive Director, Australian Sustainable Built Environmental Council (ASBEC)

Suzanne Toumbourou is the Executive Director of the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC), a body of peak organisations committed to a vision of more sustainable, productive and resilient buildings, communities and cities.

Her passion and expertise lies in communication, collaboration and an inclusive agenda for a sustainable Australia.

Suzanne possesses key knowledge and insights of ecological environments that will be instrumental to accurately judging this year’s Sustainability Awards.

Christian Hampson

Co-founder and Director, Yerrabingin

Christian is a proud Woiwurrung and Maneroo Aboriginal man interweaving Indigenous tacit knowledge and collaborative design thinking to walk a new path, away from conventional approaches. Yerrabingin has launched the world’s first Indigenous rooftop farm in 2019, located high above Sydney on the roof of Yerrabingin House in South Eveleigh with over 2,500 Australian native plants.

HY William Chan

Fellow, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network

HY William Chan is an entrepreneur and urbanist with a passion in innovating our cities and communities. William has designed for Cox Architecture, Hassell, Arup Foresight and Innovation, and the Australian Government Department of the Environment.

An outspoken advocate, William is a Forbes ’30 Under 30’ innovator and TEDx speaker. His sustainable development projects have been showcased across 40 cities. This year, he was inducted into the Australian of the Year Honour Roll, named as one of Pro Bono Australia’s top 25 most influential Australians in the social sector, and features in the Qantas Centenary publication of ‘100 Inspiring Australians’.

Jean Graham

Director, Winter Architecture

Jean is the founding director of Winter Architecture, a collaborative architecture practice located in Fitzroy and Torquay. Translating the quiet, introspective, site-specific qualities of Winter – the season – into an Architectural dictum. Varied budgets and a range of client backgrounds, Winter Architecture has opened up the possibility of architecture to a number of clients who did not feel architecture was accessible to then, due to low budgets, difficult site restrictions, and the desire to build themselves.

Jean is the recipient of the 2018 Sustainability Awards ‘ Emerging Architect of the Year’.

Jean has maintained her relationship with Deakin University teaching architecture design studios, alongside teaching interior architecture studios at Swinburne University and guest critiquing at the University of Melbourne and Monash University.

Jefa Greenaway

Director, RAIA (Wailwan | Kamilaroi), Greenaway Architects

Jefa Greenaway is Director of Greenaway Architects, a University of Melbourne senior academic, and a regular design commentator on ABC Radio Melbourne. He’s championed Indigenous led design thinking for over 25 years, including as co-founder of Indigenous Architecture + Design Victoria, as co-author of the International Indigenous Design Charter, and as Regional Ambassador (Oceania) of INDIGO (International Indigenous Design Network). He’s a founding signatory of Architects Declare Australia an initiative foregrounding architecture’s role in to tackling the challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss, is co-curator (with Tristan Wong) of the Australian exhibition at La Biennale Architettura di Venezia 2020 and is a recent 2020 DIA Hall of Fame inductee.

John Gertsakis

Sustainability | Stewardship | Advocacy | Communications, Cambium Communications

John is an experienced sustainability, policy and communications practitioner across diverse industries, sectors and portfolios. He operates at the highest levels with ministers, members of parliament, government officials and other industry associations. John served as Executive Director of Product Stewardship Australia representing global consumer electronics brands in the design of the Product Stewardship Act. As an Honorary Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, he understands the issues confronting the design industry. His work has covered appliances, electronics, furniture, floor-coverings and textiles. Design management has often been at the centre of these engagements including greater attention to how we transition to a circular economy. His early work on cradle to cradle thinking represents a pioneering phase at RMIT’s Centre for Design. John is also Director of Communications with Equilibrium consultants, Senior Policy Adviser with the DIA, and an Adjunct Professor with the Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS.

Natasha Mulcahy

Sustainability & Engagement Manager, West Village | Sekisui House

Natasha is the Sustainability & Engagement Manager for West Village, the $1 billion urban regeneration project by Sekisui House Australia, and in 2019 became the inaugural winner of the Women in Sustainability award. For the past 15 years Natasha has worked across government and private industry, with a focus on delivering property projects with triple bottom line outcomes. Her experience includes the site acquisition and strategic planning for a new university campus, planning for sustainability and community infrastructure in urban growth precincts, and driving shared value through urban renewal. Through her role at West Village, Natasha has been instrumental in precinct sustainability planning and has driven ambitious initiatives, resulting in a 6 Star Green Star Communities rating for the development – the highest recognition for a master-planned precinct in Australia.

Nicci Leung

Founder / Facilitator, Lifepod Evolution (Design & Research)

Nicci began her career providing design and project services to the discerning Clients of two of the most highly regarded architectural and interior design practices in Melbourne. As her interests broadened, Nicci’s career evolved to embrace the incredible potential for innovation that new and emerging technologies offered. Lifepod Evolution facilitates exploration and experimentation for clients and collaborators. Combining her passions for design, innovation and technology, Nicci assembles multi-disciplinary teams to ‘prototype’ pathways and solutions that inspire constructive change; putting the needs of our people and our planet front and centre and rethinking the way we design, build and live. The Lifepod Project is one of these investigations, focused to find the housing solutions of the future. Nicci’s vision for the future is a positive one and involves Australian talent in across sector collaboration to create real solutions to the many challenges and complexities associated with increasing population and urbanization across the globe.