“This is an opportunity that I will take with both hands. I believe that I can have an impact in regards to sustainability in Australia and I would love to share my experiences with others to help make the world a better place.”
The BBM Scholarship is an opportunity for me to further develop my skills and education within my career. The scholarship enables me to get involved in the future of the industry and that excites me. I believe the Scholarship would take me out of my comfort zone and provide opportunities that others don’t have, which I would take advantage. The Scholarship gives me the opportunity to be part of global work experience that could potentially lead my career to bigger and better job opportunities. Through the scholarship I am hoping to gain a greater understanding about the work within the electrical industry on a global aspect and understand further where my industry is going in terms of a sustainable future. Additionally take the opportunity to see how other countries have benefitted from these changes and develop knowledge about how this can be implemented in Australia and how it can impact Australia. Additionally, I am hoping to gain connections and interact with employees, leaders other involved parties within the industry on a global level. I am hoping this can give me the opportunity to be involved in other global projects and take advantage of these opportunities. Through these work experiences it enables me to grow and learn within my career, skills and knowledge. With all the knowledge I develop through the scholarship I can bring it back to Australia and be a bigger part of the development of Australia’s sustainable future.
Q: A Global Footprints Scholarship is your opportunity to do more of what you love. What have you done at work that you are proud of or passionate about?
I am proud and passionate about all the work I complete. I set myself high standards personally and professionally and have a high level of satisfaction when I achieve great results. In 2021, I was selected by the National Apprentice Employment Network to attend a program called Today’s Skills Tomorrow’s Leaders which was held in Canberra in May 2022. My experience at Today’s Skills Tomorrow’s Leaders was fantastic, to spend a week connecting with 22 of the best Apprentices and Trainees from around Australia, I went into the week long program not knowing what to expect but I left the program with life-long connections and multiple life skills and lessons. During the week we were taken out of our comfort zones with Leonie Stanfield’s and Bruce Sullivan’s workshops to learn more about ourselves and each other. I took away so much from the workshops that we were involved in and learnt how to become a better leader and how to be the very best version of myself and towards others.
A personal goal of mine is being someone who can make a difference and have a positive impact on others. You can display this in so many ways within industry by achieving short- and long-term goals but also by asking your peers how they are going and being someone that they can lean on. Within the company that I work for I am also involved within the leadership group and always trying to come up with new ideas on how we can make a difference.
A BBM scholarship would be an amazing opportunity as you can become heavily involved in making one of the biggest challenges that we face today in becoming a more sustainable world and dealing first hand with climate change.
Q: A Global Footprints Scholarship is for those who are passionate about creating a sustainable future. Describe something you have done at work or are working on, that helps the environment. Why is it important to you?
Creating a more sustainable Australia is important to me because it minimizes the carbon pollution and has a lower environmental impact. Through the use of sustainable energy, a number of benefits come forward, which all can have an impact on me and my family. Through making Australia sustainable it benefits the overall health of the public and the environment and creates a much more clean, reliable energy source. Additionally, it provides a number of economic benefits and numerous job opportunities, short and long term, not only for me but the community. There are so many ways just within the Electrical industry that we can make a difference such as Solar Farms, Wind Farms, Batteries, Electric Vehicles. Costa Rica are well on their way to becoming the first carbon-neutral country as 99 percent of their electricity is from renewable sources, such as solar, geothermal, wind and hydroelectric. Recently I have completed my installation course for solar and it is something that I thoroughly enjoyed. I have installed several home charging stations for electric vehicles now and it is something that I believe will take off in the near future creating a more sustainable future. Through the Global Footprints scholarship, I will further develop my knowledge within the Electrical industry and learn from others making a difference in creating a more sustainable future.
Q: Everyday across the globe, people make breakthroughs for a more sustainable future. What have you seen or heard about that you find inspiring, and why?
Everyday people make breakthroughs for a more sustainable future and it is important that they do. We cannot maintain our Earth’s ecosystems or continue to function as we do if more sustainable choices are not made. If changes within the world that we live in are not made, it can impact everything and everyone’s overall health and make living harder.
Ocean acidification is a great example, a quarter of the carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuels is absorbed by the ocean, changing its chemistry (pH). Over the last 150 years, ocean acidity has increased by 30 percent causing harm to the coral reefs, making it harder for marine organisms to form shells. 14 trillion tons of plastic also end up in the ocean each year, killing wildlife and polluting the food chain. Air pollution from fossil fuels can cause acid rain that can harm aquatic ecosystems by lowering oxygen levels causing damage to crops and wildlife. Seaspiracy is a 2021 documentary film about the various environmental impacts we cause as humans affecting marine life. The makers of Seaspiracy do the very best they can to provide the general public with the information that they need to hear to make people want to change to be a part of a more sustainable future, which I find inspiring. Although this is not so much a breakthrough, if they can have an impact on the way people act on a large scale, it can have significant benefits.
An action that has been taken at Sydney Airport is that that have unveiled a fleet of electric buses that shuttle between terminals and the long-term car park. These busses can carry 70 passengers and luggage and has reduced the airports carbon emissions by 160 tonnes each year. I personally believe that the future for Electric vehicles is going to be massive and it is something that I get excited about as it creates more job opportunities and is beneficial to the environment also.
Q: As a Global Footprints Scholar you can choose to go anywhere in the world. Where would you travel with your Scholarship and why?
There are several countries that I would love to visit:
Costa Rica – Costa Rica is currently leading the way with 99 percent of their electricity coming from renewable sources such as solar, geothermal, wind and hydroelectricity. It would be an amazing experience to see all of these different energy sources in action and to see how they have become the leading country in regard to renewable sources.
Canada – Nearly 95 percent of the electricity consumed in the Canadian province of British Columbia comes from hydroelectric power plants. It is the 3rd leading country in the world in regard to hydroelectric power. As we don’t have a large amount of hydroelectric power stations in Australia I would be very interested to see how they operate.
China – China is the world leading power consumption country in the world and by a very long way. China’s main source of electricity is by burning fossil fuels such as coal. In Australia, about 76 percent of our electricity comes from burning coal, followed by gas (16 per cent), hydroelectric (5 per cent), wind around (2 per cent). Along with adding to greenhouse gas pollution, burning coal emits toxic substances into our air, water, and land, severely affecting the health of miners, workers, and surrounding communities. I would like to know what China are doing to reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. By burning fossil fuels such as coal it releases gages, trapping heat and contributing to the global climate change. China burning as much fossil fuels as they do to produce electricity would have a severe impact on the surrounding environment and the health of the people due to air pollution. In saying this, China leads the way when It comes to electric vehicles with over 2 million on the road and over 150,000 charging stations.
After reaching out to past scholars, I have continued to reach out to others involved within industry to further develop my knowledge. After speaking to a couple of people, there is one place in particular that I would absolutely love to get the opportunity to visit. ( Northvolt - Sweeden ).
They are currently having a massive impact in regards to sustainability. They are leading the charge towards sustainability in mining through using a battery-electric, zero-emission underground fleet. There are so many benefits that come from this such as savings on energy bills, maintenance, ventilation, cooling, personal health and a safer work environment.
I currently do not work in the mining industry but it is something that I am very excited to be doing in the near future. There are a couple other places in mind at the moment such as New York. I believe New York would use such a high amount of electricity and would like to learn how they can manage to do so in a sustainable manner. I believe they use Nuclear power at the moment and would like to know if they are working towards a more cleaner energy source.
There are so many places in the world that I would love to visit to find out more about the sustainability within the electrical industry. It is something that I have a real passion for and would love it if I can be a part of a positive change. After reaching out to and speaking with multiple past BBM scholars through LinkedIn, it is an opportunity that I will take with both hands. I believe I can have an impact in regards to sustainability in Australia and will share my experiences with others to help make the world a better place.
“Tyler shows passionate desire to make change and his application was well researched.”
- Bryan Jones, Global Footprints Assessor
