In September 2011, the Australian Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism's (DRET) Energy Efficiciency Opportunites (EEO) division hosted a Mining industry workshop in Perth Australia. The Energy Efficiency Opportunities (EEO) program is a federal program that requires Australia's largest energy users to assess their energy use and identify energy savings. To enable these companies to do so, EEO provides capacity building activities, such as printed guidance materials, case studies, and national workshops.
These workshops are run every and year serve as an in-service for those persons charged with implementing energy efficiency opportunity initiatives within the corporations, as well as a channel to increase communication between the federal government and the sector. The second day of the Perth workshop (29 September) specifically explored areas affecting the sector including:
- Strategies for engaging staff on site;
- Managing and improving cost performance through the use of KPIs;
- Opportunity identification and evaluation; and
- Innovation
Dr Marcin Ziemski from the CRC ORE presented in the Innovation session. Dr Ziemski is the Manager of the Energy and Emissions Projects at the WH Bryan Mining and Geology Research Centre, a division of the Sustainable Minerals Insitute at the University of Queensland.