Subject: the outline of Peter Croal's work at CIDA. I am currently coming towards the end of my PhD thesis which deals with renewable energy technology in remote areas in Australia and rural villages in Indonesia. A large part of my research deals with issues related to the integration of indigenous knowledge into development projects. My research is based on the realisation that the success of rural electrification in terms of development agendas is site specific. Energy technologies need to be developed for each specific environment. We cannot afford expensive rural electrification programmes that do not produce sustainable results. For example, developing countries cannot afford to be dependent on technology transfer and foreign supply to sustain their technological progress. Thus, any proposed energy technology needs to be researched not only into its technical applications, but also critically, into the cultural, political, economic and environmental context of its operation. The end users have to be included in the decision-making processes, so that they become stakeholders in the new technology, rather than remain passive bystanders. This will result in a better understanding of how to apply sustainable energy technology. In other words "to get it 90% right" before spending large amounts of resources on providing technology that is inappropriate, and/or misunderstood by the communities at the centre of development efforts. I believe it is these factors that help define sustainability. ------------------------------------------------------------ August Schlapfer Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy Murdoch University Murdoch WA 6150 august@central.murdoch.edu.au