International Product Innovations Award – Australian Product

Rainbank 2

The award winning 2004 RainBank – the world’s first household rainwater and mains water interconnection device - is a simple and effective control system that delivers harvested rainwater to your toilet, laundry and garden. It also seamlessly provides mains water as a backup when your tank is running low.

ince RainBank’s initial development, Davey has strived to improve the environmental performance of its pumps in an internal (production/manufacturing) and external (operational) environment. So to help build on the success and dependability of its original RainBank, extensive research and development was undertaken to ensure a more sustainable product. This focused on reducing energy generated during assembly, reducing materials used during construction, and most importantly, maximising energy savings during operation.

This proved extremely beneficial for the development of the new generation RainBank, with the model capable of delivering water at a lower rate of energy consumption per kilolitre than average Australian mains water.

The new generation RainBank ensures that a rainwater tank is a dependable, low involvement sustainability tool for homeowners.

Caroma Profile® Toilet Suite with Integrated Hand Basin

Caroma Dorf has once again demonstrated their water-saving innovation with the creation of Australia’s first 5-star WELS rated toilet. The Caroma Profile® Toilet Suite with Integrated Hand Basin is a unique all-in-one toilet that significantly lowers your bathroom water usage.

This space saving and ergonomically designed toilet suite, which sees the hand basin incorporated into the cistern lid, achieves its water savings by using the same water twice, for hand washing and then toilet flushing. The use of an ultra low 4.5/3 litre dual flushing system further adds to this product’s water efficiency.

When compared to a standard dual flush toilet and separate hand basin, the Caroma Profile® Toilet Suite with Integrated Hand Basin demonstrates bathroom water savings of over 17%.

The environmental benefits of Caroma’s latest development extend far beyond water savings. The product is made from high-quality china, which at the end of its lifecycle can be crushed for road base and the internal components are also developed using recyclable plastic.

Traditional farming methods such as field grown crops need large amounts of water to grow and develop, and often require optimal weather conditions. But thanks to FodderTech’s new system, farmers, breeders and animal practitioners are able to grow fresh fodder (food for all grazing animals such as cattle, horses and sheep) and feed their animals in a range of climatic conditions, 365 days a year, whilst significantly reducing their water consumption.

The highly developed FodderTech water-wise system, is designed to produce nutrient rich fresh fodder with less water than traditional farming methods. It uses a recycled water system to grow fodder from grains in only eight days.

In comparison to traditional irrigation techniques, which can use around 250,000 litres of water per tonne, the eight-day development cycle of the FodderTech system uses only 700 litres of water per day to produce approximately 1.25 tonnes of highly nutritious fodder, demonstrating a significant water saving.

Various other environmental outcomes are addressed with the development of this product as it is also non-polluting and pesticide free, thus reducing the need to use chemicals such as weed sprays and paddock fertilisation.