Environmental winner announced in New Zealand Innovators Awards

The winners of the New Zealand Innovators Awards 2015 have been announced, with an incredible line-up of organisations showcasing that world-class innovation is thriving in New Zealand!

Bayer New Zealand sponsors the “Innovation in Agribusiness and Environment” category, and Managing Director Holger Detje is proud to announce the winner in this category as Fibre-gen for its HITMAN PH330, an acoustic tool that sonically tests the tensile strength of a tree in its entirety before it is cut down. This allows the tree to be segregated into construction strength timber, and timber for other uses.
 
“One of the reasons we are so impressed by this entry is that it’s a tool that can help reduce waste as well as saving money in the timber industry,” says Detje.
 
“It’s fantastic that clever Kiwis are designing products like this which contribute positively to the world and help drive sustainability. It’s something we are focusing strongly on at Bayer too, and we’re thrilled that companies like Fibre-gen are developing innovative tools that help support the environment.”
 
Bayer is an international, research-based group with major businesses in health care and crop science. As an innovation company, it sets trends in research-intensive areas with its products and services designed to benefit people, plants and animals.


Fibre-gen. Photo courtesy of The PR Shop
 
“Bayer is particularly passionate about innovation in the environmental space, so we’re very pleased to be able to sponsor this category and to see the incredible ideas that have surfaced as part of this year’s NZ Innovators Awards,” finishes Detje.
 
Peter Carter, the CEO of Fibre-gen, is proud to receive this accolade for a product that’s been sixteen years in the making.
 
“Winning this award is marvelous, and we’re thrilled that it is bringing attention to what we’re doing,” says Carter. “We’re at a pretty exciting stage now, and it’s fantastic to receive this recognition.”
 
All of the finalists in the NZ Innovators Awards “Innovation in Agribusiness and Environment” are listed below.
 
WINNER
 
FIBRE-GEN - HITMAN PH330 – CANTERBURY
The timber industry is becoming increasingly automated and loses money on milling logs that turn out to be of insufficient quality and strength for construction purposes. The Hitman PH330 is an acoustic tool that sonically tests the tensile strength all the way up the tree before harvest, allowing the tree to be segregated into construction strength timber, and timber for other uses. This tool reduces waste and saves money in the timber industry.
 
FINALISTS
 
HIVEMIND – REMOTE HIVE MONITORING – CANTERBURY
Hivemind utilises wireless technology, embedded GPS trackers and weight scales to enable beekeepers to monitor hives remotely for theft, yield, and ambient temperatures. Hivemind allows for optimisation of honey harvesting in order to encourage greater productivity and sustainability.
 
FARMIQ SYSTEM – WELLINGTON
The FarmIQ System is cloud-based farm management software that helps farmers maintain records on sustainable land and water management, animal health and welfare, and food safety around chemical withholding periods. Developed in conjunction with farmers and the beef industry, the FarmIQ System helps communicate meat quality standards between the producers and the meat retailers and gives greater efficiency to the farm recording processes.
 
FARM MEDIX – CHECK-UP MASTITIS DIAGNOSTIC TOOL – AUCKLAND
Mastitis (an infection of the udder) costs farmers time and money. Testing usually involves sending away samples to a laboratory. CHECK-UP® is a simple-to-use, on-site mastitis diagnostic tool that allows a farmer to identify mastitis and target treatment more effectively. This introduces greater efficiencies in milk production and ensures better milk quality.
 
PASTORAL ROBOTICS – NITRATE RECOVERY – AUCKLAND
Intensive farming has an unwanted by-product, livestock urine. It creates problems for the soil and waterways through nitrate leaching. Pastoral Robotics have created a low-labour automated robot that will move around paddocks, sensing and treating fresh cow urine patches with a patented agricultural liquid antidote, safely reducing nitrate leaching by 75%. By treating the problem on the spot, the farmer avoids costly indoor farming and feeding alternatives.
 
PLANT AND FOOD RESEARCH – RESPONSE TO PSA – AUCKLAND
The New Zealand kiwifruit industry was decimated by the vine-killing pathogen ‘Psa’ five years ago, with the popular variety Zespri® Gold being particularly susceptible to the bacteria. Plant and Food Research responded to this crisis by committing resources to fast tracking the development of new, bacteria-resistant cultivars of Zespri® Sungold. This has allowed the kiwifruit industry to recover.
 
SCOTT TECHNOLOGY – LAMB FOREQUARTER CUT AUTOMATION SYSTEM – OTAGO
Meat processing is becoming increasingly automated to increase labour safety and to reduce bacterial contamination in meat products. Scott Technology have developed a system that uses high speed laser scanning to create a 3D model of individual carcasses, allowing the industrial robot to accurately cut each forequarter quickly and safely.
 
SNAP INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES – GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES – NELSON
Regulating the fishing industry has always been difficult. Current systems for monitoring catches and dumping, while at sea, are expensive, difficult to install, and use a lot of manpower to interpret footage from multiple camera feeds. SnapIT have developed a low-cost, highly efficient, automated monitoring system that uses 360-degree cameras, and wireless feeds from ships at sea.
 
SUPREME BIOTECHNOLOGIES – NELSON
Astaxanthin is a potent natural antioxidant with many beneficial effects on human health, and it is harvested from a type of microalgae that is difficult to grow commercially. There is a huge demand for astaxanthin worldwide, and Supreme Biotechnologies NZ has developed a proprietary indoor facility. Using a sophisticated photo bioreactor system, they produce optimal yields of astaxanthin, which they market under their own brand, AstaSupreme.
 
TERAX 2013 - TERAX WASTE CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY – BAY OF PLENTY
Urban bio-waste is difficult and expensive to dispose of due to environmental and contamination issues. Terax’s waste conversion technology treats bio-waste as a recyclable resource. The cost-saving process reduces the wastewater, eliminates organic solids, sterilises them, and recovers useful components such as nitrogen and carbon for recycling.
 
UBCO – UBCO 2X2 – BAY OF PLENTY
The UBCO 2x2 is an all-wheel drive electric motorbike with rural and urban applications. Lightweight, quiet, and with excellent handling and performance in all terrains, the UBCO 2x2 has a huge load capacity for carrying equipment, and its lithium batteries can charge tools and electronic devices on site when working remotely. All with a running cost of 60 cents per 100 kilometres.

The Awards evening will be held on October 21st at The Cloud on Auckland’s Waterfront. Find more information and enter at www.innovators.org.nz.