Building a better environment

THE Environmental Technology Centre (ETC) was established in 1992 and inaugurated in 1994 at a National Conference on Technology Transfer in Developing Communities in 1994.

The Centre received a Centre of Excellence status in 1999 and is now a Partner Centre for the Asian Pacific region of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) International Environmental Technology Centre.

The ETC’s focus is on small-scale environmental technologies, which are low cost, robust, efficient, and easy to operate and maintain.

The Centre occupies a 1.7 hectare site at Murdoch, where over 50 environmental technologies have been combined to form an integrated operating demonstration system.

The technologies used and researched at the site include climate-sensible buildings, renewable energy systems for power supply and water pumping, aquaculture systems, organic waste management, and permaculture.

The integrated approach allows research to be carried out on the important interactions between different technologies, rather than just the effect of a single technology.

The ETC is able to offer holistic and flexible solutions to human needs, and aims to maximise opportunities for user communities to own the technology.

This can result in greater and more sustained uptake of the technology, higher levels of community awareness and involvement, and ultimately a more successful operation.

This approach is highly applicable to communities in developing countries, as well as to urban communities worldwide, particularly when applied in collaboration with industry and government.