Winner of this year’s Future Sustainability Leader award at the Sustainability Awards, HY William Chan, has been announced as a finalist for Young Australian of the Year.
Chan is an urban innovator designing resilient and inclusive cities for people. He is a TED speaker and is featured in the '30 Under 30' lists by Forbes (industry, manufacturing and energy) and GreenBiz (sustainability leadership) for 2019.
A recent graduate of architecture (2018), he has used the power of innovation, technology and sustainability to empower refugee youth to design their own built environments globally.
Chan has developed an award-winning life-changing desktop tool that creatively upcycles plastic waste in refugee camps into useful 3D-printed shelter elements, and at the same time, upskills young people in environmental sustainability. The initiative, the first of its kind in the world, educates young refugees in future skills, the circular economy and ‘green’ design.
“Being named the inaugural Future Sustainability Leader is a testament that there is no age barrier in proactively leading and creating solutions towards a more sustainable and regenerative future,” says Chan.
“The climate emergency can only be solved by working collectively with industry experts together with Australia's up-and-coming architects and designers, the generation that will face the brunt of the climate crisis.”
