How we work.
We deliver solutions by applying innovative Ecological Engineering practices, from conception to construction, in collaboration with our clients.
We approach all projects from a thorough understanding of the objectives of the client and the physical, biological and social constraints of the system in which our clients operate.
We then seek to identify solutions that address the underlying attributes of the problem based on sound science underpinned by practical experience. This “attributes-based” approach encourages innovation, and ensures that the proposed solutions are reliable, predictable and optimised to meet client requirements at minimum cost.
Our Services.
Verterra is a Technology Transfer provider. We combine highly skilled and nationally certified environmental scientists, with experienced land, crop, irrigation and vegetation management practitioners, to develop and implement innovative end-to-end solutions.
We deliver our services to the market via a variety of mechanisms, including research, consulting, and operational delivery. Our unique activity across the value chain from applied science to on-ground operations, give us the capacity to bring a holistic, integrated, solutions-based approach to service delivery.
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Research & Advisory
We identify research needs and develop innovations that have the potential to reduce cost and improve efficiency. We work with our clients to design research programs, secure university research partners, and source funding to undertake applied research aimed at demonstrating potential land delivering tangible outcomes in the field.
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Consulting
We focus on providing consulting services as a tailored solution. We aim to understand the attributes of the issues faced by our clients, identify the technically and practically viable solutions, then narrow down a sub-set of solutions that meet technical constraints, our clients’ objectives, and fit the wider community and land-use context.
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Operational Delivery
We have implemented accredited project management and business systems for planning, procurement, implementation, quality control, safety, risk management and commissioning of large complex projects. Our capacity for operational delivery grounds our activities, ensuring that our research is relevant and our consulting advice is practical. It also underpins our capacity to leverage research to deliver innovation to our clients.
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Management
We stand behind the solutions we conceive, design and build, providing boots on the ground to take an active role in ongoing management, and continuous improvement, or provide ongoing support to our clients.
Our Technology & Intellectual Property.
We bring a supporting package of background intellectual property and skilled expertise to address land management challenges and deliver reliable, quantitative, performance-based solutions.
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Drover (Dynamic Reference for Optimising Value and Erosion Reduction), developed in association with Greencollar and AgriProve, is a sophisticated spatial analysis tool to assist graziers increase productivity and earn additional income from environmental credits.
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ReVert is our mine site rehabilitation design tool, developed in association with University of Southern Queensland and industry through an eight-year ACARP funded research program informs mine site rehabilitation design to minimise the risk of erosion and optimise revegetation potential.
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Our in-house developed Soil nutrition optimisation and limitations amelioration tool enables design of site-specific soil amelioration prescriptions to address nutritional, chemical, physical and biological limitations.
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Verterra brings a package of modelling technologies and expertise together to deliver fully integrated, end-to-end solutions in beneficial use of waste waters for irrigated crop or vegetation applications. VIP-Wastewater addresses technical, regulatory, commercial, operational and social aspects of wastewater reuse.
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We operate soil electromagnetic sensors for detailed, site-specific mapping of soil type variation to provide the basis for site-stratification, sampling and mapping of spatial variation in key soil properties to inform agricultural development design and remedial management.
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Verterra has in-house drone capability with a Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) issued Remote Operators Certificate (ReOC) and appropriately trained and licenced operators. Our drones carry LiDAR, multispectral, photogrammetric and video sensors and equipment for digital environmental data capture as input for sophisticated spatial analysis and environmental modelling.
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We operate a fleet of Landcruiser mounted soil coring rigs with capacity to sample intact cores quickly and efficiently to a depth of up to 3m. Our rigs are compliant with the Federal Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund soil carbon sequestration method.
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Through an Advance Queensland program in association with Queensland University of Technology, our spatial scientists are skilled in application of machine learning and artificial intelligence to analysis of complex spatial data, enabling us to gain novel insights into ecosystem function. We routinely apply this technology to soil mapping, complementing traditional methods.
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Our highly skilled team of spatial data analysts utilise complex Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping, modelling and analysis to gain quantitative and actionable insights into environmental condition and ecosystem function. Utilising satellite, UAV and ground data, combined with conventional analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence, applications range from: pasture growth in response to grazing; erosion estimation under alternative land use practices; gully erosion and risk assessment; forest growth assessment; forest health assessment; and crop productivity forecasting, to climate change impact assessment.
Ben Silverwood
Technical Services Lead
Environmental economics & ecosystem service markets.
We believe strongly in the power of market economics to deliver material change in ecosystem health and contribute toward achieving the goal of people and nature beneficially coexisting on planet Earth.
The scale of climate change mitigation, nature repair, biodiversity conservation and agricultural system regeneration is so large that grant and philanthropic funding, while important, are inadequate to address the challenge.
There is a clear and present need to harness the power of financial markets to create business cases for nature repair and agricultural regeneration, recognising the real cost of human activities and internalising externalities.
By working with nature rather than against it and finding innovative ways to turn environmental risk into economic and social value, our ecological engineering practices provide the means to deliver meaningful change for regeneration of the environment and our land-based production systems.
Verterra is an active participant in the carbon and ecosystem services markets to support landholders implement improved land management practices while also releasing improved productivity. Many of our industrial projects, ranging from beneficial use of coal seam gas water and sewage effluent to mine site rehabilitation have reduced cost and delivered nature positive environmental benefits.
Andrew Yates
Sector Lead - Forestry
Quality, Safety, Environment and Risk
Verterra prides itself on delivering high quality outcomes and nature-based solutions; embedded in a culture of promoting the safety of its employees, contractors, suppliers and stakeholders; targeted at maximising environmental benefits; with a sound appreciation of risk.
Verterra operates an Integrated Business Management System (IBMS) that incorporates quality, safety, environment and risk management considerations in all aspects of project delivery to clients. The structure of our IBMS reflects our approach of seeing quality, safety, environment and risk management as being intertwined, rather than as separate, stand-alone systems.
Verterra holds accreditation for Quality (ISO 9001:2015) Safety (ISO 45001:2018), Environment (ISO 14001:2015) and Risk (ISO 31000:2018), giving the company a Tier 2 rating.
