Hal Dobbins Email & Phone Number

Newcastle, Australia

As Waste Strategy Coordinator, I lead a small team to develop and implement strategies, programs and projects that will deliver Council's waste management goals and to manage the City’s recycling, food and garden organics collection and processing contracts.RESPONSIBILITIES:• Meeting the City's resource recovery and circular economy targets while increasing recovery of resources through improved waste services and infrastructure• Managing $15m annual operational budget• Client-side management of the Hunter region’s first food and garden organics processing facility operated by REMONDIS• Ensuring food and garden organic recycling collection services are provided to over 80,000 households each week• Collaborating at local and regional levels to develop innovative circular economy initiatives and projects• Managing waste infrastructure planning in new developments and the Waste Management Guidelines under the City’s Development Control Plan• Leading the development and implementation of the City’s Waste Strategy and Action Plans• Maintaining positive and close working relationships with the commercial waste industry, NSW EPA, Department of Family and Community Services, NSW Land and Housing Corporation, and local governments of the Hunter and Central Coast regions.

Sydney, Australia

As Resource Recovery Manager I lead a team of 9 staff in the delivery of 9 major services contracts and the City's award-winning Zero Waste programs. RESPONSIBILITIES:• Managing $20m annual operational budget• Meeting the City's resource recovery targets and increasing recovery through improved services and infrastructure• Ensuring domestic waste and recycling collection services are provided to over 100,000 households each week• Managing the disposal and processing of waste and recovered resources• Managing the City’s graffiti removal, sharps collection and dumped asbestos service• Managing waste infrastructure planning in new developments and the City's Waste Policy• Helping to develop and implement the City’s Waste and Environment Strategies• Marketing, education and promotion of waste management and resource recovery services.• Reporting requirements for local and State government • Providing solutions to long term illegal dumping and waste storage issues• Maintaining positive and close working relationships with the commercial waste industry, NSW EPA, Department of Family and Community Services, NSW Land and Housing Corporation, Sydney metro local governments, community and environmental groups

Sydney, Australia

As Zero Waste Coordinator, I led a small team in the Resource Recovery section to develop and strategically align the City's Zero Waste programs, projects and campaigns with the Waste Strategy and Sustainable Sydney 2030 plan while ensuring the projects also met the operational objectives of the City's Waste Services Unit Business Plan. RESPONSIBILITIES:• Managing $2m annual program operational budget • Procurement, contract governance, risk and WHS management • Meeting the City's resource recovery targets• Facilitating proactive and positive approaches to internal and external customer service • Resolving escalated customer complaints • Providing creative and practical solutions to waste issues for the communityACHIEVEMENTS:• Delivered 5 concurrently run resource recovery, community engagement and waste management infrastructure improvement projects • Helped achieve the City’s highest ever recovery rate of 69% diversion from landfill• Built positive and close working relationships with the commercial waste industry, NSW EPA, Department of Family and Community Services, NSW Land and Housing Corporation, Sydney metro local governments, community and environmental groups• Green Globe Award 2015 winner for the City's Zero Waste Programs• Project of the Year and Best Signage Display 2015 winner at Create Design Awards for10 cent coin installation advocating for a NSW Container Deposit Scheme• Best Website 2015 winner in NSW Government category at Australian Web Industry Awards for the Garbage Guru web app that helps people find recycling solutions to their waste problems• MobileMuster National Top Collector Award 2015/16 winner for recycling the most mobile phones

Sydney, Australia

Engaged nationally with a disparate Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste sector to develop audit-based best practice compliance criteria on resource recovery performance and reporting for the waste contractors and waste processing facilities that service construction projects certified under the Green Star environmental rating system for buildings. DELIVERABLES:• Produced C&D Waste Management Reporting Criteria and Compliance Verification Guide• Revised the Green Star ‘C&D Waste’ credit• Facilitated C&D waste industry reference group to help develop and provide industry support for the reporting criteria and compliance audit process• Developed the 'Waste from Building Operations' credit in Green Star - Performance• Developed education and training modules for the GBCA Continuing Professional Development program

Katoomba, Nsw

Helped develop the 2013 Sustainable Waste and Resource Management Policy and Waste Strategy for the Blue Mountains and implement the transition from scheduled bulky waste collections to a booked collection service .

International

Traveling mostly overland through 5 continents and 30 countries I exchanged personal and professional experiences, embraced cultural differences and gained perspective on differences and similarities in life, business and governance across our global village. Along the way I had the pleasure of getting involved with the following organisations and projects:BUILDING CERTIFICATION AND PROJECT PLANNING STRATEGY - The Green Building Council of South Africa, Cape Town (January-March 2012)ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP STRATEGY AND ACTION PLAN - Uganda Joint Christian Council (UJCC), ecumenical NGO, Kampala (July-August 2011)BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY - Nepali village-based Eco-tourism startup - Kathmandu (September-October 2010)

Sydney, Australia

Managed 5 concurrent environmental policy reviews in highly political circumstances over a three year period. • Responsible for establishing a consultative and transparent revision framework and communication strategy to engage multiple, often hostile, stakeholder groups to achieve mutually agreeable outcomes. • Facilitated new best practice environmental performance benchmarks to be incorporated into Green Star rating tools that boosted market demands for Timber, Concrete, Steel and PVC building materials, Paints, Floor Coverings and Furniture products that complied with best practice. .• Managed Multi-Interest Stakeholder Groups - facilitating consultations with producer and supplier groups, building industry product users, and environmental NGOs for each credit review project. • Set up expert reference panels from stakeholder networks to develop the new credits. • Co-authored and edited three technical research papers to support the new performance benchmarks of each credit. • Prepared quarterly updates for Directors and gained Board approvals on strategic issues before negotiating externally with stakeholder groups.• Received invaluable experience in the strategic planning and communication required to keep projects on track while simultaneously managing conflicting expectations inside and outside of the company.• Drafted media releases executive summaries and delivered training sessions on project outcomes.

Sydney, Australia

Managed the rapid growth in demand for Green Building Certification while improving customer service and streamlining the certification process. Business Development:• Increased Certification Income 300% in the first financial year as Manager. • Prepared and presented to Board Audit Committee the first detailed annual budget for the Certification Division ($AUD 1 million). • Negotiated significant increases in certification fees by promising and delivering improvements in customer services.Improving Customer Service:• Increased division staff from three to nine case managers within the first 12 months to keep up with demand. • Doubled number of independent Certified Assessors, increased their pay, and initiated mandatory training sessions and Assessors Manual to improve consistency in the assessment process. Streamlining Processes:Developed projects to improve Green Star project submission and assessment processes. Initiatives included: • Working with legal team to simplify and revise Certification Agreement contract between the GBCA and building owners; • Initiating submission workshop training sessions for Green Star Accredited Professionals to improve the quality of certification submissions prepared by project teams; • Co-initiating a cross-divisional project to develop submission requirement guidelines and templates for difficult credits.

Brisbane, Australia

Managed National Operations of a small but rapidly growing company specializing in independent assessment, reporting and promotion of eco and health-preferable building materials and technologies for the Australian Building Industry. Primary roles included: sales, marketing and customer service (business development); managing staff across three offices; and managing partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders.• Business Development: Increased total sales by 59% in the first financial year as Manager. Grew total sales by further 120% and achieved 10-fold growth in annual usage of service in the second year.• Product and Service Development: Implemented business plan to diversify & increase income by expanding product and marketing support services. Results achieved 65% increase in business income the first year and an additional 55% the second.• Networking: Brought together suppliers of complementary eco-preferable building products which led to product and services clustering that created competitive advantages and boosted their market exposure in difficult-to-penetrate industry sectors.• Partnerships: Organised, managed and maintained networks of “Allied Partners” to get our technical environmental assessment and reporting services used by Government Departments, Industry Association member companies and NGOs. • National Events and Presentations: Organised, facilitated & spoke at over 50 training events, seminars, offices and forums about sustainable materials. Coordinated and staffed company’s booth/stall at more than 10 major trade shows and conferences.• E-newsletter and Marketing Communications: Prepared and distributed fortnightly E-newsletter to over 10,000 registered contacts, including 500+ member organisations and 1000 building material manufacturers/suppliers. Expanded and maintained database.

Brisbane Australia

Co-authored Queensland component of a three-state collaborative project with $100,000 budget (published in 2004 by AHURI). Study influenced national policies on planning for residential development. Tasks involved: • Establishing Environmental Benchmarks for Affordability of Housing, Social Cohesion & Environmental Stewardship; • Community Consultation and Data Analysis from 1000’s of surveys & 100’s of interviews.

Ma, Environmental Management

Ba, Applied Anthropology

Activities and Societies: Specializing in Sustainable Development, Appropriate Technologies and Spanish