Tony McCall

The OCG is Tasmania’s investment portal. One emerging sector of interest is Circular Economy (CE) business models:”What would your business model look like if it was circular, rather than linear?” Tasmania has an emerging CE enterprise sector largely based on flipping “waste” to a “resource” as a value adding process that extends the life cycles of products and services. Makes them last longer. One opportunity of particular interest in my role is linking CE business models to bio economy opportunities. For example, Tasmania has significant bio-residues from forestry, agriculture and fishing operations. In the past those residues are left where they are, burnt where they lie, or incinerated for heat or gas production, spread on fields as fertiliser, or sent to landfill. But, what is the highest value -in terms of chemical compounds- in those residues and how might they be extracted to provide new industry opportunities in the emerging global bio-product market place? Tasmanian companies already harvest marine resources (seaweed) to produce bio-products so why not explore our significant bio-asset “waste”? The OCG is exploring these opportunities n collaboration with industry in Tasmania. It is an exciting opportunity to take Tasmania’s comparative advantage -its bio assets-and construct competitive advantage in a fast growing global bio-products market.