Mercury Energy is a renewable energy generator and retailer of electricity based in New Zealand Aotearoa.

Some of the biggest social and economic risks that we face stem from climate change according to the latest Risk Report from the World Economic Forum¹. It’s a scary prospect and there’s a lot of uncertainty about the direction businesses and governments will take. However, the world’s climate emergency is equally an opportunity. An opportunity to decarbonise, create new industries and jobs that will be the bedrock of the global economy for decades to come.

Mercury Energy embodies this line of thought. Despite the world being in the early stages of the clean energy transition, it generates electricity from 100 per cent renewable sources, including hydro, geothermal and wind.

As one of the largest energy retailers and generators in New Zealand, Mercury is looking to scale up as fast as possible to provide ‘energy freedom’ to the entire nation. This means being more economically self-sufficient and environmentally sustainable through cheap and reliable renewable energy.

SDG contribution

What are SDGs?
 

	Affordable and clean energy
	Climate action

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1 World Economic Forum, 2022. The Global Risks report 2022 17th Edition. Switzerland: World Economic Forum, pp.30-41.

Rubicon Water aims to increase global food and fibre production through the development of technology to improve water use efficiency.

Irrigated agriculture consumes 70 per cent of the world's water resources, as many agricultural areas aren’t water efficient. Water losses occur due to a lack of measurement and poor control¹. In a nation like Australia where drought and flood are common occurrences, it’s increasingly important that farmers get the best bang for their buck.

Rubicon’s technologies improve large scale, gravity-fed irrigation systems by reducing spills and waste. The company enables irrigation scheduling which creates water savings by helping farmers know when to irrigate their crops and how much water to apply. In Australia, major irrigation districts have adopted Rubicon’s technology. The largest of which, is 3000km of automated canal and saves 429 gigalitres per year to boost agriculture productivity – the equivalent of the annual water consumption of the city of Melbourne in one year².

SDG contribution

What are SDGs?
 

	Affordable and clean energy
	Sustainable cities and communities
	Climate action

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1 oecd.org. 2017. Managing water sustainably is key to the future of food and agriculture.

2 Rubicon Water - Improving Water Availability from Source to Crop. 2021. Melbourne: Rubicon Water.

Immutep is a small Australian biotech company at the forefront of the emerging field of cancer immunotherapy.

For years, ‘fighting’ cancer through chemotherapy has been common practice. Immunotherapy, pioneered by Immutep is changing this. Instead of killing the cancer cells, immunotherapy boosts the patient’s immune system’s natural ability to fight the cancer cells, providing long-term protection against cancer.

Immune checkpoints are proteins that live on cells to protect the immune system. Cancer cells target these checkpoints to prevent the cancer cells from being killed. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are drugs being developed by Immutep to block the checkpoints and enable the immune system to fight the cancer.

Immutep is one amongst several companies finding agents that work with these new drugs. The company is a global leader in the development of therapeutics that relate to the Lymphocyte Activation Gene-3 or "LAG-3” which plays a vital role in regulating the immune system to fight cancer. It has several clinical stage products based on its research into LAG-3.

SDG contribution

What are SDGs?
 

Good health and well-being

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