15.04.2021FFG: A green roof and coffee from a robot sitting underneath-can you help?

The six members of the ‘MelBees + Green Roof’ Project Team from the Future Focus Group Class of 2020-2021 have been seeking to showcase and promote the bees of Melbourne and their preferred habitat within Melbourne by installing a ‘green roof’ on an under-utilised public transport shelter.

Following interactions with a number of public transport providers in Melbourne, support for an exit partner of the initiative with an overt focus on bees has not been secured. The Project Team members have decided to simplify the focus and are exploring potential alternative sites for their pilot green roof. Discussions have been held with Melbourne-based coffee-automation start-up ‘Once Alike’ which, after years of local R&D, is ready to offer customers a futuristic espresso machine controlled by a simple app. Once Alike is in possession of a modified industrial container which houses a ‘robot barista’ (see picture) and this could accommodate the installation of a green roof – thereby moving from a focus on bees to another Melbourne icon – coffee!

Project Team members are currently exploring potentially suitable Melbourne CBD locations for what may well be the world’s first coffee-dispensing industrial container with an integrated green roof. The container is a 20 ft container, and only requires one power source. If you can help with a discussion on a potential Melbourne CBD location, please contact Project Team member Allana Smith of Silver Chain Group (allana.smith@silverchain.org.au).