Program Day 1

Alastair Flynn is a Woods Bagot associate principal with extensive experience in large-scale public buildings, managing complex stakeholder groups across multidisciplinary project teams.

Alastair is the project architect on the University of Tasmania redevelopment project, leading the design and adaptive reuse of the heritage-listed Forestry building for the University of Tasmania.

Mark Gilder
Head of Development, Urban Planning & Technology – Ciircl

Mark Gilder is an architect, urban strategist and industrial designer with over two decades of international experience in the design and delivery of complex, award-winning projects across sectors including infrastructure, housing, transport, and urban development.
In 2024, Mark co-founded Cortese Gilder, a progressive practice that integrates architecture, urban design, and planning with a focus on modular housing and sustainable transport. The practice is committed to delivering socially responsive and environmentally responsible outcomes at all scales.

As part of this practice, Mark co-leads Ciircl, a transformative initiative that reimagines how low-carbon urban assets can be leveraged to generate both financial and social value. Ciircl is accelerating Australia’s transition to a circular carbon economy by enabling housing at scale that is equitable, affordable, and climate-positive.

Ciircl has developed an innovative suite of modular housing systems supported by a scalable, high-efficiency supply chain designed for mass delivery across Australia. These systems prioritise disassembly, reuse, and rapid on-site assembly, using prefabricated, flat-packed components. The construction palette incorporates a wide range of biogenic materials, dramatically reducing embodied carbon and positioning Ciircl at the forefront of sustainable housing innovation.

Ciircl is a transformative platform designed to convert low-carbon urban assets into beneficial financial and social outcomes. By transitioning housing at scale into the circular carbon economy, Ciircl delivers equitable and affordable home ownership across all income levels—while dramatically reducing Australia’s carbon emissions.

As a market-based solution, Ciircl enables the widespread supply of desirable, sustainable homes through innovation in finance, manufacturing, and material use. Central to our approach is the belief that delivering affordable, sustainable modular housing demands a cross-disciplinary, holistic methodology—one that addresses the economic, social, and environmental barriers contributing to Australia’s housing and climate challenges.

Our model considers the entire building supply chain, from material sourcing and product development to manufacturing and delivery. This is enabled by our proprietary circular assessment tool, which sets clear targets and defines strategic categories for investigation and continuous improvement.

We have developed a suite of modular housing systems supported by a robust, scalable supply chain capable of mass delivery into the Australian market. These systems are designed for disassembly, reuse, and rapid on-site assembly, using prefabricated, flat-packed components. Our construction palette includes a diverse mix of biogenic materials that significantly reduce embodied carbon.
Among these materials, hemp-based products have emerged as a cornerstone of our low-carbon materials catalogue. Over the past 12 months, Ciircl has made a substantial investment in the research, development, and prototyping of hemp-based building systems. Through strategic partnerships and collaborative R&D, we have made significant progress. However, the path forward requires continued engagement, investment, and innovation. We remain committed to advancing hemp as an ecologically sound, cost-effective, and high-performance alternative to the cementitious products that dominate Australia’s built environment today.

Understanding nutrient use in hemp and its impact on biomass production and flowering

Hemp-type cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) cultivars are often characterized by efficient nutrient use – which enables cultivation on marginal lands – and high vegetative biomass for bast fibre and hurd production. Dual purpose hemp cultivars also produce seed for hemp oil which is high in omega-3 fatty acids that benefit human health.

Female plants can be cultivated to produce flowers rich in the phytocannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) which is used for medicinal purposes. However, redirecting resources towards flowering and seed production has a negative impact on stem elongation and therefore fibre tensile strength. In this dioecious species, stress also causes hermaphrodites, with male pollen sacs forming alongside female flowers. This again reduces fibre quality.

Here, I assess the performance of a dual-purpose hemp cultivar in response to changes in day-length as well as phosphorus and nitrogen supply, with particular emphasis on nutrient use, impacts on flowering time, growth characteristics and biomass yield. Under extended photoperiod, high nitrogen supply delays flowering and promotes vegetative biomass production. Under short-day conditions, flowering is prioritized under both moderate and high nitrogen supply, however, high nitrogen supply depletes phosphate reserves thus reducing overall flower yield.

The response of hemp to phosphate supply differs notably from other dicotyledonous crops such as brassicas and tomato with no suppression of root uptake in response to full vacuolar stores in aerial parts. Nitrate uptake on the other hand remains repressed with increasing phosphate supply. This lack of feedback regulation leads to depletion of nitrate pools – with severe impacts on stem and vegetative – but not flower – biomass. Altered nutrient sensing in hemp may be a consequence of its adaptation to nutrient-poor soils in its native habitat. Putative breeding strategies to improve nutrient response will be discussed.

Good true stories. How some other industries broke through.

To maintain and sustain our planet we must learn to advance without further degradation; to advance we need to research; to research requires vision; to realise the vision one needs courage; courage requires conviction; conviction is driven by purpose. The Warner Research Institute’s purpose is for our planet, our home, to be self-sustaining.

Throughout time humans have advanced using technology fueled by the access to currency. However, currency knows no emotion, it has no vision, courage, or conviction. Currency only has purpose when it is in the hands of those who have vision and purpose.

All of us are looking for more sustainable ways of improving our standard of living and the impact that it has on our planet. Producing cleaner “renewable” forms of energy is to be applauded. However, we are demanding access to more and more energy, instead we could also find ways of reducing our need for it by developing smarter processes and products.

Affordable Carbon Housing is without a doubt an unavoidable need. Reduced need for electricity, minimal air conditioning, fire resistance, healthier environment with breathable walls, minimal polymer based finishings and furnishings, and most importantly, meet the future building codes required by law. Vision, courage, conviction and purpose. Invest now, be ready for then.

Positioning the hemp industry ​f​or structured growth

In 2024, Winton Evers reported to the NSW Hemp Taskforce on the challenges facing Australia’s industrial hemp industry and proposed the Hemp Data Platform (HDP) as a solution to improve coordination, traceability, and carbon credit potential.

In this presentation he will cover the points made in that report including the use of the HDP as a live lifecycle analysis tool that tracks carbon sequestration across the hemp value chain—from farm to end product—supporting both market development and future ACCU method eligibility. It includes a buy/sell marketplace to reduce supply mismatch, boosts utilisation of underused biomass like fibre, embeds specification requirements across the value chain to ensure quality assurance and enhances traceability for regulatory compliance and climate reporting. The platform is also designed to support state regulators by providing visibility of licensed participants and activity.

Winton reported challenges to aligning hemp carbon storage with Australia’s National Inventory and FullCAM system, resulting in the rejection of his ACCU method proposal. However, advocacy is building to pursue method development, and CSIRO researchers have flagged the hemp crop for future inclusion in FULLCAM. The HDP supports industry transparency, builds confidence for growers and buyers, and can contribute to climate goals by enabling high-integrity carbon removal and supporting the scale-up of hemp-based construction and bio-based materials.

Winton Evers is a carbon accounting and sustainability strategy expert with over 16 years of experience. Winton holds a Master of Science, major in Climate Change and many other qualifications.

Founder of Eco Profit Management Pty Ltd, he integrates financial systems with ESG reporting, climate governance, and emissions reduction. A registered Climate Active consultant, Winton works with major organisations whilst leading training for Carbon Training International.

He designs capacity-building programs that deliver measurable carbon and financial outcomes across the corporate, government, university and community sectors. He develops tools to address specific information requirements in carbon accounting including his Hemp Data Platform.

Matthew Lariba-Taing is a strategic business leader and technical innovator with over a decade of experience spanning infrastructure systems, industrial automation, and emerging agricultural markets.

As co-founder and Director of Hemp Inside, he applies deep industry knowledge to commercialize sustainable hemp-based products across Australia. He also serves as President of the Australian Hemp Council, guiding national governance and policy reform.

With a background in Building Management Systems for a leading OEM (Johnson Controls) and advanced IoT development in agtech, Matthew’s career bridges technology, stakeholder management, and purpose-driven entrepreneurship. He is committed to scalable, circular economy solutions that deliver measurable environmental and commercial outcomes.

Dr Ricarda Jost is a senior research fellow in the ARC Research Hub for Protected Cropping (PC Hub) at La Trobe University, and scientific advisor of the recently established La Trobe University node of the NCRIS-funded Australian Plant Phenomics Network. Her background is in plant molecular physiology and plant nutrition, as well as optimizing plant performance in protected cropping environments – in particular medicinal plant cultivation.

Her research has been diverse and impactful, ranging from identifying key regulators of nutrient signalling in model species and the role of phospholipids in early drought response of cereal roots to understanding phosphate toxicity in Australian Proteaceae. This has led her to investigate how manipulation of underlying response networks may enhance crop productivity, nutritional quality and sustainability of food production.

Throughout her career, she has benefitted from working together with internationally renowned experts at the Leibnitz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) in Germany, as well as at the Australian National University, the University of Western Australia and La Trobe University. She recently edited a special issue on medicinal plants in the Journal of Experimental Botany. Her work has been cited extensively, reflecting her profound contributions to the field.

UTAS Forestry: Sustainability in Practice

Hobart’s historic Forestry building is undergoing a restoration, set to become a new, inner-city hub for learning, research, collaboration and community. Woods Bagot are the architects restoring and redeveloping the site as the centrepiece of the University of Tasmania’s city campus transformation.

UTAS is the leading university in the world for climate action, and as such, the project needed to be underpinned by the highest environmental responsibility standards, targeting 40 percent less embodied carbon than comparable buildings and retaining more than 60 percent of the existing structure. Through adaptive reuse and a comprehensively circular strategy, the project uses material recovery where possible, eliminating carbon-intensive materials, and introducing only sustainable materials. Once completed, the UTAS forestry building will be the largest example of a commercial use of hempcrete in Australia.

Woods Bagot Associate Principal and project leader Alastair Flynn will be discussing the role of hempcrete – a highly sustainable, carbon-negative construction material – and its extensive application in the campus regeneration. Flynn will take audiences through the design, prototyping, fire testing processes involved in unlocking hempcrete for commercial application in Australia, and share how the material is contributing to a vibrant, sustainable, accessible and highly connected campus for the residents of Hobart.

Barriers to hemp masonry use in public and commercial construction

The built environment is responsible for 39% of global energy related carbon emissions. The World Green Building Council vision is that by 2030 all new building have at least 40% less embodied carbon. Hemp masonry construction – carbon sequestering, locally produced and highly insulative – offers clients and built environment practitioners a path to this vision, with significant other benefits for building occupants and biodiversity.

Although hemp masonry is becoming an increasingly popular construction system for off-grid and / or sustainable residential construction, the rigorous and risk averse methods for procurement and delivery of public buildings presents significant challenges to broad adoption of hemp masonry.

The presentation will provide an overview of lessons learned in the design, approvals and construction of Class 9b (public) hemp masonry buildings in Victoria (Mildura and Meeniyan).

Standards for Hempcrete Composite Construction

Standards Australia (SA) is the nation’s peak non-government, not-for-profit standards organisation. As representatives of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), we are also specialists in the development and adoption of internationally-aligned standards in Australia.

Standards are voluntary documents that set out specifications, procedures and guidelines that aim to ensure products, services, and systems are safe, consistent, and reliable. But, how is a standard created? Who creates them, how and why do they matter to new and emerging materials and processes?

This presentation will cover off the steps taken in the development of an Australian world first standard on hempcrete composite construction and highlight the importance of standards in its role to underpin certification and technical infrastructure. It will also provide information on the rigour of standards development.

We will deep dive into the key principles of standards development ensuring World Trade Organisation Technical Barries to Trade obligations are met as well as explore the principles of transparency and consensus throughout the process for this important work. This presentation will also provide an overview of the proposed standard and Standards Australia accelerated new alternative standard development model.

Hemp, Sustainability and the Investment Opportunity

There is increasing interest in and capital seeking sustainable and impact and impactful investments.

This presentation will describe the capital and investment capital pools, including nature, scale and ambitions, which may be relevant to investing in the development and or applications of industrial hemp and potential opportunities and strategies to engage these.

For over 25 years Phil has overseen the investment of AU$22m+ into R&D for the development the entire hemp value chain, paddock to product. Phil set-up commercial hemp businesses in Australia, Europe and the USA.

After retiring from an active role in that industry, Phil set up the Warner Research Institute, a not-for-profit, ACNC, DGR entity that funds research that optimise the ongoing use, and continual reuse of our material resources in disposable and non-disposable consumer goods and eliminate waste of both materials and their embodied energy without further degradation to the natural environment.

Mark Bytheway has more than 35 years capital markets experience, including work in investment banking, corporate advisory, credit risk, analysis funds management, and most recently, in sustainable finance.

In 2000, Mark founded the Sustainable Investment Research Institute, (SIRIS), Australia’s first, dedicated, independent, specialist sustainable, responsible and impact investment research group, providing research and analysis to local, regional and global financiers, investors, asset owners and research groups. He currently provides research and advisory services to several asset managers, companies and family offices regarding ESG, and sustainable and impact investments.

Mark holds directorships in Rescope Wealth, US-based ESG AI and analytics group, KPX LLC, social and media impact investment platform, Qvests. He was a founding member of the UNEP Australasian SRI Advisory Committee and a former Trustee of the OXFAM CAA Ethical Investment Trust and degrees in law and economics and a Master of Environmental Science.

He maintains a strong interest in working with sustainable industries and entities and those seeking to transition to lower impacts, through with providing research, analysis and financing advice and support.

Anna is a registered Architect and co-founder of Footscray-based architectural consultancy Public Realm Lab.

She is an advocate, researcher and adviser on the ways in which the built environment can foster inclusivity, creativity and sustainability by putting human experience at the centre of strategic and design thinking. Anna has over a decade of major project experience spanning masterplanning, strategic facilities planning, architectural design and delivery for local councils, state government departments, not-for-profit organisations and tertiary institutions. Anna was the lead Architect for Powerhouse Place – the revitalisation of the Powerhouse on the Mighty Murray in Mildura which was awarded the Victorian Architecture Medal in 2024. Powerhouse Place delivered the first 3 public hemp masonry buildings in Australia.

She is the recipient of the Dulux Study Tour and Marten Bequest Scholarship.

Anna is also a non-Executive Director of Footscray Community Arts – an internationally recognised organisation that advocates for all communities to be valued as makers of culture.

Joost Bakker – Sustainability Innovator, Artist & Hemp Building Visionary

He  is a renowned designer, environmental activist, and thought leader in sustainable architecture and systems thinking. Widely recognised for his bold projects that fuse design, ecology and innovation, Joost has spent over two decades pioneering zero-waste buildings, closed-loop systems and regenerative urban spaces. His work redefines how we think about materials, energy, food, and the built environment.

Joost’s dedication to sustainable construction has led him to explore and advocate for hemp as a key material in Australia’s transition to low-carbon, climate-resilient buildings. Fast-growing, low-input and locally available, hemp aligns with his philosophy of using nature as a guide to solve human challenges. In projects like the new Woodleigh School, he demonstrates how hemp-based materials can be integrated into high-performance, toxin-free, circular structures that support both environmental and human health.

To quote Joost: “Why build a school when you can build an ecosystem?

Richard is looking forward to being the MC at the Hemp Connect forum in June 2025.

And to bring forward the connections and highlight the products being made from hemp fiber, particularly in the building industry.

Richard has been involved in the hemp industry since 1997, via Hemptastic NZ limited and more recently Hemp Seed Foods Ltd.

For the last 5 years Richard has been the Chair of the NZHIA and has been the treasurer since 1998.

During this time there have been some amazing developments in the industrial hemp world and Richard is proud to be part of the industry and promoting them at the three iHemp Summits in Aotearoa/NZ since 2018.

Recently the NZHIA and others have been working with the Government and are excited about the opportunity to review the NZ regulations to allow full plant utilisation.