Champions' Reflections: James Martin from Yarra Valley Water
James Martin from Yarra Valley Water has finished his time with IWN. Here are his reflections from his time as a Champion.
I have developed a wide network across the Victorian water industry now, so many both new and familiar faces that I have connected with. This will serve me well with my future within the water industry.
The Champions leadership program has also been of immense benefit, it’s tricky to find time sometimes, but I have put in additional effort and time to work on my own leadership skills and personal development. This investment has been invaluable to me personally and I have worked across projects such as the development of the IWN Knowledge Hub, the Knowledge Sharing Conference, the Watermains trial at Yarra Valley, the Pipe Rover and the Utalis Satellite Leak Detection project.
Working with the Champions from the other work corps has also been great, the sand pit environment has always been a safe space to me and allowed me to practise, grow and build confidence.
In terms of how IWN impacts Yarra Valley Water, one of the key benefits of participation in IWN comes through the opportunities for joint procurement.
Joint procurement was the key attribute of the Large-Scale Renewable Energy project which provided wide scale benefit. The IWN project team was able to source and purchase a fixed price agreement to buy renewable energy, this energy comes with LGCs which are being used to offset our carbon footprint from our existing energy needs. The energy produced is sold back into the grid and offsets our energy consumption costs.
The combined effort meant the negotiation and administration efforts were streamlined between the participating organisations. On top of this the combined buying power meant a deal could be secured which was far better than any deal that any of the participating corporations could have obtained on their own.
Joint procurement is seen as a huge opportunity moving forward, particularly with software licencing and new information technologies. New software and IT technologies that can be used to enhance our understanding of our asset network can more than likely be applied across the water industry, as the water corps have so much in common when it comes to assets. Yarra Valley Water is keen to see through these projects to obtain a better deal than what we could obtain on our own.
The IWN also provides Yarra Valley Water a collaboration space. It’s always amazing to hear and share (back to YVW) all the different innovative projects that are happening across the water industry.
It’s safe to say that to obtain the maximum benefit of learning, the key is to participate directly in a project. However, this is not the only way YVW has benefited. YVW has benefited simply from being involved in IWN and hearing the learnings of others.
This extends beyond IWN projects also. Through several opportunities identified through the IWN knowledge sharing conference, YVW has managed to get in touch with others across the industry who are in the process of or have solved similar problems to those being tackled here at YVW.