SYDNE Y WAT ER
HIGHLIGHTS FROM SYDNEY WATER'S
INNOVATION FESTIVAL
If the feedback from participants is a true measure, then the inaugural Sydney Water Innovation Festival was truly successful.
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r Nicola Nelson, Manager, Research and Innovation at Sydney Water, said the aim of the Innovation Festival was to create an event which brought together water utilities and all their key stakeholders to generate new ideas and to solve key challenges, where we could work together in a fun way to create a better life for our communities. “We certainly achieved this aim, with over 1,300 registering for the festival from 25 countries, which, with our partnership with Northumbrian Water in the UK, made it a truly global event,” Dr Nelson said. “The festival outlined the challenges of the private and public sectors and demonstrated that we should be collaborating more. “The pleasing aspect is that tangible outcomes have been created – things we can practically do in the next 12-18 months,” Dr Nelson said.
FESTIVAL THEMES The Innovation Festival focused around six themes: circular economy, liveability, water security, smart cities, customer experience and amplifying the voices of Aboriginal Peoples. Design sprints and panel sessions were conducted to provide solutions to challenges aligned with each theme. Circular economy Local Grow is a case study project working with the local community to produce fresh food in a circular economy. It will be a partnership
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between Sydney Water, local indigenous communities, local industry and residents, to create co-located food hubs supplying food for the local community. The local groups will provide food waste and organics to be recycled into composted products and to produce energy and heat to fuel the greenhouse to grow produce. Sydney Water and its partners will provide the technology and services to provide safe, reliable water and composted biosolids for hydroponics, aquaponics and soil-based urban agriculture systems. Liveability The challenge – How can we extend safe swimming in Sydney Harbour? A two-year goal was created for the 2023 summer of swimming in Sydney Harbour with private sector engagement, involving a series of events and initiatives that test swim sites with pop-up pools while trialling new approaches and community engagement. Water Security The challenge – How might we determine the right balance between controlling and incentivising businesses to implement wastewater source control? The solution – The Ideas Portal; an online space dedicated to assisting business customers to discover ways to reduce contaminants and pollutants in their trade waste, as well as assistance on how to apply for grants
UTILITY • FEBRUARY 2022
or to create partnerships to support their implementation of pilot solutions. Smart cities The Smart Cities ‘Datahack’ brought together some of the country’s brightest data scientists from Sydney Water, as well as the government, tertiary and private sector to address the challenge of how to better understand wastewater networks and sewer overflows to deliver a better customer experience. Supported by NSW Chief Data Scientist and UTS Industry Professor, Ian Oppermann, as well as Distinguished Professor, Fang Chen, the ‘hack’ generated some exciting innovation concepts to predict sewer overflows and to visualise underground pipes using augmented reality. Customer experience An initial solution suggested the creation of an app as a first interaction point so that information on water and sustainability can be shared with likeminded customers to create a ripple effect to help utilities create a better life for their customers. Amplifying the voices of Aboriginal Peoples Veronica Murphy, First Nation’s Inclusion Specialist at Sydney Water, said that one of the highlights of the festival was acknowledging the role of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first engineers in this country.
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