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Gerry Coates has been advocating for social responsibility for most of his career as a professional engineer. Starting the group Engineers for Social Responsibility in 1983 he now pushes the case for addressing climate change and “peak oil” before its too late. “We’re still in denial” he says.

His mission is to make the world fully sustainable – so our children, their children and grandchildren can also live lives even better than ours using renewable resources. Gerry says there is a lack of understanding of what the word finite means. “We think we can use up exhaustible resources, and mine our children’s inheritance for short term gain. But there is another way.”

As an engineer he also believes that technology won’t necessarily save us, as everyone hopes. All the techniques we have to make the transition to sustainability in the next 20 years are actually largely with us now. New technologies like nanotechnology may help, but they are still decades away.

But Gerry’s message is one of hope, rather than gloom. He believes if we start making the transition to renewables and sustainable technology now, not only is it possible – by using our fossil fuel reserves sensibly – but we will also solve the problem of climate change.

Gerry has been on a number of boards including the Wind Energy Association, and Land Transport New Zealand. He’s also Māori and on the board of Ngāi Tahu Holdings Corporation – a half billion dollar company – and active in the affairs of his tribe.

As President of Engineers New Zealand in 2003-04, the professional body for engineers, he was instrumental in introducing the new Chartered Professional Engineers registration system, and earlier a new Code of Ethics. He became an MNZM in 2006 for services to engineering.

He’s also an author of a book of poems and short stories – ‘The View From Up There’ (Steele Roberts, 2011). Activities also include having been a stage lighting designer, relationship counsellor, mediator and an active member of the peace movement – in 1990 he went to the UN with the NZ Government delegation as the NGO representative at the Partial Test Ban Treaty negotiations in New York just before the first Gulf war.

If you want a speaker who is both thought-provoking and entertaining with his wide knowledge of technology and environmental issues coupled with a wide life experience, then Gerry is the one.