Sustainability is not a buzzword, scientists told

Sustainability is not a mere buzzword but an ethical responsibility that should be implicit in all scientific and business endeavours, environmental engineer and Massey University alumna Alice Andrew told science graduates at their capping ceremony this week.

As guest speaker Ms Andrew (Ngāti Toa, Ngāi Tahu), said she felt if was her job to highlight the importance of sustainability to the165 science graduates, including eight PhDs.

“Sustainability is not a buzzword. It is about the capacity to endure, and by definition it is about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations.”

Sustainability, she said, is “about equality, it’s an environmental issue, it’s a social issue, it’s an economic issue. Whether you will design and manufacture useful products, develop computer systems intelligence, manage risk, progress molecular bioscience or health – sustainability goes hand in hand with these endeavours.”

Ms Andrew is the co-owner of Andrew.Stewart, an award-winning multi-disciplinary planning and environmental consultancy she started with her husband Aaron in 2001. Last year the company won the Sustainable Business Network’s Northern Region overall Sustainable Business of the Year, as well as two Deloitte Fast 50 awards in 2007 and 2008 (celebrating the 50 fastest growing companies in New Zealand). She is also chief executive office of the Carbon Group, which specialises in emissions management and clean investment. She completed a Bachelor of Technology in Environmental Engineering at the Manawatu campus in 1998.

She said the degree set out to bridge the gap between scientists and engineers. “When I got out into the workforce I learned quickly that there was a serious need for that bridge, and I gained a new level of respect for the University’s insight in developing such an important new area of understanding.”
She described herself and other graduates from the programme as a “new breed” of engineer equipped to get things done, while ensuring the principles of sustainability are at the core.

The ceremony was the first of six held at the Bruce Mason Centre, Takapuna, throughout the week to cap over 1000 graduands from the Colleges of Science, Education, Creative Arts, Business, and Humanities and Social Sciences.

Among the eight PhDs were three from the Institute of Natural Sciences’ Ecology and Conservation Group. French student Emmanuelle Martinez-Smagghe studied the impact of tourism operations on endangered Hector’s dolphins in the Akaroa Harbour; Kevin Parker investigated the development of new song dialects among translocated populations of North Island saddleback in the Hauraki Gulf, and Joanne Peace examined the differences in foraging and feeding habits of the native tomtit in native and pine forests.

Albany is the first campus to hold graduation week and will be followed by Manawatu (May 9-12) and Wellington (May 26-27).