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News | Archives The theme of this conference is to encourage engineers to take more of
a leadership role in developing New Zealand’s economy and national
wealth. I absolutely endorse that goal. I chose the latter! But as process engineers we are trained to evaluate
risk! Now I have moved on to another leadership role. For me the common denominator behind effective leadership is a ‘can do’ attitude, a dream and a belief in sustainable development. Good and effective leadership recognizes not only the economic and the environmental but also its social responsibility. This has long been the case. Look at the global consumer products company Unilever which was started as a soap products community by the Lever brothers in Port Sunlight, Liverpool back in 1885. The Lever brothers built Port Sunlight village to provide company employees with decent living conditions, in sharp contrast to those commonly experienced elsewhere in Victorian England. Unilever's Port Sunlight research and development centre continues to this day to drive the innovation of the company's range of global brands and a social conscience remains at the heart of the business. Whilst the 1900’s was a time of industrialisation, today’s world is even more fast changing. Consider that 90% of the world’s inventions are in the last 50 years with the advent of personal computers really only in the last 20 years. 6 years ago Toyota did not envisage the hybrid vehicle as being the future of transport and most vehicle manufacturers were focusing on fuel cells and hydrogen. Now the industry believes hybrids are the car of the next 50 years. And I will soon have one myself. Leadership by role modeling. Technology moves fast, leaders recognize and adapt to that and engineers should be ahead of the game because that’s how we have been trained to think. And technology is vital to a successful outcome. Alinghi’s success in the Americas Cup was due to Swiss precision and technology developed at the Swiss Federal Technology Institute. So what will the world look like in another 50 years time? Well some of the emerging technologies which you will hear about during this convention will be common place. And our built environment will look different. As engineers, you play a highly important role in this change. The need for change is obvious, globally and locally. Climate change, diminishing resources, poverty, violence and in Auckland the huge problems caused by the spread city. Yet our infrastructure planning, design and delivery has often lagged behind the need for different solutions. We still cling to the old ways of doing things. We are slow to think laterally, think creatively and think generationally. We think in silos and in linear fashion rather than in a holistic way. Places where people want to live - and that are sustainable - do not happen by chance. They are the product of visionary thinking and commitment by civic leaders, national leaders, developers and professionals. “Sustainable communities” as defined by the UK Taskforce on sustainable cities “meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, their children and other users, contribute to a high quality of life and provide opportunity and choice. They achieve this in ways that make effective use of natural resources, enhance the environment, promote social cohesion and inclusion and strengthen economic prosperity.” Since I took office, Aucklanders have made it very clear to me that they
want to live in a vibrant, prosperous and more inclusive city, with transport,
urban design and open space made top priority. This is absolutely consistent
with the findings of the Growth & Innovation Board that New Zealanders
put “sense of place” above everything. No one wants a rate rise and we will listen to what you have to say but in the end leadership is about making difficult decisions. There is of course debate in Auckland as to whether there is demand for public transport – more buses and an improved railway network – if it was there would people use it? I would like to reference a comment made in 1960 but as equally relevant today about the railways in the United States:- “I grieve to see the most advanced physical and social organization of the last century go down in shabby disgrace for lack of the same comprehensive imagination that built it up. {What is lacking is the will} of the companies to survive and to satisfy the public by inventiveness and skill (Levitt T. 1960) We seem to have a motorway mentality in Auckland, but overseas experience is crystal clear, as soon as you widen motorways they are quickly congested again. Unless we shift the emphasis to public transport we will never make any progress. We need an integrated transport system for all our cities and urban consolidation around the transport nodes. Then we will start to see a difference. As engineers, we can fuse imagination with technological knowledge to find practical solutions. You are pivotal in engineering the best built environment for Auckland and for our other cities in a sustainable manner. At least, unlike other countries we have a planning framework already in place via the Resource Management Act which protects the environmental bottom line in planning consents. The RMA is not perfect as a framework, local government is not perfect in delivering it, and people are not perfect in their treatment of our environment. But the underlying principle of the RMA is sound. The sustainable management of our natural resources. We are no longer talking about trade offs. We know that our councils are under enormous pressure in managing their responsibilities under the RMA. I was speaking the other day to one of the team who works with our building and resource consent customers. Auckland City Council is creaking under the pressure of the sheer volume of development taking place in the city. We’ve got people putting in huge hours to process consents and we’re recruiting as far away as Europe for qualified building inspectors to come down here and help ease the pressure. But as you all know, it is not just simply a case of minimizing administrative delays or avoiding the ad-hoc application of development controls. It is trying to get the balance right between quality control and speed. It is no good rushing through consents. They have to be done with focus and attention to detail. It is our job as council to manage this process and the chance to get it right was one of the driving forces behind my decision to run for mayor. So that’s my job – what’s yours? Put simply, I would say that it is incorporating sustainable design into your processes, technologies and product development. It’s about efficient use of resources and innovating to eliminate waste across the whole life cycle of a product or service. For the housing and built environment it is creating a sense of place, well maintained local, user friendly public and green spaces with facilities for everyone including children and older people. Providing a high quality, well designed built environment of appropriate size, scale, density, design and layout that complements the distinctive local character of the community. That is what our recently announced plans for the Auckland CBD will deliver. But sustainable cities are also built around delivering social equity. We have taken the decision to reduce the size of the uniform annual charge that all ratepayers pay because its introduction in the previous term of council meant many of our people on the lowest incomes were hit with a 37 percent increase while people in high value properties saw less than a 5 percent rise. By reducing it from $189 to $95 we make Auckland a more equitable place to live. Rates like taxes and insurance are never going to be popular but sometimes they are necessary. I was asked to talk to you today about how being a trained engineer (whatever the discipline) is conducive to leadership. Leadership requires an openness to change and creativity which relies on an analytical mind, clear decision making, evaluation and an ability to learn from mistakes. New Zealand needs those skills to build our sustainable cities, sustainable industries and new technologies which will drive economic growth. This conference will inspire you to do so.
For more information on the IPENZ 2005 convention see: http://www.ipenz.org.nz/convention2005/ More convention news: Keeping ahead of the changing building industry Engineers’ voice missing from political landscape Unpleasant Environment Fails Elderly, Says Engineer “Engineers
as Leaders” - Convention 2005
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