EXPLORING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF GEELONG AS A CLEANTECH CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE
Tina Perfrement , MSc , ACEcD , Senior Industry Sector Lead , Business & Industry Experience , City of Greater Geelong
A BOLD VISION The vision to establish Geelong as a Centre of Excellence for cleantech in Australia , by attracting investment , supporting innovation , creating jobs , and building skills is ambitious . It could be achieved by fast tracking cleantech businesses in or moving to Geelong , through a place-based approach that seeks to support sustainable business and the local lifestyle .
In 2020-2021 the City of Greater Geelong road tested this vision with business leaders , and they all agreed it was worth pursuing . Then we did our homework to understand how to make it happen .
The City of Greater Geelong conducted a stakeholder engagement process with key business leaders , investors and enablers . The stakeholder engagement was led by Vital Places .¹ Students from three academic disciplines in Deakin University ’ s School of Architecture and Built Environment ² also assisted by using the Geelong Centre of Excellence investigation as a focal point .
The City of Greater Geelong generated two reports in 2022 about the centre of excellence investigations :
• One report outlined a roadmap for how Geelong can establish itself as a centre of excellence for cleantech solutions .
• The other report presented the design research work developed by post graduate students at Deakin University .
This article features highlights from those two reports .
THE CLEANTECH INVESTMENT CHALLENGE Geelong ’ s economy has transitioned from a traditional manufacturing base into a diversified and flourishing economy . Greater Geelong has survived and ultimately thrived despite plant closures and industry downturns , recessions , world wars and natural disasters . Geelong ’ s economic resilience and its capacity to successfully transition to a sustainable base after an economic disruption has led it to be recognised as one of the most resilient regions in Australia , on par with the metropolitan regions of Greater
Sydney , Melbourne and Perth .³
Over the last decade , existing local industry and start-ups have shifted focus to the opportunities of new emerging markets such as the cleantech sector . The momentum is growing . Recent discussions with local cleantech business leaders have confirmed unanimous support for the establishment of Geelong as a Centre of Excellence for Cleantech . There is a clear understanding that its success would be a combination of government policy driven by private sector leadership , and investment as well as education and research . ⁴
Our research showed that the transition to a cleantech market driven economy requires a strong pipeline of projects to attract ongoing investment . Geelong has a successful track record for nurturing cleantech start-ups and has several larger players with mature projects . However , Geelong faces the common challenge of attracting funding to quickly scale up the start-ups to more mature , low risk companies commonly sort after by traditional investors . ⁵
VOL 16 NO 2 2023 26 www . edaustralia . com . au