A large crowd of over 50 brewery and winery businesses, university researchers, environmental consultants, service providers, local and state government representatives, travelled to CBCo on Friday for a unique Innovation Challenge to connect and collaborate on wastewater challenges impacting south west wineries and the rapidly growing craft brewery sector.
Mel Holland from Rocky Ridge Brewing Co, and Sustainability Working Party Chair for South West Brewers Alliance, and Eloise Jarvis from Cape Mentelle spoke about environmental sustainability and carbon neutrality as a high priority for beverage producers, with current practices and water regulations challenging the industry’s smooth transition to a circular economy model, with wastewater recycled for agricultural and potable use.
Working in small teams to unpack the problems, themes emerged around education, end-to-end expertise and support roles; funding and shared infrastructure to support wastewater innovation; reclassification and new regulatory definitions to align with site variability, and an appreciation of individualised outcomes.
The creative solutions generated were then pitched in front of the crowd to an expert panel. These included wastewater treatment trial sites; novel cleaning products; an early intervention brewing playbook; establishing a wastewater co-operative; a mobile treatment plant servicing smaller operations; shifting from a focus on the chemicals to an energy focus; and a nutrient recommendation algorithm.
As a leading organisation in the region that supports grape growers and wine producers to attain certification of their sustainable practices, Margaret River Wine Association Chief Executive Officer, Amanda Whiteland said it was great to collaborate with a number of different experts and the brewery industry.
“We were able to discuss potential opportunities for different sized organisations to become more efficient in the reuse of wastewater.”
The CONNECT Innovation Challenge was delivered by local consultants Innovation Cluster in collaboration with the Shire of Augusta Margaret River, and was part of the CONNECT Sustainable Industries program supported by the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation, Bendigo Bank Community Bank Busselton and Dunsborough, South West Brewers Alliance and Margaret River Wine Association.
