Marlon Kobacker – Advisor

A sustainable design expert currently leading the sustainability advisory team for Clean Energy Corporation Australia (CECA), Marlon Kobacker has long been a leading voice in the clean energy industry and brings a great deal of international experience to his current position. A graduate of the University of New South Wales, Kobacker holds a Master of the Built Environment in Sustainable Design along with undergraduate degrees in photovoltaic engineering and educational psychology.

The sustainability professional and renewable energy expert has been frequently sought as a speaker at a variety of international conferences and has provided strategic sustainability advice and consulting across a wide range of projects across almost every continent. Before taking on his current role with CECA, Kobacker contributed his insight and expertise on a global scale while working with AECOM, Arup and Cundall.

What do you do in your spare time?

I like to stay active, so I play a lot of sports whenever I have some time to spare. While I still play a fair amount of squash and certainly enjoy doing so, I am much more likely to be playing a game of Ultimate Frisbee over a weekend or even a late weekday afternoon. I had played Ultimate here and there while growing up, but it wasn’t until I joined the Ultimate Frisbee Club at UNSW that I really became so deeply interested in playing it on a regular basis.

What’s your favorite film?

From the perspective of its clearly positive impact on environmental activism, “An Inconvenient Truth” really made a tremendous difference in demonstrating the importance of changing the way we interact with the environment. That film really sparked a tremendous amount of conversation regarding what can be done to reduce our impact on global climate change and the value of innovation in the sustainable design industry.

What are your aspirations in life?

I genuinely seek to assist the world in meeting the aims of the 2015 Paris Agreement so that future generations can enjoy the planet as I have. I know there is a tremendous amount of work that must be done, and I truly believe that the kind of work I involve myself in will lead us to where we need to be. For so long the issue has been held up as an environmental crisis, but I believe the only way to create real and lasting change is to make a compelling business case for investors to buy into a low carbon future.

What’s your favorite thing about working in your industry?

There are so many aspects of the industry that drew me in so many years ago, but there are few things better than knowing that the goal of the work I am doing is to address the most important issue affecting the planet.

What motivates you every day?

The work we are doing in the clean energy industry is absolutely critical, so I am always motivated by the simple fact that people all over the world are relying on our industry to create innovative solutions for an increasingly imperative issue.