By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
IT’S not easy being green but Dandenong is the ideal place for a clean-technology hub, says clean-business chief executive Peter Voigt.
A speaker at an ‘innovation showcase’ held by South East Manufacturing Innovation Precinct this weekend, Mr Voigt says there may be little choice.
“The big global challenges ahead are energy and water. We need them to stay alive and feed ourselves. So industries have to plan to be environmentally sustainable.”
He says that won’t change the fact that manufacturers will still be under “immense pressure” under the impending carbon-tax regime.
“One thing that we ought to be good at is sustainable manufacturing but we just don’t get it yet.
“We should be utilising our abundance of gas more than we do – there shouldn’t be a petrol car in Australia. That would lower our carbon footprint by 30 per cent.”
He has had a 22-year head start, running his Dandenong South pollution-control business Clean TeQ since 1990.
The SEMIP symposium is on Friday. Details: innovation2012.com.au.
