Who is Zero Carbon Nelson Tasman?
Zero Carbon Nelson Tasman is a growing group in the Nelson-Tasman area with a deep concern about the climate crisis. Our members have professional backgrounds in medicine, science, policy and strategic development, energy, transport, commerce, trade and education and have been working closely with local councils, mayors, businesses, schools and other concerned groups.
Biographies of Zero Carbon Nelson Tasman members
Jenny Easton retired from Tasman District Council after 17 years as the Resource Scientist locating and remediating historic contaminated sites, including Fruitgrowers Chemical Company’s old factory site and a successful study locating old sheep dips. She was a Health Protection Officer in Wellington for 8 years with strong focus on public health and environmental issues including hazardous and toxic substances. Jenny was also very active in the Peace Movement campaigns against frigates and other military expenditure. Her qualifications are BSc, MPhil, and Diplomas in Public Health and the RMA. In 2001, Jenny studied a postgraduate course on Antarctica and the effects of global warming. Since then, she has been submitting on climate issues to local council plans and central Government legislation, writing articles on mitigation and adaptation, and participating in community groups to raise awareness and a sense of urgency. Jenny has also been a coordinator for native long-tailed bat colonies with Forest and Bird.
Fred Overmars has a Masters degree in ecology and has also studied Transactionalism. He is an ecologist and Certified Environmental Practitioner. He was the Department of Conservation ecologist for the West Coast Tai Poutini for 10 years, with responsibilities including the North Westland wildlife corridors, the Protected Natural Areas Programme Survey of the Ngakawau Ecological District, and helping to secure legal protection for large areas of conservation land. Subsequently he has undertaken ecological surveys and ecological assessments of effects for a wide range of projects, focused on flora, fauna, and vegetation in forest, grassland, wetland and coastal ecosystems. Becoming increasingly uneasy about facilitating their social licence to operate, he forsook consulting for two coal companies in 2015. His focus now is in propelling action to restore our climate (reversing greenhouse gas emissions), to promote adaptation (especially to sea rise), and to advocate for climate justice. He has calculated and offset (with Ekos) his historical personal Scope 1, Scope 2 and part Scope 3 emissions (260 tonnes of CO2 equivalent).
Bruce Gilkison is a Chartered Accountant and writer. He was principal sustainability writer/reviewer for NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants, was appointed by them to advisory boards and as judge/chair of a sustainability reporting Award scheme. More recently he has written and consulted for Chartered Accountants Australia NZ. He wrote a guidebook on environmental issues for businesses, endorsed by Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Simon Upton. Consultancies include Landcare Research in carbon-related business issues. He has lived in Nelson/Tasman since the 1970s, worked in Canada, Scotland, East Africa, Nepal and the Pacific, and held lead roles in various NGOs in forest conservation, Whenua Iti Outdoors, Nelson Environment Centre, and Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust. He was drawn to act on climate issues by their urgency and an understanding of the challenges we are leaving our young people. He is also a member of Nelson-based Businesses for Climate Action leadership team.
Carolyn Hughes is a former Australian diplomat with qualifications in International Relations, Economics, Chinese Language and History and with business/consulting experience in Asia and Europe. Fluent in Mandarin she headed the Northern Territory’s North Asian Relations & Trade Division enabling partnerships between levels of government and the private sector and supporting negotiations with North Asian energy corporations for the supply of Australian Liquefied Natural Gas. She then served as Counsellor Commercial with Australia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and as Austrade Trade Commissioner in Beijing with portfolios including Construction, Infrastructure, Environmental Technologies and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She consulted to NZ Trade & Enterprise to develop and deliver “Navigating China” following the Free Trade Agreement with China. She was South Island Manager with Workplace Support and Manager for Climate Change and Energy with Nelson Environment Centre leading school solar projects as well as Transition Town Nelson and a carbon reduction reward scheme funded by Government.
Alistair Munro, born and raised in Fiji, worked in New Zealand and Fiji as a teacher, school principal and social services administrator. He holds a Bachelor’s degree (the University of Canterbury) and a Master’s degree in social policy and social work (Massey University). He also worked in Australia and China. Prior to retirement, he was Manager of Presbyterian Support’s Family Works service in Nelson, Blenheim and Motueka. Alistair has held Ministerial appointments on the Ministry of Children’s Nelson statutory Child Protection Team and the Establishment Board for the new state-integrated Motueka Steiner School. Alistair’s long-standing involvement with environmental matters began with founding the Far North Conservation Council in the1970’s and has continued with numerous other sustainability and environmental protection initiatives. He has a particular interest in the role of civil society in the response to climate change and the social justice and equity challenges we face as a result of the climate crisis.
Julie Nevin is Strategic Policy Advisor for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand and was the inaugural Chair of the Nelson Tasman Climate Forum, an organisation she co-founded. Through the Forum, she focused on building community-based relationships and collaboration to strengthen and accelerate our response to climate change. Before and after moving to Aotearoa in 2007 from England, she was a primary school teacher. She has tertiary qualifications in psychology, education, environmental studies and social policy. She is interested in the social and systemic foundations of environmental issues and how our psychological wiring affects our response to them. As a parent of two young children, she is concerned with intergenerational justice and with the need to include silent voices in decision-making, including future generations and other species. She is a student of tikanga and te reo Māori and increasingly drawn to the Te Ao Māori as a tried and tested model of a sustainable society.
Jack Santa Barbara, PhD, has both a business and academic background. He has taught Psychology, Peace Studies, and Sustainable Business, and managed various research and evaluation projects at several Canadian universities and consulting companies. He was the founding president of the Canadian Evaluation Society. He also founded what became Canada’s largest behavioural health company, and later established a charitable trust which funded environmental and peace related projects. Upon retirement he became involved with a range of local, national and international NGOs, dealing with a variety of social and environmental issues, including sustainable cities, climate change, ecological economics and the transition to sustainable energy technologies. His current focus is on a sustainable wellbeing economy. He has written extensively on the energy transition and some of his articles can be found on the Nelson Tasman Climate Forum website. He has lived in NZ since 2007.
Joanna Santa Barbara is the current Chair of the Nelson Tasman Climate Forum, a retired child psychiatrist and a former lecturer in Peace Studies at McMaster University. She was awarded the Order of Ontario for her contributions to Peace Studies, in particular, the Peace through Health framework. She co-authored a book on that topic and engaged in projects in Croatia and Afghanistan concerning the mental health of war-affected children. She was twice president of Canadian Physicians for Global Survival, and a board member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear war. In New Zealand from 2007, she co-founded Motueka Transition Town group, and later a Motueka-based climate action group, The Renewables. In 2016 she became convener of a new national group, Our Climate Declaration, which developed a vision for New Zealand’s contribution to climate action. In 2018, she helped found Zero Carbon Nelson Tasman. She experiments continually with lowering her own carbon footprint.
Paul Martin has worked for most of his working life in the Health and Disability Sector; in his early work-life in a hands on disability support role before moving into planning and funding roles and later, senior managment in the disability NGO sector. Latterly Paul worked for 10 years in suicide prevention; first in Dunedin and later in Nelson/Marlborough. Paul has a passion to ensure that all living things are treated with kindness, compassion and respect. Paul also acknowledges that we live in a finite world and that humans need to reduce their consumption of both energy and 'things' if the planet is to remain liveable.
While retaining some involvement in the suicide prevention space and support of people in the Justice sector, Paul is now largely retired and joined Zero Carbon in early 2024.
Jenny Easton retired from Tasman District Council after 17 years as the Resource Scientist locating and remediating historic contaminated sites, including Fruitgrowers Chemical Company’s old factory site and a successful study locating old sheep dips. She was a Health Protection Officer in Wellington for 8 years with strong focus on public health and environmental issues including hazardous and toxic substances. Jenny was also very active in the Peace Movement campaigns against frigates and other military expenditure. Her qualifications are BSc, MPhil, and Diplomas in Public Health and the RMA. In 2001, Jenny studied a postgraduate course on Antarctica and the effects of global warming. Since then, she has been submitting on climate issues to local council plans and central Government legislation, writing articles on mitigation and adaptation, and participating in community groups to raise awareness and a sense of urgency. Jenny has also been a coordinator for native long-tailed bat colonies with Forest and Bird.
Fred Overmars has a Masters degree in ecology and has also studied Transactionalism. He is an ecologist and Certified Environmental Practitioner. He was the Department of Conservation ecologist for the West Coast Tai Poutini for 10 years, with responsibilities including the North Westland wildlife corridors, the Protected Natural Areas Programme Survey of the Ngakawau Ecological District, and helping to secure legal protection for large areas of conservation land. Subsequently he has undertaken ecological surveys and ecological assessments of effects for a wide range of projects, focused on flora, fauna, and vegetation in forest, grassland, wetland and coastal ecosystems. Becoming increasingly uneasy about facilitating their social licence to operate, he forsook consulting for two coal companies in 2015. His focus now is in propelling action to restore our climate (reversing greenhouse gas emissions), to promote adaptation (especially to sea rise), and to advocate for climate justice. He has calculated and offset (with Ekos) his historical personal Scope 1, Scope 2 and part Scope 3 emissions (260 tonnes of CO2 equivalent).
Bruce Gilkison is a Chartered Accountant and writer. He was principal sustainability writer/reviewer for NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants, was appointed by them to advisory boards and as judge/chair of a sustainability reporting Award scheme. More recently he has written and consulted for Chartered Accountants Australia NZ. He wrote a guidebook on environmental issues for businesses, endorsed by Sir Geoffrey Palmer and Simon Upton. Consultancies include Landcare Research in carbon-related business issues. He has lived in Nelson/Tasman since the 1970s, worked in Canada, Scotland, East Africa, Nepal and the Pacific, and held lead roles in various NGOs in forest conservation, Whenua Iti Outdoors, Nelson Environment Centre, and Abel Tasman Birdsong Trust. He was drawn to act on climate issues by their urgency and an understanding of the challenges we are leaving our young people. He is also a member of Nelson-based Businesses for Climate Action leadership team.
Carolyn Hughes is a former Australian diplomat with qualifications in International Relations, Economics, Chinese Language and History and with business/consulting experience in Asia and Europe. Fluent in Mandarin she headed the Northern Territory’s North Asian Relations & Trade Division enabling partnerships between levels of government and the private sector and supporting negotiations with North Asian energy corporations for the supply of Australian Liquefied Natural Gas. She then served as Counsellor Commercial with Australia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and as Austrade Trade Commissioner in Beijing with portfolios including Construction, Infrastructure, Environmental Technologies and the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She consulted to NZ Trade & Enterprise to develop and deliver “Navigating China” following the Free Trade Agreement with China. She was South Island Manager with Workplace Support and Manager for Climate Change and Energy with Nelson Environment Centre leading school solar projects as well as Transition Town Nelson and a carbon reduction reward scheme funded by Government.
Alistair Munro, born and raised in Fiji, worked in New Zealand and Fiji as a teacher, school principal and social services administrator. He holds a Bachelor’s degree (the University of Canterbury) and a Master’s degree in social policy and social work (Massey University). He also worked in Australia and China. Prior to retirement, he was Manager of Presbyterian Support’s Family Works service in Nelson, Blenheim and Motueka. Alistair has held Ministerial appointments on the Ministry of Children’s Nelson statutory Child Protection Team and the Establishment Board for the new state-integrated Motueka Steiner School. Alistair’s long-standing involvement with environmental matters began with founding the Far North Conservation Council in the1970’s and has continued with numerous other sustainability and environmental protection initiatives. He has a particular interest in the role of civil society in the response to climate change and the social justice and equity challenges we face as a result of the climate crisis.
Julie Nevin is Strategic Policy Advisor for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand and was the inaugural Chair of the Nelson Tasman Climate Forum, an organisation she co-founded. Through the Forum, she focused on building community-based relationships and collaboration to strengthen and accelerate our response to climate change. Before and after moving to Aotearoa in 2007 from England, she was a primary school teacher. She has tertiary qualifications in psychology, education, environmental studies and social policy. She is interested in the social and systemic foundations of environmental issues and how our psychological wiring affects our response to them. As a parent of two young children, she is concerned with intergenerational justice and with the need to include silent voices in decision-making, including future generations and other species. She is a student of tikanga and te reo Māori and increasingly drawn to the Te Ao Māori as a tried and tested model of a sustainable society.
Jack Santa Barbara, PhD, has both a business and academic background. He has taught Psychology, Peace Studies, and Sustainable Business, and managed various research and evaluation projects at several Canadian universities and consulting companies. He was the founding president of the Canadian Evaluation Society. He also founded what became Canada’s largest behavioural health company, and later established a charitable trust which funded environmental and peace related projects. Upon retirement he became involved with a range of local, national and international NGOs, dealing with a variety of social and environmental issues, including sustainable cities, climate change, ecological economics and the transition to sustainable energy technologies. His current focus is on a sustainable wellbeing economy. He has written extensively on the energy transition and some of his articles can be found on the Nelson Tasman Climate Forum website. He has lived in NZ since 2007.
Joanna Santa Barbara is the current Chair of the Nelson Tasman Climate Forum, a retired child psychiatrist and a former lecturer in Peace Studies at McMaster University. She was awarded the Order of Ontario for her contributions to Peace Studies, in particular, the Peace through Health framework. She co-authored a book on that topic and engaged in projects in Croatia and Afghanistan concerning the mental health of war-affected children. She was twice president of Canadian Physicians for Global Survival, and a board member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear war. In New Zealand from 2007, she co-founded Motueka Transition Town group, and later a Motueka-based climate action group, The Renewables. In 2016 she became convener of a new national group, Our Climate Declaration, which developed a vision for New Zealand’s contribution to climate action. In 2018, she helped found Zero Carbon Nelson Tasman. She experiments continually with lowering her own carbon footprint.
Paul Martin has worked for most of his working life in the Health and Disability Sector; in his early work-life in a hands on disability support role before moving into planning and funding roles and later, senior managment in the disability NGO sector. Latterly Paul worked for 10 years in suicide prevention; first in Dunedin and later in Nelson/Marlborough. Paul has a passion to ensure that all living things are treated with kindness, compassion and respect. Paul also acknowledges that we live in a finite world and that humans need to reduce their consumption of both energy and 'things' if the planet is to remain liveable.
While retaining some involvement in the suicide prevention space and support of people in the Justice sector, Paul is now largely retired and joined Zero Carbon in early 2024.
