Our team
Joe Pickin – Technical Director
Dr Joe Pickin is one of Australia’s leading specialists in waste and circular economy data, bringing together expertise in environmental science, economics, policy and modelling. Across his career as a consultant, researcher, policy analyst and strategist, Joe has completed more than 400 consultancies and played a significant role in shaping how Australia understands and reports its waste and resource recovery performance. He is a longstanding lead author of the Australian Government’s National Waste and Resource Recovery Report and has particular expertise in waste data, greenhouse gas emissions, hazardous waste and environmental economics. Joe was an advisor to the ABC’s War on Waste series, and chair of the National Carbon Division of the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia from 2012 to 2020. His PhD explored the environmental economics of waste.
Kyle O’Farrell – Technical Director
Kyle is a nationally recognised specialist in understanding how materials and products move through the economy, from production and consumption through to recovery and end of life. His work spans material flow analysis, product stewardship, life cycle assessment, resource efficiency and waste and recycling policy, with deep experience across plastics, packaging, batteries, e-waste, tyres, textiles, organics and other material streams. Kyle has led hundreds of consulting projects and built longstanding relationships across government, industry organisations and private clients. Since 2008 Kyle has been the lead author and analyst for the annual Australian Plastics Flows and Fates study, and since 2019 has been the lead author for the annual Australian Packaging Consumption and Recovery Data project. He is an EIANZ Certified Environmental Practitioner and Life Cycle Assessment Certified Practitioner.
Carmen Edwards – Director and Business Manager
Carmen brings a multidisciplinary background spanning business management, communications, marketing, law, education and the creative arts. She leads Blue Environment’s business operations, including finance, contracts, compliance, people and culture, systems, procurement and business development, and works closely with the consulting team to keep projects and the business running effectively. Carmen also brings specialist skills to project work, particularly in data visualisation, geospatial mapping, infographics, stakeholder engagement and document production. Her waste and material flow visualisations have been published in government reports, industry publications and other national media.
Lisa McLeod – Principal Environmental Scientist
Lisa combines deep environmental expertise with the perspective of someone who has led complex programs from inside government. Before joining Blue Environment, she held senior leadership roles at EPA Victoria across environmental regulation, organisational transformation and strategic program delivery. Today, she applies that experience to circular economy and waste strategy, policy, material flow analysis, feasibility studies and sustainability assessments. Lisa is particularly skilled at navigating complex issues involving policy, regulation, stakeholders and practical implementation, bringing a direct and grounded approach to her work. She is also an experienced facilitator and project and program leader.
Piya Nyunt – Senior Analyst and Environmental Scientist
Piya is one of Blue Environment’s key analytical specialists, combining environmental science with sophisticated data analysis and modelling. His work spans material flow analysis, waste and resource recovery infrastructure planning, greenhouse gas emissions, kerbside service transitions and strategic waste planning. Piya has played a leading analytical role in major national waste and materials studies and is particularly skilled at turning large and complex datasets into robust models and useful evidence for decision-making. His broader expertise includes multi-criteria assessment, environmental policy, sustainability strategy and climate change science.
Tom Elford – Senior Environmental Scientist
Tom brings a strong understanding of how the waste and resource recovery sector works in practice, developed through senior consulting, state government and regional waste roles. He has particular expertise in recovered material markets, market intelligence, circular economy, economic feasibility and waste and resource recovery infrastructure. Tom’s experience spans data analysis, environmental policy, regulation, procurement, organics, plastics, landfill, hazardous materials and facility management. A skilled researcher and stakeholder facilitator, he is adept at bringing together industry intelligence, data and on-the-ground knowledge to provide practical strategic advice.
Georgia Caggiati-Shortell – Environmental Scientist
Georgia works across waste and circular economy strategy, research, data analysis and stakeholder engagement, with particular experience supporting local and state government projects, as well as national work. Her experience includes waste and resource recovery strategies, circular economy planning, material flow analysis, organics feasibility, hazardous waste, packaging and greenhouse gas analysis. With qualifications in both environmental science and global studies, Georgia brings a broad perspective to environmental challenges and a strong interest in the relationship between evidence, policy and communities. She is also experienced in multi-level stakeholder consultation, communications and translating technical research into clear, practical outcomes.
Yong Lin – Environmental Scientist
Yong brings a practical, data-focused approach to environmental projects, with experience spanning research, modelling, field auditing and site investigations. He works across waste and resource recovery studies involving materials and products, hazardous waste, plastics, packaging and emissions, and has undertaken data collection and auditing with councils across Australia. Yong’s background also includes sustainability, resource efficiency and laboratory-based soil sampling and testing, giving him a useful combination of field and analytical experience. His strengths include data modelling and visualisation, research, analysis and turning detailed information into clear project outputs.
Noah Jones – Environmental Scientist
Noah has developed a strong analytical niche in waste data, modelling and greenhouse gas emissions. He works with complex datasets to investigate how waste is generated, managed and recovered, with project experience spanning landfill gas, waste-to-energy, hazardous waste, packaging, product stewardship and material flows. With a background in earth science and experience in geographical mapping and IT, Noah brings strong technical problem-solving skills to his work. He is particularly skilled in Excel modelling, data interpretation and material flow visualisation, helping turn complex datasets into clear evidence for decision-making.
Louise Witherow – Environmental Scientist
Louise brings valuable first-hand experience of commercial waste operations alongside her environmental consulting skills. Before joining Blue Environment, she worked within a multinational waste and energy business across waste operations, sustainability and project delivery. This gives her a practical understanding of collections, resource recovery, organics, compliance, health and safety, data and environmental reporting. Louise combines this operational perspective with strong analytical and stakeholder engagement skills and has particular experience in waste data, reporting tools and resource recovery performance. She holds qualifications in both environmental science and commerce.
Fiona Harney – Environmental Consultant
Fiona brings particular strength in the people and primary research side of environmental consulting. She specialises in stakeholder engagement, interviews and surveys, primary data collection and research, and has contributed to major studies of material and product use, resource recovery and product stewardship. Her work has covered packaging, plastics, batteries and emerging environmental issues, supported by experience in data collection, analysis, report writing and review. Fiona’s earlier career in community services and tertiary education also gives her extensive experience working with diverse stakeholders and communicating effectively across different audiences.
Cathy La – Office Coordinator
Cathy keeps the day-to-day machinery of Blue Environment running smoothly, providing business administration and project support across the team. With a background in environmental science, she also contributes to research, literature reviews and data collation when projects call for an extra pair of capable hands. Her role spans the many practical details that keep our systems, processes and people organised, drawing on previous experience in administration, media and project support. Cathy has a particular interest in sustainability, conservation ecology and climate change adaptation.