Alan Pears AM is a Fellow at the Climate and Energy College and a Senior Industry Fellow at RMIT, where he taught for many years. He has worked in the energy field since the late 1970s, mainly on demand side issues and has played key roles in development of several Australian energy efficiency and climate abatement programs across all sectors, including appliance and building efficiency and industry/business energy management. In recent years, he has worked with the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity, framing and applying the ‘value chain’ approach to energy productivity for the refrigerated cold chain, food processing and application of high temperature heat pumps. He has evaluated urban carbon strategies with the Asia Pacific Economic Community, and has worked with several Australian communities on low carbon strategies. Alan advises business, governments and communities.