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Michaela Young

Michaela Young

Principal Consultant

Brief info

Michaela is an Environmental and Planning Law expert with over 10 years' experience. She has practised law as well as taught and researched in the area of law at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and holds a Bachelor of Laws and Master of Law in Environmental Law. Her previous work focused on environmental and planning approval processes and litigation, and her research spanned the intersection between Human-rights and environmental law and policy. Michaela works across our Nature Based Solutions and Human Rights teams. She focuses on strategic advice on the Offsets strategy component of Net Zero Strategies, as well as carbon project origination advisory. She has extensive experience auditing carbon projects under the Emissions Reduction Fund. On our Human Rights team, Michaela leads governance and compliance-related aspects of projects, as well as policy and strategy development to support organisations embed a rights-based approach into their operations.
Academic Qualifications: Bachelor Law; Master of Law; LLM (EnvLaw)
Industry Qualifications: Mini MBA

Phone: 03 7035 1740
Address: Melbourne
Socials:

What drives you? The need to preserve and protect the environment for my children and their children. Total cliché but that’s what drives cold fear into my heart!

What projects do you work on that you love or are most passionate about and why? I work on a wide spectrum of projects, ranging from compliance reviews and audits to strategic work around integrating human rights responses into the business operations as well as carbon offsets strategy development and implementation. I love them all for different reasons –compliance-based work enables us to assist organisations run their business as mandated by law and in line with integrity standards that are attracting such attention these days, and the strategic pieces because it really means that you get an opportunity to shift thinking and practices towards sustainability for the long term.
Career highlight/game changing project/something that made a big impact: I’ve had a few of those, but I think the most relevant for the here and now is becoming a mother and moving countries. Both of these events brought about big career changes. 

Contact me

    Michaela Young posts

    Greenwashing net zero climate integrity - Ndevr Environmental

    Greenwashing, Net Zero and Carbon Credits: Navigating the Climate Integrity Landscape

    April 3, 2023
    As the world begins to truly grapple with the implications of a warming planet, and momentum to respond both in Australia and the world over has (finally) picked up, the mechanisms we have…
    Read more
    The Chubb Review - Brisbane Ranges forest 2 - Ndevr Envrionmental

    The Chubb Review: Exploring the recommendations for Australia’s carbon market from experts working in the field | Ndevr Environmental

    January 13, 2023
    The Chubb Review, an independent review into the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) was launched in response to mounting criticism of Australia's policy for generating carbon credits. The findings of the review confirm the…
    Read more

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      ATIYAH

      CARBON NEUTRAL PRODUCT

      ​AWESOME STREETFOOD, ZERO CARBON – that’s Atiyah. With its launch in 2020, Atiyah became Australia’s first 100% renewable-run street food zero-carbon kitchen certified under Climate Active. Atiyah sets operational carbon efficiency benchmarks and raises awareness about the global warming impact of food choices. They even disclosed the footprint of every item on their menu to empower their customers’ low-carbon lifestyle. We assist ATIYAH with their carbon neutrality certification.

      ORIGIN

      CARBON NEUTRAL ORGANISATION & PRODUCT

      Responsible business is at the heart of what Intrepid does. Intrepid has been a pioneer in measuring and reporting carbon emissions since 2010. When it joined the Climate Active family in 2018, it became the largest global provider of carbon neutral certified travel adventures and the first company to voluntarily include all global operations in its certification.

      NEXTDC

      CARBON NEUTRAL ORGANISATION & PRODUCT NEXTDC are one of Australia‘s most trusted providers of data centre solutions. Since 2018 we’ve been assisting them with their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) accounting and in March 2021, the company broke ground with the launch of NEXTneutral, an innovative Climate Active-compliant colocation opt-in program for their customers. Learn more.

      GOODMAN

      COMMERCIAL & INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY
      Goodman Group is an ASX20 global property expert in logistics and business space. It owns, develops and manages industrial property in 17 countries. We provide strategic advisory on Goodman’s operational GHG inventory and trajectory, the GHG intensity of its investment portfolio, net zero pathway and carbon neutral certification, as well as the renewable energy delivery strategy.

      ISPT

      PROPERTY FUND MANAGEMENT
      ISPT is one of Australia’s largest unlisted property fund managers, with over $11.9 billion of funds under management. We assist ISPT with its net zero pathway, land-based offset strategy as well as maintaining its carbon neutral certification. When ISPT joined the Climate Active network, it pioneered many concepts. It became the first participant under Climate Active to voluntarily include base building operations on all its owned and operated properties into its organisational certification and, as an industry first, procured 100% Australian Carbon Credit Offset Units (ACCUs).

      BHP

      METALS & MINING
      BHP is an ASX listed, world-leading resources company and are among the world’s top producers of major commodities, including iron ore, metallurgical coal and copper. They also have substantial interests in oil, gas and energy coal. We assist BHP comply with energy and greenhouse gas legislation and advise facilities on matters related to energy use and production emissions.

      Intrepid

      TRAVEL
      Intrepid Travel is the largest small group adventure travel company in the world. Responsible business is at the heart of what Intrepid does. We assist Intrepid with their Human Rights reporting obligations as well as many aspects of its GHG accounting and reporting. This includes its Science-based target (SBT), making them the first tour operator with approved SBT. When Intrepid joined the Climate Active family in 2018, it became the largest global provider of carbon neutral certified travel adventures and the first company to voluntarily include all global operations in its certification.

      LION

      BEVERAGES
      Lion is a global beverage company with a portfolio of brands in beer, cider, wine, spirits, seltzers, and non-alcoholic drinks. Lion has four large and four small Australian breweries, and its brands include XXXX, GOLD, Tooheys New, and Little Creatures. We assisted Lion to become Australia’s first large-scale brewer to be certified as carbon neutral under Climate Active in 2020.

      QANTAS Airline

      AIRLINE
      Founded in the Queensland outback in 1920, Qantas has grown to be Australia’s largest domestic and international airline. We have worked with Qantas since 2016 on a variety of emissions reduction projects.

      ORICA

      METALS & MINING
      Orica is the world’s largest provider of commercial explosives and innovative blasting systems to the mining, quarrying, oil and gas and construction markets, a leading supplier of sodium cyanide for gold extraction, and a specialist provider of ground support services in mining and tunnelling. We assist Orica with their regulatory reporting such as NGERs and also carbon abatement projects.

      Fulton Hogan

      CONSTRUCTION
      Fulton Hogan has more than 80 years experience in the transport, water, energy, mining, civil construction and land development infrastructure in New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific.
      We assist Fulton Hogan comply with NGER and NPI legislation for their extensive national operations. We work Fulton’s team to streamline reporting procedures to avoid duplicating data handling and transparently demonstrate data flows and aggregations.

      TOYOTA AUSTRALIA

      AUTOMOTIVE
      Toyota Australia was founded in 1963 and is one of Australia’s leading automotive companies. We have worked with Toyota since 2018 on many aspects of its GHG accounting, target setting, reduction initiatives, and reporting. We continue to inform strategic decisions around the contribution of the Australian business to the realisation of Toyota’s global Environmental Challenge 2050.

      H&H Group / Swisse Wellness

      CONSUMER GOODS
      H&H Group is a global health and nutrition company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Consumer brands include Biostime, Solid Gold Pet, Dodie, Good Goût, Aurelia Probiotic Skincare, CBII, and Swisse Wellness, a vitamin, supplement, and skincare brand, born in Australia in 1969. We have been working with Swisse and the group on many aspects of its GHG accounting and reporting, including the ongoing management of its Climate Active certification.

      AGL ENERGY

      ENERGY
      AGL is one of Australia’s leading energy companies offering electricity, gas, solar and renewable energy services, plus internet and mobile plans. We have assisted AGL for over five years on a variety of activities including audit and assurance projects.

      VIVA ENERGY

      ENERGY
      Viva Energy is a leading energy company which supplies about a quarter of Australia’s fuel requirements. Viva Energy make, import, blend and deliver fuels, lubricants, solvents and bitumen through extensive national and international supply chains. We assist Viva Energy with a range of energy and greenhouse gas related projects. These include annual NGER reporting, Safeguard baseline setting, advice on Emission Reduction Fund opportunities and emission trajectories.