Mobile World Congress co-exhibition, Barcelona

Science & Innovation Comment: GSMA Mobile World Congress

Robin Ormerod, a co-founder of Pacific Environment, is the Head of Science & Innovation. Robin’s 35 years as an environmental consultant underpins the company’s active phase of business building and practice development. He has extensive expert witness experience in Australia and New Zealand, and is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist (American Meteorological Society), the only CCM in the environmental consulting field in Australia. He is a Life Member of the Clean Air Society of Australia & New Zealand and is currently the Chair of its Modelling Special Interest Group (ModSIG).


Our EnviroSuite technology is up for an exciting year indeed. We are expanding our market base by teaming up with other cloud-based solutions through distribution partnerships that pull us into the IoT world, bringing us new technology opportunities.

This year we start off in a big way, as co-exhibitors with Libelium at this year’s GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona commencing 22-25 February. The MWC is the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry with attendance of over 90,000 people.

Teaming with Libelium, one of Europe’s up-and-coming IoT sensor companies, provides world-wide distribution opportunities for EnviroSuite and the opportunity to explore new applications for our technology and know-how. As it is device agnostic, EnviroSuite is an ideal dashboard for Libelium products, adding the capability of analytical, forecasting and risk management applications.

At the MWC we are showcasing EnviroSuite Ambient and EnviroSuite Indoor, our award winning technology. The case study using EnviroSuite Indoor for the MWC is based on actual applications of the system in controlling infection in a hospital operating theatre environment.

In particular, the system is used to ensure sterile conditions are maintained in operating theatres located in hospitals undergoing construction and building modifications. By notifying staff of potentially detrimental changes that signal an increased risk of airborne infection, action can be taken to reduce exposure quickly.

In partnership with Odournet, we are also showcasing an EnviroSuite Ambient application in a Smart City environment. Demonstrating the use of Libelium IoT sensors in an urban environment, our demo will showcase forecasting of nuisance odour events and complaint backtracking for use by communities compromised by activities that emit objectionable odours.

An example of where this could work is the recent massive natural gas release in Porter Ranch, an upmarket suburb in Los Angeles. For the past three months, a natural gas well system owned by Southern California Gas Company leaked natural gas, containing highly odorous mercaptans, at levels so high (44,000 kg/hr) that 3,000 homes were evacuated. Citizens complained of nausea and headaches caused by the strong odours they encountered.

Situations such as Porter Ranch can be helped by EnviroSuite’s odour risk forecasts, which provide information and guidance up to 7 days in advance. Forecasts give advance warning of odour events, giving residents and authorities time to prepare – possibly by evacuating in severe cases.

When odour does cause a problem, citizens can directly communicate odour complaints instantly via a smartphone app, helping to maintain a real-time picture of an event unfolding, and facilitating actions by others. EnviroSuite can verify the source of complaint in seconds and allow remedial actions to be started quickly if the situation permits.
At the MWC we will be showing EnviroSuite Ambient’s conceptual use at a large waste dump in New Delhi.