Embrace a sustainable future

Embrace A Sustainable Future
Transcription by Alice Bell 

VISUAL:  Screen reads: Embrace a sustainable future. What can you do with an environment degree from RMIT?

AUDIO: Ambient electronic music plays over the introductory title page.

VISUAL: Wide angle shot pans across a view of Melbourne city buildings onto a rooftop garden. A young woman [Kelly Hertzog] wearing a City of Melbourne ID card walks across the rooftop visually surveying the garden.  

KELLY: As a society, we know that our behaviour impacts the environment, so now the challenge is to change.

VISUAL: A young woman [Kylie Bishop] sits in back of a car wearing an orange jumpsuit with her ID card pinned to her shirt pocket, she looks out the window, smiling and talking to the man in the front of the car who is also wearing an orange jumpsuit. Cut to view outside the moving car of a beachside landscape bordered by wire fencing. Cut to the young woman now also wearing an ESSO branded hard hat and safety glasses alighting an enclosed ladder then walking out onto a metal platform. 

KYLIE: Many people shy away from this career path because the issues seem insurmountable, but as you get deeper into the profession you find that it is the little things that make all the difference.

VISUAL: Title on screen reads: Kelly Hertzog, Project Manager, City of Melbourne. Kelly walks out across a metal bridge onto the rooftop garden.

KELLY:  I’m coordinating the delivery of the Urban Forest precinct plans for the City of Melbourne.

VISUAL: Wide shot of the rooftop garden with Kelly walking alongside it, away from camera. Cut to an aerial view graphic of the top of city buildings with sections of the building rooftops coloured with green, yellow, orange and red shading. Cut to Kelly walking alongside rooftop garden towards the camera. Cut to shot of solar panels on the side of a building roof. Cut to footage of Kelly and a female colleague walking down a graffitied laneway towards camera.  

KELLY: We use a spatial analysis tool to determine which rooftops can be retrofitted with green roofs, solar panels or cool roofs, as well as greening our laneways.

VISUAL: Kelly and her colleague are walking down another graffitied laneway, looking up. A street sign attached to a building reads: AC/DC Lane. Kelly and her colleague are looking at blueprints and pointing to areas of the laneway. Cut to footage of trees in residential city streets.   

KELLY: We try to bring nature into the urban environment and the work we do has a big impact on the way that people experience the City. It also ensures that the City will thrive in a changing climate.

VISUAL: Title on screen reads: Ben McMenamin, Sustainable Food Advocate, Greening RMIT. Ben is walking out from a building towards a planter of potted herbs. He cuts a selection of leaves and in fast motion, we see him walk them down several flights of outdoor stairs. Cut to close up of vegetables being cut on a kitchen bench and the scraps being put into a clear tupperware container labelled with sticky tape that reads: worm food J. Cut to Ben moving a large pot of soup containing vegetables onto a gas burner in a kitchen with another person working in the kitchen and in the kitchen there is an open window looking out onto a group of people gathered outside.     

BEN: I’ve worked as a chef for 10 years and now use those skills on a project I started to promote sustainable food to students and to the community.

VISUAL: Ben walks out of the kitchen outside, on the side of the glass door he passes is a poster which reads: Rooftop Garden, and below that a sheet of white paper which reads: The matter of landscape. Cut to the rooftop garden surrounded by groups of students sitting on tables and chairs with their attention focused on the leading speaker. Cut to close up of Ben standing in front of a container of soil talking to the audience. Cut to close up images of small packets of seeds and soil pH testing equipment being demonstrated. Cut to close up of young women placing seeds in the soil.   

BEN: We started a community garden along with other groups on campus. And now we run workshops where people come along and get hands-on experience growing their own food.

VISUAL: Title on screen reads: Priya Crawford-Wilson, Healthy Waterways Waterwatch Coordinator, Melbourne Water. Medium shot of Priya wearing a Melbourne Water embossed shirt, walking through a bush landscape towards camera. Cut to a close up of Priya’s boots as she crosses a small creek over stones while carrying a large white bucket.  Cut to Priya walking towards a group of people all wearing waterproof overalls, working with nets in the creek. Cut to a duck swimming in the creek. 

PRIYA: I train and assist volunteers monitoring macroinvertebrates in rivers and creeks across Melbourne, as they are indicators of ecosystem health.

VISUAL: Tight close up of a net being dragged along the floor of a creek. Cut to the same net being held next to a white bucket a with small brown bug being held up above the water in the bucket in the cup of a bare hand. Cut to Priya in the bush crouching down with a group of individuals observing her actions. One of the other individuals is holding a white plastic container and white plastic spoon. Cut to a shot taken from underside the water bucket, Priya lowers the plastic spoon into the water. Cut to a shot taken from above the bucket, a small green bug is sitting in the spoon which Priya has lifted above the water and the spoon is held alongside the white plastic container, which resembles an ice-cube tray, with different bugs in the sections of the tray.   

PRIYA: I also run events that engage the community along their local waterway, to encourage them to connect with their local environment and take actions to conserve local species.

VISUAL: Title on screen reads: Kylie Bishop, Environmental Engineer, ExxonMobil. Close up of Kylie and her male colleague are inspecting a pipe. Cut to wide shot of Kylie and her colleague standing amongst a large network of interconnecting pipes. Cut wide shot to Kylie and her colleague walking away from camera out on a concrete pier over the ocean. At the end of the pier are several large structures of pipes and industrial equipment and lighting.

KYLIE: I’m involved in identifying and understanding the ways in which our facilities interact with the environment.

VISUAL: Aerial shot of Kylie and her colleague walking out across the concrete structure over the water. In the background another concrete structure over the ocean can be seen as can the shoreline. Cut to Kylie and her colleague walking swiftly underneath scaffolding. Cut to Kylie and her colleague walking up a set of outdoor stairs amongst all the piping and industrial equipment  

KYLIE:  This involves evaluating and assessing potential risks, including air emissions and water discharges.

VISUAL: Kylie and her colleague are standing at the top of the platform stairs looking out high above the ocean and onto the network of industrial buildings and structures below. 

KYLIE: I look for opportunities to avoid or reduce these impacts and ensure that the environment is being adequately protected.

VISUAL: Tracking shot follows Kelly walking down a Melbourne city street and then with her colleague up an alleyway. Cut to shot of Priya as earlier crouched down with a group of individuals inspecting bugs in an open plastic container.  

KELLY: There are so many interesting careers available to environmental degree graduates and the field is expanding rapidly.

VISUAL: Close up of white aerator spinning on rooftop with group of people in background out of focus. Cut to Ben wearing a ‘Greening RMIT’ t-shit talking to an audience around the rooftop garden.

BEN: You can work for any organisation in any country as an environmental professional.

VISUAL: Close up of Kylie’s legs climbing up ladder then to her face looking out to the ocean.

KYLIE: It all begins with one small step.

VISUAL: Screen reads: Your first step to a sustainable career begins with RMIT.

AUDIO: Ambient electronic music plays over the closing title page.

VISUAL: RMIT University logo. www.rmit.edu.au. CRICOS: 00122A I RTO: 3046 

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