“I see YV Water as a climate leader, helping people and the water sector build a resilient future”
As one of Australia’s most progressive water utilities, Yarra Valley Water is known for its strong focus on sustainability, innovation, and community outcomes. Under the leadership of Managing Director Natalie Foeng, the organisation is shaping a future that balances growth, environmental responsibility, and customer affordability. Serving more than two million people and 62,000 businesses across Melbourne’s rapidly expanding northern and eastern suburbs, Yarra Valley Water faces rising challenges from population growth, climate change, and shifting community expectations.
In this interview, Foeng shares her strategic vision for the decade ahead — from investing in resilient, low-emission infrastructure and circular economy initiatives to harnessing digital technologies — all to create a brighter, more sustainable future for customers, communities, and the natural environment.
Yarra Valley Water is often seen as one of Australia’s most progressive utilities. As Managing Director, what is your strategic vision for the next decade, particularly in balancing growth, sustainability, and customer affordability?
My vision is that we support the health and well-being of our customers and create a brighter future for communities and the natural environment.
We work in partnership with the community, partners and stakeholders, with the voice of customers from today and tomorrow in mind
I’m proud of the work we do to care for the environment and provide essential water and sewerage services to more than 2 million Melburnians and 62,000 businesses. I also know the next decade will bring many challenges for our region, though. Population growth, affordability, shifting community expectations and climate change will all shape our business in the years ahead. To continue achieving our vision, we need to keep pace with change and evolve. This means we are building a greater connection with Country, building resilience in response to climate change and working in partnership with community, partners and stakeholders, with the voice of customers from today and tomorrow in mind.
Yarra Valley Water is expanding water and wastewater networks to meet population growth and modernise services. How are you balancing renewal, growth, and resilience to deliver sustainable infrastructure outcomes?
Providing sustainable, reliable infrastructure while accommodating growth requires careful planning and investment. Through our 2023-28 Price Submission, we are investing over $2.6 billion in our network. This will help us both expand our infrastructure and upgrade our existing network.
The essential services we deliver are crucial to facilitating growth, and so we look to be as proactive as possible in supporting new developments. Our Development Planning Team works with government, private and community partners to identify growth areas and plan the water and sewerage infrastructure they’ll need. This helps us keep pace with the rapid growth in our area and maximises our investment in new infrastructure.
We also have extensive monitoring and renewal programs to help maintain a network of 21,500 kilometres of water, recycled water and sewer mains. Some projects, like our M4 Water Main Renewal, are replacing pipes that are over a century old. These projects are considerable undertakings, but are crucial to maintain reliable services into the future.
We’ve also begun to ensure we can maintain reliable services as the impacts of climate change intensify. We have developed a Climate Resilience Risk Assessment Framework that uses data to assess the risk of bushfires, floods, droughts and rising temperatures impacting our assets under predicted climate scenarios. This helps guide the location and design of future assets, as well as upgrades to existing assets, ensuring they can withstand hotter, drier and more extreme conditions.
Reducing water loss and optimising system performance are now key measures of efficiency for utilities. What approaches is Yarra Valley Water taking — operationally or through technology — to get more from its existing network assets?
We’re working to prevent leaks and bursts before they happen. We have several initiatives that identify potential issues, so we can repair or replace infrastructure before it fails, saving water and money.
Some projects like our M4 Water Main Renewal are replacing pipes over a century old, crucial to maintain reliable services into the future
For several years, we’ve worked with Aqua Analytics to proactively detect leaks across our network through a range of methods. This includes using AI data loggers to better understand asset performance, and acoustic tools to detect watermain leaks. By integrating Aqua Analytics' technology into our infrastructure, we're better equipped to identify and resolve issues before they result in significant water loss.
In addition to the work we’re doing to prevent asset failures, we’re also striving to make sure that when there are leaks or bursts, we are able to fix them as quickly as possible, and minimise the amount of water lost. Our District Metered Area program is a major asset in helping us identify leaks. It now covers over half of our network, using remote monitoring devices underground to provide real-time data on our network performance, helping us detect and respond to any anomalies.
We also look to empower the community to notify us when they see a leak or burst. We have partnered with Snap, Send, Solve to provide a quick and easy way to report any faults that need fixing. This partnership has encouraged community members to report more faults, helping us solve issues faster.
Yarra Valley Water is on track to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions for the 2025–26 financial year, four years ahead of government requirements. What are the main factors enabling this early achievement?
We have always looked to set ambitious targets when it comes to reducing emissions, and I’m proud that we’re meeting them. For several years, we’ve been rethinking the way we work, cutting emissions in everything from how we treat wastewater to how we get around.
We power all our operations with 100% renewable electricity. This comes from solar panels at our treatment plants and Mitcham head office car park, energy generated by converting food waste to power our Wollert treatment plant, and renewable electricity purchased from Victorian generators.
The Climate Resilience Risk Assessment Framework helps guide the location and design of future assets, as well as upgrades to existing assets
We are now only purchasing electric passenger vehicles, with work underway to transition our operational fleet. To support this transition, we have awarded a contract to more than double the number of electric vehicle chargers at our Mitcham head office. When complete, the site will have more than 60 charging points.
We are also investing in high-integrity Victorian-based carbon sequestration and reduction projects to offset our residual emissions that are otherwise difficult to eliminate.
The utility also aims to reduce Scope 3 emissions by 67 per cent by 2030. How are you engaging suppliers and delivery partners to support that broader target?
Reducing Scope 3 emissions relies on partnerships and collaboration, and it’s encouraging that so many of our contractors and suppliers share this commitment.
We work with contractors and suppliers from an early stage to help them find ways to reduce emissions in their work. This can include using low-carbon cement or recycled aggregate in construction projects. In the past financial year, we’ve used a total of 18,000 tonnes of recycled or lower-impact material in the construction of our assets, more than doubling our target of 7,000 tonnes.
We also work with other partners on carbon offset projects. A great example of this is the Upper Yarra Sewage Treatment Plant habitat restoration. For this project, we’ve partnered with Melbourne Water, Zoos Victoria, Greening Australia, Jacobs and Spiire to transform an unused piece of buffer land into a habitat for the critically endangered Helmeted Honeyeater and lowland Leadbeater’s Possum. The 35-hectare habitat will feature a mixture of woodland and wetland environments, utilising recycled water from the treatment plant.
Energy efficiency and renewable sourcing are central to the net-zero goals. How is Yarra Valley Water reshaping its energy footprint — both in how it consumes power and in how it generates or procures clean energy?
The more clean energy we produce, the more opportunities we have to power our operations sustainably. We use 100 per cent renewable electricity, but our demand for renewable electricity is expanding as we grow as an organisation and as we look for more ways to move away from diesel and petrol-powered operations.
We’re in the final stages of completing our second food waste to energy facility in Lilydale, which will be able to produce over 39,000 kWh of renewable electricity per day. We are also installing a new solar facility at Yuroke that will be more than twice the size of our solar car park in Mitcham.
The District Metered Area program, which now covers over half of our network, is a major asset in helping us identify leaks
Generating more renewable energy helps us move away from other energy sources. For example, we’re updating our head office in Mitcham to reduce gas consumption. We have already replaced several gas hot water systems with efficient heat pumps and will increase our use of renewable electricity for the office's heating and cooling.
Additionally, we have contingencies at many pump stations and treatment plants to ensure they can operate, even when there’s a power outage. Many of these contingencies have previously relied on fuel-powered generators, but we are exploring battery and biodiesel alternatives to provide cleaner energy.
We’re also looking to become more efficient, even where we already use clean energy. We are currently undertaking a major upgrade at our Brushy Creek Sewage Treatment Plant. The plant is the biggest electricity user in our network, but through upgrading the blowers at the plant, we will reduce the energy usage of the plant by about 20 per cent, which is a considerable saving.
Recycled water is playing a growing role in Melbourne’s water future. How are you expanding its use and ensuring it becomes a mainstream part of the city’s supply?
Recycled water is key to securing Melbourne’s water future, providing a reliable source of water that doesn’t rely on rainfall. We’re expanding our recycled water infrastructure so that we can treat and reuse more wastewater and connect more households and businesses to recycled water mains.
We recently began work on the Brushy Creek Recycled Water Project, which will provide recycled water to more than 5000 homes and businesses in parts of Lilydale and Chirnside Park. We are also about to begin work to provide recycled water infrastructure to more than 7000 new and existing households in recently developed parts of Donnybrook and Kalkallo. Supplying new developments like this with recycled water helps us protect precious drinking water supplies while also supporting housing growth.
We’re also exploring ways to ensure water security into the future. This includes working with the sector to consider the role of desalinated water, indirect purified recycled water and looking at areas where stormwater harvesting could boost supplies.
Yarra Valley Water’s Foundational Technology Program is reshaping how the business uses data. How is this investment changing the way you plan, monitor, and maintain your network?
Our Foundational Technology Program is a major upgrade to our digital backbone, and it’s transforming the way we plan, monitor and maintain our network. The program brings together data from across the network using modern systems and smart technologies. This provides us with a clear, real-time view of how the network is performing, helping us quickly detect issues such as leaks, bursts or equipment faults.
Our operations use 100% renewable electricity, from solar panels, from converting food waste to power, and purchased renewable electricity
By analysing this data, we can also make better-informed decisions about where to invest in maintenance and upgrades. This proactive approach helps to prevent service disruptions, reduce water loss, and extend the life of key infrastructure. The program is building a stronger foundation for the future by helping us deliver a more reliable, efficient and sustainable service for our customers and communities.
Looking ahead, how do you see Yarra Valley Water’s role evolving as cities become smarter, more circular, and more climate-resilient — and what kind of utility do you hope to lead into that future?
I see our role as a climate leader. This doesn’t just mean we are at the forefront of climate innovation, but also supporting our communities and the wider water sector in building a more sustainable and resilient future.
Our Wollert food waste to energy facility exemplifies this approach. Situated alongside our Sewage and Recycled Water Treatment Plants and a partnership Community Farm, it demonstrates how a circular economy hub can operate in practice. The facility converts food waste into clean, renewable electricity that powers itself, the treatment plants and the farm. Together, these facilities close the loop, turning waste into resources, producing recycled water to support Melbourne’s growing northern suburbs, and generating renewable energy for our operations.
We’re also proud to work with Traditional Owners in managing the land at Wollert, incorporating cultural burning and other traditional land management practices. This partnership helps restore and care for Country, strengthening both environmental outcomes and cultural connections.
We’re working with the sector to consider sources such as desalinated water, indirect purified recycled water and stormwater harvesting
Since opening in 2017, the Wollert facility has processed more than 200,000 tonnes of food waste, supporting the Victorian Government’s goal to halve food waste to landfill by 2030. It’s a strong example of how utilities can contribute to a circular, low-carbon economy while benefitting the community.
Our transition to an electric fleet and our habitat restoration projects build on this same philosophy, demonstrating how utilities can operate more sustainably, reduce emissions and strengthen climate resilience. Projects like these help go beyond operational excellence, acting as a blueprint for others wanting to improve. It links back to our vision, to create a brighter future for our communities and the environment. We’re not only operating to improve things for ourselves, but the communities and industry we’re part of.