Alex Readford is one of three ANU students travelling halfway around the world to get hands-on experience in sustainability.

ANUgreen partners with members of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) to offer internships for students interested in working on campus sustainability initiatives. This winter Zemma Holmes-Story and Grace Foo will spend six weeks at Yale University while Alex Readford will complete his internship at Oxford.

Growing up in rural New South Wales, Alex learnt first-hand the effect of drought and climate change on people's lives. "I've always had an interest in how people will adapt to climate change," he said. After high school in Sydney he was attracted to ANU on the strength of both its public law and environmental science programs.

Despite a strong interest environmental policy, Alex is still unsure exactly what path he wants to take at the end of his double degree in Law and Science (Resource and Environmental Management) and saw the internship as a great opportunity to get some practical experience.

"I think working on a university campus is an opportunity to look at how environmental policy works on a micro-scale," Alex said. "Policy is only effective if the people it's written for choose to abide by it."

During his time at Oxford Alex will work on an energy consumption project. "I'll be looking at the programs the university uses to monitor energy consumption and ways of reducing consumption which takes into account the architectural constraints of the old buildings.

"When I get back I'll hopefully be able to work with ANUgreen to try and see how ANU can utilise those practices for our own benefits."

^^

Home