Posts Tagged ‘innovation’
The Blue Economy: Public Lecture
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on June 9th, 2011
| 10 June , 2011 | ||
| 1:00 pm | to | 2:00 pm |
The mission of The Blue Economy is to prove 100 manufacturing innovations with viable business models that could generate 100 million jobs in 10 years, all with zero waste impact on the environment. Each innovation is inspired by science and draw on biomimetics and the laws of physics. They cover the full gamut of industrial activity, from energy to mining to medicine to banking. The innovations are summarized on the ZERI website and distributed around the world in partnership with UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), UNIDO ( United Nations Industrial Development Corporation), and The Club of Rome.
Gunter will also discuss his current initiative, which is to replace all nuclear power in Germany with renewables within 10 years without subsidies or hikes in tariffs. It uses a combination of three proven technologies:
- vertical wind turbines within existing high tension transmission towers
- biogas generation from waste water treatment plants and organic solid municipal waste
- solar using innovative film
Register for the event here.
Friday, June 10, 2011 at 1:00 PM
Theatre A, Elisabeth Murdoch Building
The University of Melbourne
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Suburban Water: Water Capture & Storage Trial in Kingston
Posted in Models, Research by Kate Archdeacon on April 13th, 2011
A Sustainable Melbourne report from the 2011 Water Innovation Day, co-hosted by the Smart Water Fund and Siemens:
© Suburban Water
From a presentation by Jim Townsend, CEO Suburban Water, “Remote Storm Water Management”
Introduction:
Suburban Water was established to actively test and develop storm water harvesting technology in Australian suburbs. The premise of the project is that captured storm water doesn’t need to be treated to potable levels – between 30 -35% of current urban water use could be directly replaced with storm water.
As the recipient of a Round 3 grant from the Smart Water Fund, the company was able to install a pilot harvesting system in the city of Kingston, Victoria. Using the local aquifer, telemetry and a combination of existing and new infrastructure, the system allows water to be captured and shared between two separate sites, and increases each site’s ability to prepare for and capture heavy rain.
The System:
Storm water captured at Southern Road Reserve is fed into concrete tanks, where it is treated and returned to the aquifer as part of a managed aquifer recharge system. It is held there until needed either at Southern Road Reserve or at Parkdale Secondary College, just over a kilometre away. Parkdale Secondary College captures its own storm water and stores it in rainwater tanks, which provide toilet flush water and irrigation for the grounds. When these tanks are nearly half-empty, a monitor alerts the remote control at Suburban Water in Adelaide. The subterranean tanks at Southern Road Reserve pump water up into the existing Melbourne Water drain, and the water arrives to be treated and pumped into the school’s tanks 90 minutes later.
When significant rainfall is expected, the tanks at Southern Road Reserve empty into the aquifer in order to capture as much new rainfall as possible.
Key Outcomes:
The project is well into its prototype and testing stage, and while there have been significant challenges, CEO Jim Townsend emphasised the importance of being able to put a price on storm water capture and reuse – excluding the cost of installation but including regular running costs such as pumping and monitoring, the price is approximately $0.4/kL.
Further information available through the Smart Water Fund
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Food Challenge Awards 2011: Now Open
Posted in Seeking by Kate Archdeacon on April 5th, 2011
Image from Food Challenge Awards 2010
The Food Challenge Awards were established by Food Magazine in 2004 to recognise and reward best practice and innovation in food and beverage processing in Australia and New Zealand. Now in its 7th year, the Food Challenge Awards has become a pivotal date on the food and beverage industry’s calendar; drawing together the great and the good, from newly launched boutique operations, to fully established international enterprises.
Categories include Organic & All Natural and Sustainable Manufacturing
Nominations are now open for the Food Challenge Awards 2011 until May 10th.
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New: EcoMarket at the EcoCentre
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on March 3rd, 2011
| 6 March , 2011 | ||
| 11:00 am | to | 4:00 pm |
http://www.ecocentre.com/ecoshop/ecomarket
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MSLE Dean’s Lecture Series | Greener Revolution | Monday 14 Feb
Posted in Events by land-environment on February 9th, 2011
| 14 February , 2011 | ||
| 5:30 pm | to | 6:30 pm |
MSLE Dean’s Lecture Series presents
Professor M.S. Swaminathan on
‘Keys to the next Greener Revolution’
Executive Director Swaminathan Research Foundation, India
Date: Monday 14 February
Time: 5.30-6.30pm
Venue: Harold White Lecture Theatre, Arts Education Building (Building 199).
Register here
Professor Swaminathan coined the term ‘Evergreen Revolution’ to highlight the pathway of increasing production and productivity in a manner such that short and long term goals of food production are not mutually antagonistic. He wants to produce more from less, less land, less pesticide, less water to achieve sustainable agriculture. In support of this revolution he worked on better disease crops, better soil health and fertility without having to resort to chemical fertilizers and the use of biological controls to reduce damage caused by pests.
Without the advantages of technology, capital and subsidies, his answer is to pursue a knowledge revolution by getting the right information out to people at the right time where it can be combined with local understanding to produce valuable knowledge.
Professor M.S. Swaminathan
Professor M.S. Swaminathan is considered the ‘father’ of the Green Revolution in Asia. He has been acclaimed by TIME magazine as one of the twenty most influential Asians of the 20th century and one of the only three from India, the other two being Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.
He has been described by the United Nations Environment Programme as “the Father of Economic Ecology” and by Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary General of the United Nations, as “a living legend who will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare distinction”. He was Chairman of the UN Science Advisory Committee set up in 1980 to take follow-up action on the Vienna Plan of Action. He has also served as Independent Chairman of the FAO Council and President of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
Contact: Erin Wilson
Marketing Coordinator
E. e.wilson@unimelb.edu.au
T. 03 8344 4608
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Sustainable Ballarat: Community Brainstorming Session
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on January 10th, 2011
| 6 February , 2011 | ||
| 12:00 pm | to | 3:00 pm |
The second Big BREAZE Brainstorm (www.breaze.org.au)
RSVP admin@breaze.org.au
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Forum on Green Entrepreneurship (Mon 11th Oct)
Posted in Events by PENmelbourne on October 6th, 2010
| 11 October , 2010 | ||
| 5:45 pm | to | 8:00 pm |
Do you have a great green idea that you would love to get off the ground? Or are you interested in hearing about green innovation happening on your doorstep?
Come along to the Postgraduate Environment Network’s Green Jobs 2: Green Entrepreneurs Forum to hear the personal stories of successful green entrepreneurs. From businesses to not for profits, NGOs and community organisations, join us and be inspired as we find out how these enterprises went from idea to reality and everything that happened in between. Each entrepreneur will give a brief 10 minute presentation about their experiences starting?up and running their green enterprise. The floor will then be opened for audience participation.
Presenters include representatives from successful green enterprises such as Energy for Opportunity, EcoCubby, Send Me Seeds Pip, Energy Matters and Green PC.
Refreshments and a chance to network will be provided after the event as well as drinks at Tsubu bar.
Date: Monday 11th October Time: 5.45 for a 6pm start. 8pm finish.
Location: Gryphon Gallery, 1888 Building (Building 198 – Grid ref k12), off Grattan St, near the corner of Swanston St.
Please RSVP to rsvp@pen.net.au by Saturday 9th October.
For more information visit www.pen.net.au
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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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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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