Jo Lim, VicWater CEO will provide a brief welcome and housekeeping before our official ‘Welcome to Country’ commences.

The Welcome to Country will be provided by a representative from the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation.

The VicWater Conference will be hosted on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples, as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land. We pay our deepest respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.

David Middleton, VicWater Chair will provide the Official Welcome and give context to the conference program’s theme, Environmental Stewardship: Caring for Country and advancing sustainability in the Victorian water sector.

Partner's address - Vision Super

Climate change is expected to see a drying trend across south-eastern Australia, punctuated by episodes of extreme rainfall as La Nina and El Nino events become more common. This poses a challenge for Victoria’s agriculture sector, across both dryland and irrigated operations, livestock and cropping. It will also challenge Victoria’s water supplies. This presentation considers some of the risks as well as possible opportunities for investment.

Facilitator

Steve Cusworth, Managing Director, FPL Advisory

Panellists

Maintaining good regulatory outcomes in an increasingly challenging economy. How do we balance health, environment and customer?

The Victorian water sector’s key regulators: the Essential Services Commission, the Environment Protection Authority and Department of Health join to discuss their respective regulatory postures and visions for delivering a comprehensive regulatory framework for Victoria’s water sector.

Facilitator: Tai Hollingsbee, Head of Sustainability, Asia Pacific, GHD

Panellists:

Businesses are changing to understand, measure and meet targets relating to a myriad of sustainability ambitions. Culture, decision making and changing the behaviour of groups of people in a business, is complex.

In this session we will explore GHD’s experience working with global brands like Apple and McDonald’s, on their sustainability transformation journey.  We will compare this with work that the Victorian water sector is undertaking now, and the role of leadership in driving this change, to benefit our communities. We will ask: How can small changes have a meaningful impact and broader benefits to the customer?

Dr. Katrina Wruck will present a high-level, digestible literature review on the latest advancements in PFAS removal and destruction from water and biosolids. She will cover current adsorption and destruction technologies, including electro-oxidation, advanced oxidation processes (including photo-catalysis and electro-Fenton), pyrolysis, plasma, sonolysis, and biodegradation. Her presentation will explore these methods, comparing the current state to future advancements, and provide government and industry professionals with insights on enhancing environmental stewardship and sustainability in the Victorian water sector.

Dr Katrina Wruck is an early career Research Fellow in the School of Chemistry and Physics at Queensland University of Technology and a proud Mabuigilaig/Goemulgal (Torres Strait Islander) woman.

Katrina is dedicated to finding innovative, green solutions for industrial and environmental challenges, focusing on emerging contaminants of concern in the environment.

Facilitator: Rob Turk, Senior Principal, Nation Partners

Victoria’s Climate Change Strategy, released in 2021, sets out a clear pathway towards a net zero emissions, climate-resilient, prosperous and liveable state. Both the water sector and the local government sector are key enablers in achieving this ambition, through managing the risks of climate change, providing support for our most vulnerable people and assets, and prioritising solutions that will help protect the state’s essential systems and services.

This panel discussion will provide an opportunity to hear about some of the climate adaptation initiatives happening in water and local government, and how they are helping to build community resilience.

Tony Kelly, Director, Aptumo Australia

Steve Avery, Head of Smart Cities and Digital Twin Program, NCS

This session will include two presentations, as listed below and will be hosted by Jason Cotton, Program Director, IWN

Technology, data and analytics enhancing our ability to care for country
Presented by Dr Phil Fox, Chief Technical Officer, Eco Detection

From Waste to Revenue – producing Biochar from Biosolids
Presented by Jason Cotton, Program Director, IWN