Portia leads this team to reduce emissions within cities across the built environment, infrastructure and transport sectors across Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

Portia is a researcher and sustainability leader with a decade’s experience spanning academia, social enterprise, startups, and non-profit organisations. Portia was previously Director of the Cities Power Partnership, a program of the Climate Council and Australia’s largest network of over 185 local governments tackling climate change. In this role she spearheaded strategic research and advocacy initiatives to drive impactful change on climate policy for cities nationwide. Portia has also worked across a range of for-profit and not-for-profit organisations, helping small and medium sized enterprises to reduce their emissions. She has also worked in several start-up ventures, including co-founding a social enterprise. 

Portia holds a PhD with the Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute on school building decarbonisation and social impact, and a Bachelors’ degree in Environmental Science and Policy, with St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas.