Irish Australian Business Awards Peoples Choice 2019
Tag
I do everything with passion and a sense of a greater purpose. I am incredibly driven to change the way we interact with our natural environment. I work in the field that I do because to move a mountain you need to start with the big rocks. Buildings contribute to 40% of our greenhouse gas emissions, use up to a third of our natural resources, and produce 40% of our solid waste. We work in buildings, sleep in buildings, are entertained, educated, and fed in buildings, but often think of them as static things that are merely the backdrop to our lives. The floor you walk on, the window you look out, the chair you are sitting on all took an incredible amount of resources and energy to get there.
I believe one of the keys to a better environment is better buildings, and better buildings are built on better decisions, and better decisions are made with better information. The unique work that I do provides very powerful and tailored information regarding the impacts of a supply chain as complicated as a building. Empowered by this we are able to ensure that the environment is intrinsically incorporate into the early stages of design. This is the core of my passion and fulfillment in what I do.
Outside of my career I find equal joy in how I spend my free time. I dance salsa, take yoga classes, acting classes, sing in the church choir, and volunteer with Vinnies on a night truck providing food and company to the homeless community. Amidst this I invest time in quality relationships with family and friends. I am not unique in saying that my family is very important to me. However, my upbringing was unique in a way and has given me a worldly experience. My parents are both Irish (hailing from Dublin and Roscrea) and I was born in West Sussex, England. At the age of two I moved to Terrigal NSW Australia, and at the age of seven moved to Maryland USA where I grew up. At the age of 19 I did my study abroad for 6 months in Barcelona, and then lived in Amsterdam for 6 months after this. I then moved to Sydney to finish my degree and have been here for 5 years.
Throughout all of this my family has been my home, returning to Ireland frequently as I grew up. I have continued to feel a very strong pull towards my Irish heritage and feel quite at home with the wonderful people I have met through the IACC and the Rose of Tralee.