Brad Schultz

I'm working as an 'Energy Specialist' working mainly in the buildings area, looking at ways to reduce their energy/water usage.

I also volunteer with Engineers Without Borders, having recently returned from a 5 month volunteer stint in Nepal where I was working with a small organisation called Kathmandu Alternative Power and Energy Group, who are developing their own wind turbines to manufacture and deploy in Nepal. I was assisting with commercialisation activities, focussed on LED lighting, and also general organisational development.

I now volunteer locally with Engineers Without Borders, heading up the South East Queensland Energy Knowledge Hub. I'm also continuing my involvement and support with KAPEG, the organisation I worked with in Nepal.

I also volunteer with Beyond Zero Emissions, an impressive group of people who research solutions to take Australia to 100% renewable energy within ten years.

After working for 8 1/2 years in the area of technology in public transport - certainly a field that is contributing to sustainability worldwide - I was ready for a change. After my 5 months volunteering in Nepal with Engineers Without Borders I was ready to move into a field relating more directly to reducing energy use. Energy efficiency is going to play a huge role in reducing carbon emissions. It is a growing, exciting field and I wanted to be a part of it.

Working for 8 1/2 years with a small startup company taught me to fly by the seat of my pants and take on whatever jobs need doing - whether it's hands on development of technology, managing people, projects, sales, customer relations, strategic planning... you name it, we had to deal with it. The global focus of that startup also took me all over the world, which in addition with extensive backpacking in developing countries helped me see issues in their global context.