Terence Jeyaretnam

Terence is the Executive Director of Net Balance in Melbourne and holds a degree in Environmental Engineering (UWA), is a Chartered Professional Engineer and a Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Australia. Terence is an environmental and sustainability advisory and assurance specialist with over eighteen years experience in advising governments and corporations on sustainability issues. In 2005, Terence was named as one of the top 10 most influential young engineers in Australia by Engineers Australia. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Southern Queensland’s Australian Centre for Sustainable Business and Development.

Terence is only one of five professionals globally to be awarded the grade of Lead Sustainability Assurance Practitioner by AccountAbility for signing off sustainability reports to the AA1000 Assurance Standard. He has signed off as an independent assurance provider on over 200 corporate sustainability and environmental reports over the past decade, including some of Australia’s largest companies. He was the youngest appointed EPA (Vic) Auditor, a role he held until 2008. Some of his early work includes authoring the National Framework for Corporate Public Environmental Reporting for the Federal Government in 1998 and advising The Body Shop in the mid 90s.

Terence is on the Board of Net Balance Foundation, Thermometer Foundation, ACCA Global Sustainability Forum, Engineers Media, Australian Legal Sector Alliance, 3Pillars Network and is also a member of the AccountAbility Interim Standards Board. He has formerly judged the Banksia, Ethical Investor and Prime Minister’s and Premier’s sustainability and environmental awards. Terence has also formerly chaired the College of Environmental Engineers, Society for Sustainability and Environmental Engineering and Engineers Australia’s Sustainability Committee. He has been a monthly columnist on sustainability for the Engineers Australia magazine for over seven years, a regular columnist on sustainability for My Business magazine and is a member of the Editorial board of the US Journal Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy.

Terence is married to Lara and has two little girls Tilana (5) and Selena (4), and a new addition, Deshan, with whom he has his hands full, and for whom he hopes his work makes a difference. He has one brother who lives in Los Angeles who is an engineer and a musician and his folks reside in Perth, where he grew up. He is a keen basketball player and enjoys reading, writing, photography and cooking. Few would know that he is a collector of the Phantom comic, the first ever super hero comic to be published in the world, and his collection which started at school now includes about half of the entire series.