GreenTECH Australia 2008

On Saturday I attended GreenTECH Australia 2008 at Darling Harbour Convention Centre in Sydney. This was the last day of a three day exhibition and conference on
sustainable buildings, design and technology. While much smaller than the Gartner Group Symposium being set up in the adjacent halls, the exhibition was useful. One clever part of the show was they they sent me an e-ticket by email, instead of wasting money, paper and energy on paper mail.

Some of the more interesting exhibitors were:

The Society for Responsible Design with their Change 08 Exhibition. This displayed sustainable designs from Sydney's universities. Exhibits included industrial, architecture and fashion design (but not ICT or engineering students). What got my attention was the urban plan for the White Bay Eco-city 2050 in Sydney. It happens that in 2001 I was invited to give a presentation to the Bauhaus Kolleg III 2001/2002 Serve City. This was the "New Bauhaus" students from Germany in Sydney to redesign the industrial land accross the harbour from the Sydney CBD. This is the same area of land which the White Bay Eco city is proposed for.

Other interesting designs where the cardboard tables, designed by "Natasha" for the exhibition. The same company made the tables as is making up some prototypes of my desk for a computer equipped classroom.

The ANU Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems displayed their Combined Heat and Power Solar (CHAPS) and SLIVER Cell projects.

Engineers Without Boarders had displays of responsible engineering projects for developing nations.

Good Environmental Choice - Australia had details of their green labelling of products.

Unfortunately I missed Adrian Ferraretto from the Solar Shop talking about electric vehicles and solar power. He tried to import Indian Electric cars in 2006, but was stopped by government regulations. These happened to be the same Reva cars I saw in an Indian village in 2006.