"Action Today for a Sustainable Nation Tomorrow" is the theme for this year's National Environment Conference that will be held at The Empire Hotel and Country Club on August 19.

Now in it's second year, the conference provides a much-needed platform for global experts and significant businesses and government agencies to delve further into the actions needed to be taken in creating a sustainable future for Brunei through practical ideas and successful green projects and programmes.

More importantly, this conference seeks to outline key strategies, policies and initiatives that will help sustain a clean and healthy environment for Brunei whilst simultaneously stimulating the economy.

With the same dilemma facing nations globally of having to choose between environmental sustainability and economic rehabilitation, Brunei is one of the lucky nations that has the luxury of implementing both.

But questions remain such as how Brunei would go about it? What does the country have to do in order to ensure environmental sustainability and yet maintain economic growth? Are there successful examples of other nations and businesses that have successfully managed to do both?

The answer to these questions and more are hoped to be discussed and refined in a series of sessions where the topics of discussion include: a sustainable future for Brunei Darussalam; the development of a proper green waste management system; saving energy and how 'one watt at a time, we are saving the world'; Bandar Seri Begawan as a sustainable city and a keynote luncheon address on how green business can be good business.

The speakers for the conference include Dr Jerry Leonard, Executive Manager, Edmonton Waste Management Centre, Canada; Wade Hughes, Director of Public Strategies and Communication, Alcoa, USA; Ralph Dixon, Director of Environmental Investments, YTL Group, Malaysia; and Anita Roper, CEO, Sustainability Victoria, Australia.

One of the expected highlights of the one-day conference will be the session on waste management, which hopes to answer the question of what can be done to mitigate waste production and how reduce, reuse and recycle can be effectively and efficiently achieved.

Waste management is a key problem facing every nation in the world. Every household in the world produces approximately on average one tonne of waste annually and a large portion of this waste is biodegradable, biohazardous and difficult to recycle.

During the conference, Dr Jerry Leonard, from the Edmonton Waste Management Centre of Excellence, will be presenting a paper on waste management practices and what Brunei can learn from them.

This conference is expected to be attended by key players from environment related businesses, and businesses who believe that the environment is important to them; environmental practitioners; key government role players in the environment, the academe society and all individuals who have an interest in the environment.

By Narissa Noor