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Australian National Biocentre (ANB)

The Australian National Biocentre has developed the Australian National Sustainability Initiative, ANSI. This includes the proposed National Sustainability Complex and Precinct in the East Basin of Lake Burley Griffin.

What activities will ANSI accommodate?

  • Showcase sustainable technologies and processes that improve the human condition.
  • Offer ‘sustainable’ office spaces that reduce the impacts of past urban development.
  • Incorporate eco-tourist accommodation to support other ACT facilities and institutions.
  • Provide natural amenity and services for future high-density East Lake development.
  • Demonstrate how to mitigate climate change and heat sinks in urban development.
  • Provide an on-line sustainability network to celebrate other sustainability organizations.
  • Inspire other sustainability partnerships between community, government and business.
  • Provide educational support services and space for other sustainability institutions.
  • Increase public access to Canberra’s lake and accommodate more outdoor activities.
  • Demonstrate large-scale sustainable urban building, agriculture and transport systems.
  • Provide a forum for debating and implementing sustainable production and consumption.
  • Showcase the natural and cultural assets of indigenous Australians.

What is the project history?

ANSI has evolved over many years through extensive input and engagement of citizens, organizations, governments and sustainability experts and educators around Australia.  Just some of the milestones are as follows:

  • In 2003, ANSI identified 20 businesses that indicated an interest in participating and/or locating in the Precinct.
  • A nation-wide government-funded feasibility study was undertaken to engage Australians with the idea of ANSI. 700 respondents offered expressions of support and suggestions. 
  • Over 300 people participated in an Internet conference over a nine-month period, and around 180 attended a follow-up symposium. 
  • In 2004, the Action Plan was launched before an enthusiastic audience in Canberra by Frank Fenner, Moss Cass, and Hunter Lovins (an international sustainability champion).
  • In 2005, the project was presented to many organizations and institutions around the ACT, including CSIRO Discovery Centre, National Museum, Botanical Gardens, etc.
  • Discussions have been held with numerous organizations and government agencies over the last few years (including ACTPLA, the Land Development Agency, Environment ACT, Business ACT, Birrigai Outdoor School, Rotary and the Planning Institute of Australia). 
  • The ACT Sustainability Expert Reference Group advised the Chief Minister that the ANSI Complex was consistent with the ACT’s policies, programs and commitment to sustainability.
  • In 2006, Business ACT sponsored a scoping study to outline a business plan to assist the government in determining what land should be allocated to the project.
  • A consultant, funded by Healthpact, is currently conducting a site interpretation study for the ANSI site: ‘what the site was like, what it is like, and what it could be like’.

Australian National Sustainability Initiative

Capsule overview

The Australian National Sustainability Initiative (ANSI) proposes a Sustainability Precinct and Sustainability Education Complex in the heart of Australia’s national capital.  It is intended to establish Australia as the world’s leader in sustainability - both on ground and in practice. 

ANSI:  ANSI is a growing consortium of industry and community groups managed by the Australian National Biocentre (ANB) - a project of the Nature and Society Forum (NSF). The NSF, located in Canberra, is a well-established national organization representing a very wide spectrum of people and groups interested in creating a sustainable future. It has the expertise and resilience to manage a long-term project involving planning and design, program development and delivery, and operations. A project manager is being sought to oversee the next stage.

The site:  The Precinct could stretch from the Molonglo Reach in the north to the railway line in the south, bounded by the lake to the west and the Highway to the east - or as otherwise defined by the ACT government.  This 200 hectare site includes a highly degraded land, a former waste tip, and an old siltation trap.  It is next to an artificial wetland reserved for the protection of migratory birds, which the ANSI Complex would effectively protect. Though primarily ACT land, a portion of the site is under national control (National Capital Authority). 

The Precinct: The Precinct would include mixed-use development, such as low-cost student eco-accommodation, varied housing types, and sustainability-serving enterprises.  The Precinct could assist these developments in meeting their individual objectives - while adding value to the public estate and avoiding the exclusion of citizens from the lake front. Current planning and policy documents support the use of this site for such a project, including the Griffin Legacy (federal) and the East Lake redevelopment (ACT).

The Complex: The Complex, a center for sustainability education and innovation, would be an integral part of the Precinct and help to define its unique identity and integrity.  In physical terms, it would be a range of indoor/outdoor education, exhibition and research facilities.  Collectively, it would create a buffer between the wetlands and future development in the East Lake redevelopment area.  It would present a new kind of development that adds value to the ecology - rather than just reducing waste or ‘cleaning up’ environmental impacts. 

Competing options:  Several business interests have developed proposals for projects within the (flexible) Precinct boundaries. Left as individual business pursuits, those efforts would only achieve ‘best practice’. Through higher levels of collaboration in a partnership between public and private sectors and ANSI - a world-leading demonstration of true sustainable development and education can be achieved that benefits all parties.  The whole would be much greater than the sum of the parts.  ANSI would provide space for, and services to, other education and research institutions, rather than compete with them.

Partnership model: ANSI is developing a new model of collaboration - a ‘public-private-community partnership’ - to achieve these unique aims and increase potential synergies. This is a variation on a public-private-partnership, but designed to overcome its shortcomings.  ANSI has already established close working relationships with bodies that bring specialist expertise in various dimensions of sustainability (eg Zero Waste Australia and the Australian Green Development Forum). As an impartial organisation, ANSI would serve as the ‘partnership manager’ to ensure positive outcomes for business, government and community.

Stewardship role: ANSI would serve as ‘sustainability stewards’, in close cooperation with relevant government agencies, to assist in creating a whole-of-government approach, and to ensure the integrity of the Precinct’s planning and design quality. In this capacity, ANSI would ensure community engagement and establish fair, collaborative and mutually-agreed protocols and procedures. This could entail design and project management services for other developments in the Precinct, as well services to education and environment institutions.

Objective:  The aim is to have plans in place and the ANSI Centre substantially constructed for the 2013 Centenary.

 

Page up-dated 17 December 2006
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