Green Growth Blog

Why? 

The start of the year is when many economic development teams are asked to set priorities, refresh work programs, and identify initiatives that can show progress over the months ahead. Renewable energy, business sustainability, circular economy and green growth projects are increasingly expected to feature — alongside investment attraction, business support, workforce development, and a growing list of other priorities.

Making progress with such big goals and a new area of economic/regional development can be tricky. For many professionals the issues are:

• knowing where to start
• understanding what’s feasible within existing time constraints/budgets and
• how to make progress without over committing to a long or complex project

How? 

For many teams, the pressure is not whether to pursue the greener aspects of economic development, but how to do so in a way that is practical and achievable.

As much as I love working on large strategies, I know they aren’t always the right starting point. Often, what’s most valuable is focused support that helps clarify an idea, test a direction, or get a specific initiative moving — without adding to workload or complexity. At these times, I’ve found a small (e.g. 5 hour) consultancy engagement, can often unlock clarity, confidence and momentum.

Getting a little advice saves time and effort by creating clarity. Expert input helps distinguish what is feasible now from what may require further work, enabling teams to clearly articulate purpose, economic relevance, and alignment with existing priorities. This early clarity also supports more confident decision‑making and action.

The injection of outside helps teams to move forward practical ways. By working within a clearly defined scope and timeframe, it reduces risk by allowing ideas to be explored, tested, and refined without over‑committing resources or locking in long‑term obligations.

Just as important, a focused engagement establishes a credible starting point and supports internal conversations. Tangible early progress builds confidence, strengthens stakeholder discussions, and creates traction for what comes next.

Knowing all this, I’m keen to help teams move from consideration to action with a short consultancy engagement. Ergo, I’m offering a discounted, five‑hour consultancy engagement in January and February 2026.

What? 

Together, in five focused hours, we could work on one of the following:

Setting direction and priorities

• Refine annual economic development, green growth priorities
• Review progress and lessons from 2025 efforts in creating a circular economy
• Assess alignment of sustainability‑related Expenditure Review Committee bids
• Developing and testing ideas

Map green growth opportunities for your region or sector

• Conduct a SWOT of green growth potential
• Brainstorm strategic, high‑impact projects
• Workshop a complex or challenging sustainability issue
• Determine the next steps on a renewable energy project
• Designing programs and frameworks

Outline program logic or structure

• Develop a concept design for a Green Innovation Program
• Scope a Sustainability Awards Framework
• Draft a policy framework and outline analysis steps

Informing decisions and options

• Analyse and prioritise policy options
• Conduct a sustainability influence or stakeholder network analysis

These examples are indicative. Scope for your 5-hour engagement will be agreed upfront to ensure the engagement is focused, achievable, and useful.

January and February only

This offer is deliberately limited to January and February to align with early‑year planning cycles and to ensure the work is genuinely useful at the point when priorities are being set. It also reflects the structure of my project calendar. By keeping the number of short, focused engagements small, I can give each one the preparation, attention, and follow‑through it deserves. Please be assured intent is not to create artificial urgency, but to provide a well‑timed option for teams that are ready to make progress early in the year and provide you with specialist advice.

Who? 

You or your delegate are essential. Depending on what you choose to work on your decision-makers, team or people from other teams in your organisation might be included too. We can chat about what is sensible for your objective, the time involved and your needs.

You can let your colleagues know: I am an economic developer and applied environmental scientist with more than 25 years of experience working with governments, industries, and regional organisations. I specialize in green growth, economic and climate resilience, and industry advancement. Everything I do is grounded in a deep understanding of government and industry decision‑making contexts; that I gained through delivering programs and projects across multiple jurisdictions.

Next steps - call Julia on 0409 326 836

If a short, 5-hour consultancy sounds useful to you, the next step is simple: please give me a call on 0409 326 836.

A brief conversation is often the easiest way to confirm whether the 5-hour consultancy is a good fit for you right now.

We can chat and there’s no obligation to proceed. I want to make sure the scope and timing will work. Once we are sure it will add value, we can confirm an agreement via email to cover the five hours and get started. (I know you may have some additional steps at your end which I am happy to move through with you).

After alarming climate risks were revealed this week, the Australian Government's plan to adapt to climate change, the National Adaptation Plan, was released. Let's hope it is as stated to be, a step along the way, with some more focus on place-based, private sector action in the future.

Some assumptions seem to be embedded in the plan:

1. Private sector actors will act to build broader economic resilience to climate change.
2. Local government and insurers can prompt private households and businesses to invest in resilience measures.
3. The programs and policies at state and national levels are broad enough to encompass the development of local financial instruments to drive adaptation.

There are a great differences between grant programs currently nominated in the plan and a local Climate Bond or incentivising financial product/service leveraging action locally where climate impacts manifest.

To me it seems like the Australian Government is hoping climate disclosure reporting will awaken the private sector to:

• realize their adaptation risks
• pursue risk management strategies and opportunities, as well as, collaborate to leverage the best returns.

You can read more about the National Adaptation Plan here.

Queensland is at a turning point. Last week’s Sustain Queensland 2025 event attendees agreed: we need to accelerate investment in industries like biofuels and fast-track the uptake of innovation in the energy transition, if we want to seize greener economic opportunities and manage climate risks.

The conversations were passionate and practical — focusing on how Queensland can navigate the economic transformation ahead. Often forgotten, the challenges for smaller businesses and the agriculture sector in facilitating bigger players’ ambition, were outlined eloquently.

Some levers discussed included:
✅ Data-driven planning and exploration of new technology
✅ Smart financial incentives
✅ De-risking pathways for companies
✅ Upskilling our workforce
✅ Collaboration across sectors, all levels of industry, government and finances

We all appreciated Business Council for Sustainable Development Australia and the UQ Business School hosting such an important event. (They shared these some great photos taken by Mark D / Event Photos Australia). I especially want to congratulate my colleagues Professor John Cole OAM, Belinda Wade and Scott Losee on their long-term vision and contributions.