Ginninderry is to be the new home of an Australian-first initiative called the EcoriumXChange, which will examine the human place in nature and encourage understanding of the interdependence of healthy human societies on healthy ecosystems.

Along with our Joint Venture partner, the Land Development Agency, the Ginninderry project team has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Frank Fenner Foundation for an EcoriumXChange at Ginninderry.

The partnership aligns neatly with the project’s sustainability vision.

Practically, the initiative will conduct important research that aims to challenge conventional industry thinking on issues around sustainability.  Examples of research that might be undertaken by the foundation include:

• “Smart” energy metering in houses
• Biodiversity in urban parks and places
• Implementation of an urban ecology curriculum unit in local schools
• Transport energy use
• Relationships between solar energy and emerging battery storage technologies
• Aspects of a social or communal approach to energy storage and distribution

The partnership will track and evaluate aspects of sustainability at the Ginninderry project site, and seek to understand how planning and urban design impacts on environment, people and their quality of life.

Ginninderry will be the vehicle for a ‘learning journey’ for both the joint venture and the Frank Fenner Foundation around the integration of urban living into the natural environment and strengthening of biosensitive practices, which necessarily will continue to evolve and improve.

The EcoriumXChange at Ginninderry gives the foundation and the joint venture the chance to examine issues relating to the built environment, sustainable resource use, waste, energy, transport and food security through a living project.

The Frank Fenner Foundation is named after the late Professor Frank Fenner AC in recognition of his lifelong commitment to the health of humankind and of the natural environment. It is an independent, non-profit organisation with active links to the research, education, government, commercial and community sectors.

The foundation aims to promote an understanding of how people and nature interact, across the full spectrum of ecological and related health issues that confront our society today.

It is one of the very few places in the world that encourages economists, hydrologists, historians, ecologists, foresters, geographers and climatologists to work together to address some of society’s most significant challenges.

For more information about the Frank Fenner Foundation visit http://www.fennerfoundation.org.

Listen to Dr Peter Tait from the foundation’s interview on ABC 666 breakfast, where he talks about the important sustainability and urban design work the foundation will undertake at Ginninderry, as a part of the EcoriumXChange.