Insights

Geelong, the sleeping giant of cleantech and circular economy

A show of strength in November '22

"The last year has been important for Cleantech. We have seen the sector grow significantly, despite the difficulties of COVID-19. There is certainly growing economic, social and political recognition that this sector is important for our future. More capital is seeking cleantech investment with the increased realisation that our footprint must be lighter to ensure our world can embrace the challenges of sustainability and climate change. Our time is now!" Nigel Murphy, VCC Board Chair. You can download the VCC 2020/21 Annual Report through the link.

In April this year, the Victorian Cleantech Cluster held the first Victorian Cleantech Expo, attended by over 300 cleantech industry professionals. With 56 incredible speakers, and a breadth of sectors represented by our attendees and live sessions, this event’s success is an indicator of the thriving and passionate cleantech community here in Victoria. Held from the 20th to the 22nd of April, the expo was three days filled with engaging live presentations, panel discussions, keynote speakers, industry insights and sector collaboration. The Expo was held in partnership with Global Victoria, and brought together leaders in Cleantech from around the world, sharing Victoria’s exceptional calibre of technology and innovation. The results are in, and our attendees had an overwhelmingly positive experience at the first Victorian Cleantech Expo. "The Victorian Cleantech Expo brought together many of the key players in the emerging cleantech sector - innovators, financiers, government and industry. The dynamic was fantastic and certain to create new technology, businesses and opportunities for Australians. This sector is so vitally important for us as we move towards a more sustainable future. Thank you to the Victorian Government for their support - this event is a must have for 2022!" Nigel Murphy, VCC Board Chair Live Sessions: The Expo showcased global industry leaders and cutting-edge innovations in cleantech across sectors such as; new energy, air, environmental management, water, waste, recycling, circular economy, green buildings and agriculture. The expo was spread across 15 outstanding sessions addressing a vast variety of cleantech topics from; financing cleantech innovation, fast tracking start-ups, cleantech success stories and the role of research. See the full program here. Speakers: Opened by the Honorable Lily D’Ambrosio, the Expo featured an incredible lineup of 56 speakers! Our speakers represented organisations including; ClimateWorks Australia, Nestle, Beyond Zero Emissions, Barwon Water, C4NET, Department of Environment Land Water and Planning, Austrade, Point Advisory and many more. Our speakers included representatives from Government, start-ups, universities, venture capital organisations, cleantech innovators and entrepreneurs and more. Download our full list of speaker bios here. The Expo Booths: The Victorian Cleantech Expo proved to be a fantastic opportunity for industry professionals and attendees alike to collaborate, showcase their organisation and foster new connections within the industry. Event attendees had the opportunity to access the Virtual Trade Show Booths throughout the expo for the opportunity to engage in unique networking opportunities, engage with government, learn about commercial activity, and discover new cleantech organisations. The VCC were delighted to receive overwhelmingly positive feedback about our exhibitors trade show booths. Overall the Victorian Cleantech Expo was an immersive and engaging online experience which consisted of countless opportunities to learn, connect and collaborate with leaders and innovators across cleantech sectors. Thank you to everyone who attended this year's virtual event, we look forward to holding our next Expo in 2022. Interested in learning more? Contact the VCC via admin@victoriancleantech.org.au

The Advisory System for Process Innovation and Resource Exchange (ASPIRE) platform is an innovative match-making service that brings together remanufacturers, purchasers and recyclers. Originally developed by CSIRO and Data61, this service responded to a growing number of manufacturing companies talking to their local councils about waste disposal costs. The platform addresses the root cause of these concerns by helping businesses and councils to generate revenue from excess resources that would otherwise end up in landfill. When an expression of interest for commercialising ASPIRE opened in late 2018, it was the perfect opportunity for Cameron McKenzie. Having worked in the construction industry for 20 years, Cameron described himself as baffled by the irresponsible way that many companies and individuals deal with their waste. He later moved into helping small businesses with risk and litigation, where a lot of his work focussed on supply and value chains. “One of the things that I really enjoyed was putting businesses in touch together to solve problems”, Cameron explains. “When ASPIRE came across my desk it was exactly that, but in a digital solution.” ASPIRE transitioned into commercial operation in 2019 and won the Australian Technologies Competition in the same year. In March 2020, the new ASPIRE platform was launched. More than passively listing buyers and sellers of recycling and reuse opportunities, this platform actively suggests business-to-business collaborations. “ASPIRE’s not passive”, Cameron emphasises, “we create markets around supply and demand of resources that might not necessarily have markets around them.” This is achieved in part by making it compulsory for businesses to nominate material that they want to acquire from the platform, rather than using it solely to offload their own waste. They’ve had some successful stories so far. In the City of Kingston, A-Tech Recyclers now have an e-waste recycling partnership with the council. Some of the council’s own waste is now diverted and turned into innovative building materials by Casafico and local company Enigmaclean have reduced their waste to landfill by 75% through both reuse and recycling. The City of Greater Dandenong has partnered with Corex and Smart Recycling to tackle plastic and timber waste respectively. Hume City Council is now home to a great example of industrial symbiosis with Rotometrics chemical waste being used by Global Waste Management for wastewater treatment. Hume have also partnered with Close the Loop to use a new compactor to facilitate expanded polystyrene recycling. In the City of Bayswater, Aximill are taking USG Boral’s plasterboard and McDonald’s coffee grounds to make compostable kitty litter. In a business-to-business collaboration, AB Mauri Yeast are sending their food waste to EarthPower as a feedstock for bioenergy and to NSW farmers as feed supplements. These examples all highlight the power of circular thinking and the importance of bringing different stakeholders together to create new opportunities. One of Cameron’s favourite success stories involves a business that was importing a material from a construction site overseas. There were big delays and a lot of problems with this supply chain, so they came to ASPIRE for a solution. “We literally found someone who was across the road throwing out that exact product,” Cameron revealed. One stakeholder was paying a lot for disposal and the other for procurement, so opening this local network created shared value. The relationship is ongoing and they’re now working together on other items to support each other’s businesses. ASPIRE’s work isn’t without its challenges and similar platforms have either collapsed or stagnated. Having researched other examples, Cameron identified that these systems were predominantly commission-based. In contrast, ASPIRE has opted for a subscription service that enables them to focus on best serving their customers’ needs. The challenge is convincing businesses to move away from the status quo, particularly if they can’t see a short term financial incentive. Cameron says that ultimately it’s about behaviour change and building relationships that focus on what you can do rather than what you can’t: “We look at it more as an economic value add to the business, rather than dealing with waste.” Despite the challenges of 2020, ASPIRE has successfully expanded from Victoria into both Tasmania and Queensland. They started the year with around 400 businesses and now they have over 650 subscribers to the service. “ASPIRE’s built on relationships; we’re a relationships platform,” Cameron says. This encouraged ASPIRE to become a founding member of VCC so that they could build better relationships and networks here in Victoria. That’s how they found out about the Australian Technologies Competition, which ASPIRE won in 2019. Cameron says that really put ASPIRE on the world stage, and they immediately saw connections on their website from across Europe, the US and Asia. With regard to the future of clean technology, Cameron is optimistic. “Due to COVID, I think everyone in the world now has got more of a sustainable mindset,” Cameron observes, “you’ve just got to get people to keep looking at it.” ASPIRE are committed to doing as much as they can locally, but the team is excited to be launching a pilot in Hong Kong in the new year. Find out more on ASPIRE's website.

"It has been a year of early growth for VCC where we have not only achieved much, but importantly established a foundation to contribute to Victoria’s leadership role in Cleantech innovation and commercialisation." Nigel Murphy, VCC Board Chair. You can download the VCC 2019/20 Annual Report through the link.

Creating deeper industry connections between the energy sector and cleantech organisations will accelerate the sustainable energy transition as the EnergyTech Hub, powered by Startupbootcamp, collaborates with the Victorian Cleantech Cluster. Aimed at bringing down the barriers to providing sustainable, reliable and affordable solutions to Australia’s energy challenges, the EnergyTech Hub is focused on executing pilot projects to help local and international scaleups test, implement, and scale commercial-ready technology and business model innovations into the Australian market. The collaboration with the Victorian Cleantech Cluster and its members will open up many opportunities for scaleups and organisations participating in the EnergyTech Hub, supporting Victoria to become a major hub for innovation, as well as uptake and commercialisation of clean technology. Scaleups on the EnergyTech Hub program will have direct exposure to the relevant regional and international networks provided by the Victorian Cleantech Cluster so they can work on collaborative cleantech pilot projects, find co-investment opportunities and get access to industry expertise and market insights. It will also encourage networking and commercial cooperation, bringing EnergyTech Hub organisations, Victorian companies and institutions together to drive the ongoing adoption of clean energy technology. This will in turn aid economic growth and transition to a more sustainable and circular economy. “"The Victorian Cleantech Cluster (VCC) is thrilled to be a launch partner of the EnergyTech Hub" said Nigel Murphy, Chair of the VCC. "We see the work of the EnergyTech Hub as very important in building the capacity of cleantech scaleup companies in Victoria. The VCC is very keen to support this initiative through the cluster. Many of our members are well situated to support scaleups in the Australian market through the opportunities presented by the EnergyTech Hub. Collaboration is the key - having business, government, research and capital all pulling towards a cleantech future will drive and stimulate innovative and commercially successful companies in this sector. We want Victoria to be at the forefront of this global opportunity." “The EnergyTech Hub has recently launched and we are delighted to extend the network to include the Victorian Cleantech Cluster, to accelerate collaboration and learnings within the network and have sustainability top of mind as we restart the economy and look to create new jobs and commercial opportunities” adds Chair of the EnergyTech Hub, Kate Russell. The EnergyTech Hub is currently supported by industry leaders including VivaEnergy, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, EnergyAustralia, the Victorian Cleantech Fund, the Centre for New Energy Technologies (C4NET), YBF Ventures and COSEC . Participation in the EnergyTech Hub is open to stakeholders from across the energy ecosystem including other industry players and large energy users. This cross-company collaboration will play a key role in driving change in the energy market that is otherwise prone to resisting disruptive innovation. For more information on how to get involved, visit the EnergyTech Hub website . EnergyTech Hub’s first insights event Unpacking Sustainable Led Recovery will be held on June 18 at 2pm. Register here . For more information, contact: Phoebe Ellis, Marketing & Communications at SBC phoebe.ellis@startupbootcamp.org ​| +61 477 818 898

Cleantech Opportunities in Recycling and Beyond

In the face of rising electricity, gas, water and resource costs and increasing international competition, Victorian industry has been investing over the last decade in efficient energy and resource technologies that improve their bottom line and deliver better environmental outcomes. The clean technology industry, or ‘cleantech’, is an emerging sector around the world and an area where Victoria is internationally recognised. What is ‘Cleantech’? Cleantech is defined as ‘economically viable products, services or processes that harness renewable materials and energy sources, dramatically reducing the use of natural resources or cut or eliminate emissions and waste’ with the focus on finding solutions to address environmental, energy, waste, air and water quality issues. (Cleantech Export Strategy 2017).