<![CDATA[UPSOIL COLLECTIVE

<![CDATA[UPSOIL COLLECTIVE - Latest]]>Sat, 31 Aug 2024 17:01:14 +1000Weebly<![CDATA[UPSOIL VISION TAKING ROOT ON YARRA'S EDGE]]>Mon, 26 Aug 2024 04:01:30 GMThttp://upsoilcollective.com/latest/upsoil-vision-taking-root-on-yarras-edgeWe’re thrilled to announce the launch of our very first Upsoil Coolseat at Eighteen Pence Lane, a bustling cafe at Yarra's Edge, Melbourne. Andrew and the team have embraced their new addition, and the response has been fantastic. Customers not only enjoy great food and amazing service, but are also excited about the difference they can make in reducing food waste!

The installation and support team gathered around the latest coolseat, and the first in Melbourne!

Our goal? To make composting easy, stylish, and to develop self-sustaining solutions that revolutionise how we handle food waste as a society. Cafes and restaurants can enjoy cleaner bins, lower costs, more seating, and increased customer engagement, while municipalities can reduce truck pickups and raise awareness about food waste. Together, we’ll help councils achieve zero waste goals and contribute to the UN’s sustainability targets.

Michael Mobbs assists cafe staff in feeding food scraps to the worms in the new Yarra's Edge coolseat at Eighteen Pence Lane cafe.

Our project is a finalist in the 2024 Fishermans Bend Digital Innovation Challenge and your support can make all the difference! Help us end food waste, keep nutrients local, and grow vibrant communities!

If awarded funding, we can deliver a pilot in 2025 and invest in engaging the community, prototyping new solutions, and building a network of data-connected coolseats across Yarra’s Edge. To vote, check out our pitch video, click vote for Upsoil Collective, then scroll down, enter your email and click the blue ‘Submit’ button. Make sure you receive an email to confirm your vote! Voting closed 11.59pm, Thursday 29 August.

Screenshot of the Fishermans Bend Digital Innovation Challenge finalists on the City of Melbourne voting page. Vote for Upsoil Collective, then scroll down and hit "submit" to finalise your vote!

In Chippendale, Sydney, coolseats already make a huge impact. The community composts 300 to 400kg of food waste weekly on the side of the streets, safely turning it into rich compost to produce fresh vegetables, herbs, and prompting lively discussions about sustainability. People are engaged, kids are playing, worms are thriving, and conversations about reducing waste are happening.

Various coolseat prototypes and installations being used by the community in and around Chippendale, Sydney.

People visit not just for coffee, but for worm juice and compost, and schools and nurseries join us for educational tours. There’s no smell, no pests, just community spirit and growing awareness that we can all make a difference.

Now we are bringing new innovations to the Fishermans Bend development precinct in Melbourne. Upsoil Collective is poised to grow with incredible support from our partners in worm farming, fabrication, maintenance, sensors, tech engineering, and irrigation.

Please support us by voting Upsoil Collective for Fishermans Bend (remember to enter you email and click 'submit' to finalise your vote)!

]]><![CDATA[DIGITAL INNOVATION CHALLENGE PITCH NIGHT]]>Thu, 15 Aug 2024 14:00:00 GMThttp://upsoilcollective.com/latest/digital-innovation-challenge-pitch-nightWhat an absolute blast! The 2024 Fishermans Bend Digital Innovation Challenge finalists pitch night hosted by City of Melbourne was a very well-organised event, and great fun for everyone involved!

Well done to all the finalists for getting our ideas shortlisted, and for standing up on the night and pitching our little (actually, really quite massive) hearts out!

View all the pitch videos online here https://buff.ly/46OxCIn - voting is only open until midnight on Thursday 29 August, so vote for your favourite project, scroll down to enter your email and then hit submit (make sure you get a confirmation email to be sure your vote is counted)!

Huge congratulations to Cirque Du Soil, FutureLabs, and our very own Cool Seats, and so much thanks to all the City of Melbourne team who put the event together and supported the finalists.

]]><![CDATA[COMPOSTING TAKES CENTRE STAGE AT FISHERMANS BEND]]>Tue, 06 Aug 2024 14:00:00 GMThttp://upsoilcollective.com/latest/composting-takes-centre-stage-at-fishermans-bendOn Thursday 15 August composting will walk onto the stage at Fishermans Bend, Melbourne.

Zoe Wang and Michael Mobbs will pitch Upsoil, shortlisted in the Fishermans Bend Digital Innovation Challenge, an all-in-one mix of data displays tracking local food waste composting; a seat to relax on above the compost; and a garden bed with productive food plants in the middle of the city.

Visual analysis of Upsoil nutrient circularity integrated into an active urban landscape from Zoe Wang's RMIT masters project, Regenerating Productive Nutrientscape

Our project aims to bring fashion, style and simplicity to composting. It seeks to make composting convenient and attractive to anyone. Building a strong sense of community, especially at pedestrian and ground level in newly built precincts like Fishermans Bend with even more intensive development ahead, this is a perfect location for Upsoil Collective to make an impact.

Tables, benches, garden beds and in-ground combinations allow many ways for residents, visitors, café and restaurant owners to sit in sun or shade, share a meal, harvest some herbs, fresh leafy greens or other plants and to turn food waste into soil and grow it back into food.

The Digital Innovation Challenge by Melbourne City Council is intended to generate living data for the large Fishermans Bend development area, some 480 hectares of former industrial land along the Birrarung (Yarra River). Already, three finalists have each claimed $3,000 for their project costs. The finalists are listed here; the other contenders are a recycling materials stand, and a sound system to promote biodiversity. Further funding of $90,000 to bring the one winning idea to life is up for grabs.

Desolate concrete spaces around the Fishermans Bend precinct under consideration for activation with an Upsoil Digital Coolseat installation.

Screenshot of the finalists page on the City of Melbourne website where the public will be able to vote for the project they would like to win the Fishermans Bend Digital Innovation Challenge.

Screenshot of the finalists page on the City of Melbourne website. This is where the public will be able to vote for the project they would like to win the Fishermans Bend Digital Innovation Challenge.

On the night, five judges appointed by the council will consider the outcome, but votes from the public will also be critical to deciding the winner: half of the decision will be made by the jury, and the other half by public votes. That means YOU can vote for compost.

Public voting opens on 15 August and will remain open for two weeks – from 7pm that Thursday night, simply click your preferred project on the City of Melbourne website finalists page. The Council will announce the winner after judging and public voting closes two weeks later.

This moment reflects a growing awareness and desire in Australian communities for solutions to end all forms of waste.

In Chippendale, with local business and resident support, the community has installed prototypes of Coolseats on the verge and footpaths for the last 5 years. The community composts 300 to 400 kgs of food a week in our footpath garden compost options.

For Michael Mobbs, helping cafés and locals to compost these last few years in the footpath Coolseats, and surprising people sitting on them or waiting outside the café by letting them know what’s happening in plain view, tells the story of a design that is accepted and that works.

Zoe Wang is an urban planning pioneer passionate about creating and humanising public domains to foster environments where a strong sense of community can prevail. She has been expanding and growing the use of Coolseats in her Upsoil Project development since she made it her major university project some years ago.

Zoe Wang and Michael Mobbs standing beside a Coolseat, part of the Upsoil Collective project shortlisted as a Fishermans Bend Digital Innovation Challenge finalist by City of Melbourne

Zoe Wang and Michael Mobbs beside a Coolseat, part of the Upsoil Collective project shortlisted as a Fishermans Bend Digital Innovation Challenge finalist by City of Melbourne

Everything in the Coolseat is Australian made from recycled materials by Australian businesses – WaterUps, Mr Fox In A Box. The sturdy recycled steel sides of the garden bed come in 22 colours, the recycled bed ends, seats and tables come in several colours, and the wicking cells, out of sight below the plants, cut water use by 80 per cent. We are also collaborating with data providers, local compost legends such as Dave from Compost Care Naarm and the ever-growing Kensington Compost project.

If you would like to support worms, compost, and the humans sitting down taking it easy in beautiful food-producing streets, get online from Thursday 15 August and click on the Upsoil Project to cast your vote!

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