Environment

We regularly partner with local councils, businesses and community groups for events, festivals, conferences and campaigns that spread a positive environmental message, including:

• Kids In Action: Since 2013, Unitywater has supported Sunshine Coast Kids in Action as the principal event sponsor. Together with Sunshine Coast Council and a range of community groups, we aim to educate and inspire the next generation of environmental leaders.
• Creekside Greening: Each year, our staff members team up with local bush care groups and council representatives to revegetate public spaces with native seedlings. To date, we’ve planted more than 13,000 seedlings!
• Tangaroa Blue Foundation's program to reduce waterway contamination with plastic rubbish.
• Noosa Festival of Surfing beach clean-up.

Read more about our work in the community.

Unitywater is a member of Healthy Land and Water, an independent organisation working to protect and improve South-East Queensland waterways. 

They monitor and report on the condition of South-East Queensland's waterways and provide capacity building for professionals and community groups.

They also support policy and planning decisions that benefit our natural assets, and their education programs inspire and motivate the community to value and protect our local environment.

We use smart technology to significantly reduce water loss and wasted resources. This includes the use of the TaKaDu leak detection software and the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) network monitoring system.

The SCADA system is used to control infrastructure processes within our water supply and sewerage network.

Unitywater is developing a waste-to-energy feasibility study that could revolutionise the way we think about sewage with support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

ARENA has provided $296,000 funding for us to assess the commercial viability of converting the Kawana Sewage Treatment Plant on the Sunshine Coast to produce biogas and electricity from various waste sources. We are also contributing funding to the study. 

This project demonstrates the potential to tap into a variety of localised waste sources to produce sustainable renewable energy.

If commercially viable, the project offers an alternative opportunity for power generation for sewage treatment plants of similar scale.

The project will also uniquely demonstrate the use of grease trap waste, a highly concentrated organic waste stream, as an addition to biosolids for waste to energy. The innovative use of grease trap waste as a feedstock will also divert this waste from landfill, reducing the carbon footprint of both landfill gases as well as the energy needs of the facility.

Read more about the Kawana Sewage Treatment Plant Upgrade.

Unitywater purchased two lots of former cane farming land on River Road, Maroochy River as part of a larger program to improve the health of the rivers and creeks in the area. We will allow the Yandina Creek Wetland to regenerate as wetlands for the purposes of off-setting the nutrients produced in the sewage treatment process.

We also upgraded the Maleny Sewage Treatment Plant to include a reforestation and wetland area within the Maleny Community Precinct. We won a United Nations World Environment Day award for this innovative environmental project.

Pictured left: Watch our video on the Maleny Sewage Treatment Plant upgrade and new wetlands.