Maria Straub worked for 20 years as a manager in a big Australian corporate house. She gradually came to realise that the biosphere just wouldn't be able to sustain continued energy and resource consumption at current levels, and the poorer countries would suffer first.

Maria quit and in 1999 came to Nepal to help build a school in Gokarna. Here she saw frugality could be a virtue, and communities can leave smaller ecological footprints. But she also saw global consumerism pushing people to an ecologically unustainable future in Kathmandu.

Returning to Australia, Maria founded Green Purchasing, which teaches companies, towns and cities how to reduce consumption. But Nepal left a powerful impression on Maria, so she is returning to Nepal in November to start a sustainable-school program which will try to make Nepali children aware of each product they buy. How is it made? Is it long-lasting and recyclable? Are there alternatives? Who or what suffered as a consequence of producing the product? As Mahatma Gandhi wrote: 'The earth has enough for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed.'

Says Maria: "An economy that benefits the minority while at the same time causes untold hardship to the vast majority is fundamentally flawed. Let this not be Nepal."