Posts Tagged ‘innovation’
Designing for the Asia Pacific: Unlimited
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on August 20th, 2010
Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific is a new international initiative supported by the Queensland Government to promote the value of design thinking in shaping a positive future for the Asia Pacific region.
From October 4-10, 2010, Unlimited hosts its first event in Brisbane, Australia. Beyond the traditional design festival, Unlimited: Designing for the Asia Pacific explores economic, social and environmental challenges impacting our region, and takes a close look at how design is making a difference.
A diverse program of talks, exhibitions, seminars and workshops, for business leaders, the public, and the design industry, will develop a deeper understanding of the ways in which design is shaping the world around us.
Join us online and for the first Unlimited event – we welcome your thoughts, your creativity and your own design story…
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Creative Innovation 2010
Posted in Events by John Myers on August 2nd, 2010
Some of the world’s trickiest problems will be put to some of the world’s greatest thinkers and strategists to find creative solutions in Melbourne in September at Creative Innovation 2010.
Questions such as how do we re-think the future? How to lead creativity and innovation in organizations? Constructing communities – a contradiction in terms? Mental health and mental wealth? How war can bring peace? will be posed to Edward de Bono; Edward Luttwak, former advisor to the White House; Patrick McGorry, Australian of the Year; Mark Scott, MD of the ABC; Austin Williams, architect of the Future Cities Project; and Dr Peter Farrell US Entrepreneur of the Year. They are among 35 world class speakers, thought leaders and artists who have been invited to give their answer to the $1 billion question – Imagine If…
Creative Innovation 2010 is the brainchild of soprano, social entrepreneur and Founder Creative Universe and Creativity Australia, Tania de Jong AM, who believes that creativity is the strategic tool of the 21st Century. “Creativity is critical to Australia in making the transition to a sustainable innovation and knowledge-based economy. Creativity is also vital for unlocking human potential and increasing wellbeing,” she says. “Innovation is vital for organisations exposed to globalisation, increasing competition, diversity among consumers and rapidly changing technologies.”
The conference features concerts, deep conversations and master classes.
Venue: Melbourne Recital Centre, 31 Sturt Street, Southbank
Dates: 8 – 10 September
Visit the website for more information.
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Dialysis Project Saves Lives and Water
Posted in Models, Research by Kate Archdeacon on July 19th, 2010
Source: Smart Water Fund
Image: Bill Peckham CC 3.0
One of Australia’s largest providers of dialysis, North West Dialysis Service (NWDS) is set to save up to 1.68 megalitres of water a year per site through an innovative water recycling system. A Smart Water Fund grant enabled NWDS to investigate a system that captures clean reject water generated during the dialysis procedure for reuse in a number of its facilities. This water would otherwise go directly to sewer.
“We’ve worked with 23 of our sites to find beneficial uses for waste water that also have an acceptable project payback timeframe,” said James Gerrish, NWDS Business Activity Coordinator and Project Manager. “Instead of going straight to sewer, it’s possible to use the water for toilet flushing in health care facilities, as wash down water, in air- conditioning cooling towers and to water gardens in regional facilities. For example our Wodonga site could rescue six litres of water per minute during dialysis and use it for toilet flusher tanks or cooling towers,” Mr Gerrish said. “This equates to 1.68 megalitres of water a year – that’s enough to half-fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.”
A key aspect of the project’s success has been to determine the quality of the reject water and ensure water use demand matches the consistent quantities of water produced during dialysis. “Many regional dialysis centres are co-located with aged care facilities in regions with tough water restrictions,” Mr Gerrish said. “While demand for irrigation water fluctuates throughout the year, these sites place a high value on this water use as they see the therapeutic and aesthetic value of maintaining their gardens.”
In addition to saving millions of litres of clean water a year, a key project outcome will be the development of a dialysis water reuse handbook for dialysis providers across Australia. NWDS project sites will also receive a detailed individual site report and an overall project report enabling benchmarking with similar facilities.
Part of Melbourne Health, NWDS, provides haemodialysis (blood filtration) for approximately 580 Victorians with kidney failure at 30 centres and 150 homes. NWDS dialysis units range from regional and rural healthcare centres to metropolitan dialysis services, including the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
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Knowledge Cities World Summit: Melbourne 2010
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on July 16th, 2010
Registration is now open for Melbourne 2010 – Knowledge Cities World Summit being held from 16 – 19 November 2010 at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, Victoria, Australia
Knowledge is a resource, which relies on the past for a better future. In the 21st century, more than ever before, cities around the world rely on the knowledge of their citizens, their institutions and their firms and enterprises. Integrating knowledge-based development in urban strategies and policies, beyond the provision of schools and locations for higher education, has become a new ambitious arena of city politics. Coming from theory to practice, and bringing together the knowledge stakeholders in a city and preparing joint visions for the knowledge city is a new challenge for city managers. It requires visionary power, creativity, holistic thinking, the willingness to cooperate with all groups of the local civil society, and the capability to moderate communication processes to overcome conflicts and to develop joint action for a sustainable future. This timely summit makes an important reminder that ‘knowledge’ is the key notion in the 21st Century development.
Summit themes include:
- Knowledge-based (urban) development
- Knowledge-based economy and value generation
- Knowledge cities, regions and societies
- Knowledge cluster, enterprise and organisations
- Knowledge-intensive service activities
- Knowledge assets and capital systems
- Knowledge workers and creative class
- Creativity, innovation, technology and learning communities
- Sustainable (urban) development
Early bird registration closes: 10 August 2010
Early bird full time registration fee AUD900, and full time students* pay only AUD400 (* students will be asked to show their full time student ID cards upon registration at the venue)
Visit the website www.melbourneknowledgesummit.com for more information.
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Climate Redesign: Collaborative Project
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on July 13th, 2010
Climate Redesign 2010: An experimental collaborative project involving climate communicators and creatives to generate ideas on how to increase measurable mainstream support for action on climate change. We will be brainstorming together, sketching, modelling, drawing, writing, building briefs and testing ideas. We will be inspiring each other, having fun, sharing skills and forming working relationships with the people who will energise our ideas and implement them in the real world.
Public momentum on climate change action is stagnating, Copenhagen flopped and Rudd back-flipped on legislating a strong ETS. Meanwhile the issue is not going away and scientists are getting more alarmed with the scientific evidence. Australian groups have created the technical and economic solutions and now we need big creative ideas to inspire the Australian community and our leaders to implement these solutions. We are calling for Australia’s creatives to step up to this challenge and provide the ideas, skills and leadership that will transform the movement and catalyse real change. We want to abandon the stereotypes of past communications and actions to embrace the new, the clever, the dynamic and agile, the unexpected.
We are not aiming to produce campaign materials. We aim to produce the ideas and concepts that will lead to better campaign planning or a better alternative to a campaign altogether. We want to design frameworks for the Climate Communicators to allocate resources and ideas within their own organisations and to seek funding and support for implementation. All ideas and concepts produced will be shared and not be owned by anyone person. We will encourage remixing and upcycling of ideas between participants.
rewards
Participants will gain the following:
1. Work creatively in a fun environment
2. Extend working networks
3. Learn new ways of collaborating together
4. Contribute actively to the climate change issue
Saturday July 17, with an evening introduction in the week of the 5th.
Visit the website for more details on how to get involved.
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Designing Innovation: Social Innovator Dialogues
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on June 28th, 2010
Source: The Australian Centre for Social Innovation
The Australian Centre for Social Innovation, in collaboration with the Centre for Social Impact and the Australian Social Innovation Exchange invite you to join us for the inaugural Social Innovator Dialogues. The Social Innovator Dialogues aim to bring internationally renowned leaders in social innovation together with local changemakers and challenge us to think differently about the big issues affecting our communities and to test practical ways to integrate innovative approaches into our responses to unmet social needs.
This July for our Designing Innovation tour, we’re bringing leading thinker, Ezio Manzini, to our shores for masterclasses and free public forums that look at where social innovation, design and sustainability meet. Ezio is perhaps best known for his skills in practical scenario building towards solutions that encompass both environmental and social quality and the Designing Innovation tour will give you the opportunity to engage with him on both the theory and practice of building socially innovative responses.
July 14 Free Public Forum: Small, local, open, connected
The only sustainable way to get out of the current global financial and ecological crisis is to promote new economic models, new production systems and new ideas of wellbeing. To define and implement these new models is, of course, very difficult. But it is not impossible. And we do not have to start from zero. What is the meaning of locality and community today? Can localities and communities be designed? How can bottom-up initiatives positively interplay with top-down ones? For discussion on these questions and more, register and come along to the Designing Innovation Public Forum. The forum will be half lecture, half Q&A.
July 14 Melbourne Masterclass: Next economy – enabling sustainable ways of living
This masterclass will explore how the interplay between social and technical innovation is opening up brand new opportunities. How can we conceive and deliver “enabling solutions”? How can individuals, businesses, institutions, associations and communities collaborate in the framework of viable business models to support sustainable ways of living? This masterclass is for policy-makers and practitioners who are interested in sustainability, social innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration. Attendees will have the opportunity to workshop some of these ideas and approaches, including how to reframe problems to inspire creative thinking about solutions, as well as understanding how ‘design thinking’ can help us experiment and prototype.
Places are limited so please visit the website for more detailed information and to register for your place.
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Stormwater Storage Aquifer: Rossdale Golf Club
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on May 20th, 2010
Source: Smart Water Fund
The Smart Water Fund congratulates Rossdale Golf Club on being announced as a finalist for the inaugural Prime Minister’s Water Wise Award. One of five national finalists, Rossdale Golf Club was nominated for its integrated stormwater harvesting and aquifer storage and recovery project. Working in partnership with the CSIRO, the Club received funding from the Smart Water Fund to implement Victoria’s first aquifer storage and recovery project (ASR). The project has seen the Club reduce its drinking water usage by 56 per cent, saving 35 million litres per year while still providing a high quality course for local golfers. This innovative approach to water management combines the harvesting of stormwater from a nearby drain with traditional dam storage and the innovative ASR process. ASR is the process of using natural underground aquifers as storage medium for treated urban stormwater that can then be used as required.
In Rossdale Golf Club’s case, stormwater collected during the winter months is stored within an aquifer until needed during the dry summer period.
Smart Water Fund CEO Christine Cussen congratulates Rossdale Golf Club on being recognised by this prestigious award. “To be nominated as a finalist for the Prime Minister’s Water Wise Award is a fantastic achievement for the Rossdale Golf Club and for the CSIRO research team, backed by the Smart Water Fund, who has contributed to the success of this project,” she said. “This project is a great example of research being applied to create real life water saving solutions. With such positive results, the lessons learnt by Rossdale Golf Club are already being leveraged by other golf clubs and local councils across Victoria who are investigating the potential of ASR,” Ms Cussen said.
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Use of recycled water in industry: Guidance Tool
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on May 3rd, 2010
Source: Smart Water Fund
Victoria University and the Smart Water Fund have developed a guidance tool for industrial water users to address issues associated with recycled wastewater systems and increase uptake across the state. The user-friendly guide, ‘Guidance for the Use of Recycled Water by Industry’, is designed to inform industrial water users on recycled water and how systems can be installed, with an emphasis on reticulated treated wastewater.
“As part of the project we engaged five different industries in Victoria and identified common concerns about reticulated treated wastewater, such as corrosion, water quality and company image when associated with using recycled water,” said project manager at Victoria University, Professor Stephen Gray.
“Across the board industries were unsure of its applicability to their business and some were reluctant to install recycled systems, despite the water savings they could make,” Professor Gray said.
Victoria University identified nine different categories of water use that are common across different industries. Each category has its own water quality requirements, human exposure levels and hazards.
“After identifying the most common water needs for industries in Victoria, we conducted a thorough literature review to provide a comprehensive and sound base on which to make recommendations,” Professor Gray said.
Based on the literature review, Victoria University developed a quick scan ‘water reduction tool’ and decision support framework (DSF) and trialled it on the five industries, each having different water use needs.
“The trials were received positively, with four of the five companies successful in identifying a water-saving measure for further investigation.” Professor Gray said.
“Depending on the structure of your business, recycled water systems can make water savings of more than 50 per cent, which improves the financial sustainability of your business in the long-term and reduces your impact on the environment.
“Wastewater recycling also provides additional benefits for companies where rainwater tanks are not an option, or higher levels of certain minerals and substances are beneficial.”
The guidance tool has been recognised by industry bodies in Victoria and nationally, including the dairy and food industries, as a well-rounded and accurate document for industries to make an informed decision on recycled water.
The guidance tool has also been referenced in a number of reports and websites, including VicWater and recycledwater.com.au
Read more about the project on SmartWater.
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Smart Water Conference: Presentations Online
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on April 26th, 2010
Source: Smart Water Fund
Presentations from the inaugural Smart Water Conference are now available for download. The Smart Water Conference presentations offer an insight into the projects and topics discussed and are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in undertaking water saving projects.
Held in October 2009, the inaugural conference provided a platform for knowledge transfer in the water industry and gave attendees an opportunity to meet innovators in the water management and research fields. The conference featured 18 speakers across three different topic streams, from a range of industries and sectors, including science and technology, industry and business, and community, education and social science. Each project discussed has received funding and support from the Smart Water Fund to provide new learnings into water conservation, water recycling and biosolids management.
Keep an eye on the Smart Water Fund website for vodcasts of the conference presentations, which will be made available soon.
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Carbon Compass: Sharing Sustainability Solutions for Business
Posted in Seeking by Kate Archdeacon on April 12th, 2010
Want free access to proven carbon, climate change and sustainability solutions for your business? Would you like to know what other businesses are doing to successfully adapt to the carbon constrained economy? Do you have a carbon, climate change or sustainability solution you’d like to share with the business community? Carbon Down’s Carbon Compass website provides all of this, free for small and medium sized businesses. Carbon Compass provides businesses with access to practical solutions which have been implemented by other businesses and organisations, making Carbon Compass a unique sustainability hub.
Joining is free and as a Carbon Compass member your business will be able to:
- Gain one-stop-shop access to solutions and resources relating to carbon, climate change and sustainability – enabling you to implement within your own business
- Rate and review solutions that other businesses have posted on Carbon Compass
- Provide your own solutions that other businesses can implement
- Receive feedback from other businesses on the solutions you provide
- Expand your network, raise the profile of your brand and gain access to a growing community of like minded businesses
The site provides fact sheets and case studies through an archive that is easily searchable by industry, type, resource or topic.
Simply visit www.carboncompass.com.au to register your business.
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