Environmental Management

I have always been interested in the natural sciences since I was young, and was curious about how nature interconnected with our society. Also, knowing that environmental footprints will always be incurred in a constantly expanding population, I wanted to be someone who could help minimise those impacts. I would like to go into the environmental consulting industry and start helping companies to become more environmentally sustainable.

I’ve enjoyed going on field trips, such as doing land and environmental assessments. That really helps us build up our practical experience, which will definitely be useful when we work in the industry. Having access to so many resources – not only library resources like articles, textbooks  and so on, but also facilities such as lab equipment, soil samples and access to UWA farms – is also enormously helpful.

Richard McLellan

CEO at NACC (Northern Agricultural Catchments Council)

I have had the most amazing life and working career since I left UWA, and while a large part of that is due to having “that piece of paper” – my UWA BSc degree – I’d also rank highly the inspiration and confidence that I got from my fellow students and lecturers. There’s never been anything, ever since, that I thought I couldn’t do.

That confidence has manifest in my working career, encouraging me to take advantage of a myriad of opportunities that have come my way – particularly since I joined WWF, the global conservation organisation, in 2000. Since then I’ve worked in Australia, Cambodia and Switzerland and, at one time, managed staff in 30 countries when I was the Director of the Global Forest and Trade Network. I got to see a lot of the planet during that time … and the trouble it’s in.

My passion is environmental conservation. I pretty much live and breathe it, and try to live by the conservation mantra of “think global, act local”.

Over the years I’ve been fortunate to work in a variety of fields, but it is my years in conservation that have given me the most satisfaction. Working for a global conservation organisation was a constant source of inspiration in itself, providing daily opportunities to work with passionate and committed environmentalists – from field staff to farmers, foresters to astronauts. (The astronaut was Andre Kuipers – with whom I conducted the first-ever book launch from space: the 2012 edition of the Living Planet Report, from the International Space Station, in collaboration with the European Space Agency and NASA).

Now back in Australia, I work a bit closer to Earth, catalysing community-based natural resource management in mid-west WA to achieve conservation and sustainable development outcomes.

Read more about Richard's story here.