Engineers Australia CEO Romilly Madew has returned from New Zealand after a productive week connecting with engineering and industry leaders, and colleagues across the ditch.

Ms Madew presented a keynote session at the Concrete NZ Conference in Hamilton, and spoke about the positive steps and challenges the concrete industry is facing to develop low emissions solutions including improving resilience and sustainability in the built environment. 

“The challenge in the short-term is on improving awareness and understanding of recycled materials concrete and where it can be used to reduce the industry’s emissions. We must educate participants along the supply chain on the range of recycled materials available and promote the environmental credentials and lifecycle cost benefits of recycled materials,” Ms. Madew said in her presentation. 

“As much as possible, we need to develop, update and harmonise fit-for-purpose performance-based specifications to support their application across jurisdictions and to communicate their benefits broadly.”

Following her keynote, she joined a panel discussion along with Cyril Giraud, Head of Sustainability at Holcim Australia & New Zealand, Professor Maria Juenger, Professor of Engineering, University of Texas and David Welsh, General Manager Commercial (Concrete Division) at Fletcher Building.

“In Australia, we are seeing emerging innovation in green concrete coming out of engineering faculties at the University of Western Sydney, the University of Melbourne and RMIT. 

“The level of innovation is incredibly exciting and I think there is a fantastic opportunity for industry and government to work with researchers to maximise the potential for more sustainable building materials in Australia, here in NZ and around the world.”

Across the week Ms Madew had several meetings including with Engineering New Zealand, the NZ Infrastructure Commission, Infrastructure NZ, and the Australian High Commissioner to NZ.

There were also discussions with Sarah Sinclair, Chair and Construction and Infrastructure Partner at MinterEllisonRuddWatts and Jane Henley, Transformation Lead – Innovation, Construction Sector Accord

Some of our New Zealand members and colleagues attended two member events with Ms Madew, one in Auckland and one in Wellington. These were the first in person gatherings Engineers Australia has held with our Kiwi colleagues since the COVID pandemic.

As part of her working trip, Ms Madew toured three sites including the Mao Point sludge minimisation facility, which is creating a new solution for minimising and managing sludge.

A tour of 8 Willis Street, Wellington, enabled Ms Madew to learn about the 1980s tower which has been retrofitted with five new floors to meet the market requirements for seismic performance. 

She also visited the Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatu Tararua Highway project near Palmerston North. The $620m, 11.5 km long highway is being built through the Manawatū Gorge which was rendered impassable after a major slip in 2017. 

Ms Madew got a birds eye view of some of the project in its construction which includes the building of six bridges, planting of two million trees and the creation of a pedestrian and cyclist path, all over a river which is on a fault line and susceptible to flooding and high winds.

Ms Madew will use the learnings from the New Zealand visit to inform our strategic projects.