24/05/2026
🌿 There's something green growing on our Pyrmont balcony. And yes, it's meant to be there.
Meet Big AL, our new algae photobioreactor, which was unveiled yesterday at our Pyrmont head office.
Inside those bright green tubes? Millions of microscopic algae are doing what they've done for billions of years, turning sunlight and CO₂ into oxygen and biomass through photosynthesis. The algae system captures roughly the same amount of CO₂ as 2 trees.
Here's how it works:
☀️ Sunlight + water + ambient CO₂ + nutrients = thriving algae
🌱 The algae absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen
♻️ Every month, we harvest around 60 litres of algae-rich water to use as natural fertiliser around the office.
It's a small installation, but it's helping us explore something bigger.
Algae technology is gaining attention globally for wastewater treatment, carbon capture and resource recovery. By partnering with University of Technology Sydney to run this living lab, we're learning how nature-based systems like this could support future environmental solutions across our operations.
🦠 Why algae?
They're incredibly efficient. They grow fast, absorb nutrients from water and naturally capture carbon. In wastewater treatment settings, algae can help remove nitrogen and phosphorus before treated water is discharged into waterways.
The insights from this project could help us explore applications in wastewater treatment, industrial carbon utilisation and urban sustainability features, supporting both our GreenUp decarbonisation ambitions and our purpose of ecological transformation.
A huge thank you to Andrew Race and Anna Xie, the Veolia | Australia & New Zealand team who drove this project forward, and to Paul Nicolaou for hosting yesterday's event.
We'd also like to acknowledge Professor Peter Ralph, alongside Allen Lo and Michael Kim at University of Technology Sydney and Eashan Garg at the University of Sydney, for leading the science and continuously helping us push the boundaries of what's possible.
💬 Have you seen algae technology in action before? What nature-based solutions are you exploring in your work?
