The International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FDIC) has appointed two Aurecon executives to its Sustainable Development Committee to provide advice on how to combat climate change and sustainability issues.
Aurecon’s managing director for New Zealand, Tracey Ryan has been named as chair of the international committee which has 11 members.
Aurecon’s director, coastal & climate change in Asia, Stéphanie Groen is a committee member. Groen said she looks forward to providing an Asia Pacific perspective to the committee’s work.
The new committee will advocate, guide and monitor best practice in sustainable development across the global engineering and construction industry.
In addition to publishing tools and guides to support best practice, the committee will advise the FIDIC board on all aspects of sustainable development as part of the organisation’s commitment to helping the industry achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Commenting on her new role, Ryan said environmental sustainability is one of the most important issues facing the planet and engineers play a vital role in helping governments and communities tackle this complex challenge.
“A key aim of the committee will be to assess the potential impact of climate change and provide a meaningful forum for consulting engineers to share ideas on how they can enable mitigation, adaptation and resilience to climate change and develop and maintain buildings and infrastructure assets that are truly sustainable in the broadest possible way,” Ryan said.
“The committee will also continue to promote FIDIC’s core principles of quality, integrity and sustainability and work towards better infrastructure while creating positive impact in all the communities where we work.”
FIDIC chief executive Dr Nelson Ogunshakin said the Sustainable Development Committee has been relaunched as part of strengthening and upgrading FIDIC’s committee structure to respond to a rapidly changing world.
“The new Sustainable Development Committee, in common with a number of other revamped committees we will be announcing over the coming weeks, will enable FIDIC to be more external facing and help us to make a positive impact on and influence in the global infrastructure industry,” he said.
“Going forward, we plan to be more vocal and more visible to meet the challenges our industry faces as it moves out of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.”
FIDIC has been in operation for over 100 years and represents the interests of over one million engineering professionals and 40,000 firms in more than 100 countries worldwide.